"It was the best of times, it was the worst of times" that is how Chris Boyce - Executive Director of Radio & Audio at CBC English -  puts it when asked to describe the outlook of Canadian public broadcasting and specifically CBC Radio at the moment.

It is certainly a succinct way to capture what is in many respects a picture of extremes at Canada's public broadcaster. On one hand, things are looking better than ever for the Mother Corp. In terms of engagement, CBC radio is actually enjoying the largest share of audience it has had at almost anytime in its history, and with programs such as Q doing so well both across Canada and even south of the border, more people than ever are interacting with and listening to the content of CBC radio. On the programming side, things have been so strong that the CBC was even honoured this year with the Broadcaster of the Year Award at the prestigious New York Festivals International Radio Awards.

And yet, at the same time, the CBC is also facing what is one its bleakest periods in its over 75 year history. In the 2012 Federal Budget, the CBC was singled out for some of the harshest cuts of all government departments, and its annual appropriation was slashed by 11% or $115 million a year. The move forced the thread-bare corporation (which was already the second lowest funded public broadcaster of any industrialized nation in the world) to cancel shows (such as Dispatches), lay off staff, close departments, and perhaps most worrisome of all, introduce ads on CBC radio 2.

CBC radio has been ad free for the past 40 years, and the fact that the move is expected to only raise approximately $10 million a year, shows just how desperate things financially have become at the CBC- there's simply no where left to cut.

Thankfully if anyone can give Canadians insight into this complex picture and of good and bad news at CBC radio and speak to the challenges CBC is facing, it would be Chris Boyce, who oversees both programming and administration at CBC Radio and Audio.

Before taking on his current role as Executive Director, Chris Boyce spent several years as the head of Program Development at CBC Radio, and during that time played a key role in the creation of such notable and long-lasting programs as Wiretap, Q, Spark, and The Age of Persuasion.

I spoke to Chris Boyce about his life in broadcasting, the current state of CBC Radio, the effects of the budget cuts, and the difficult decision to introduce ads on CBC Radio Two. Listen here:

Ever since he emerged in the national consciousness in the early 1990s with a series of one-man stage shows and his role on This Hour Has 22 Minutes, Rick Mercer has been delighting Canadians and keeping us laughing with his quick wit, playful demeanour and his bitingly satirical take on the Canadian political system.

In fact, it’s almost hard to fathom given his primary comedic fuel is politics (not exactly the sexiest of topics) but Rick Mercer might just be the closest thing we have in Canada to a truly home grown celebrity: someone who is known and beloved by millions of Canadians from coast to coast to coast, but who has never sought-out fame elsewhere and who – asides from a spate of coverage in the U.S. press following the run away success of his Talking To Americans special in 2001 - is relatively unknown outside of the country.

His program, the Rick Mercer Report on CBC Television, in which he gets into improbable adventures, meets remarkable and eccentric characters from all across our country, pokes fun at the politics of the day, and delivers his trademark rant, is now in its 11th season and regularly draws in more than a million viewers an episode. In fact, The Rick Mercer Report is consistently the most watched Canadian comedic series on television.

And although he uses politics as his primary source for humour, it is also something (as comes through in his rants) that he cares deeply about. With a level of earnestness that almost comes as a surprise, Rick wants Canadians to be more actively engaged with the politics of our land. But as one might expect his life also contains no shortage of  outlandish but seemingly fitting anecdotes - including the fact that while he was the student council president of his high school outside of St. John's Newfoundland, he never ended up graduating with his diploma.  

In our interview Rick sheds light on his formative years  growing up in Newfoundland, how his keen and early interest in politics developed, his thoughts on the role of satire in a democracy, and why he considers the current crackdown on science by the Conservative government so pernicious.

Listen to the interview here, or subscribe to the podcast in iTunes!

As the host of CBC Radio One's flagship literary program Writers & Company, Eleanor Wachtel has become renowned for her intimate and illuminating conversations with writers and authors. In fact she is considered by many to be one of the finest interviewers in broadcasting.

Hosting Writers & Company is a role Eleanor has deftly fulfilled since the program was first created in 1990, and in the over two decades since it launched she has spoken to many of the iconic minds, artists, and authors of our time, skillfully probing them for the personal thoughts, questions, experiences and creative instincts which inform their work. 

Writers & Company is unique among CBC radio programs in that each episode devotes a full hour to a single interview, a pattern that started early on in its run. In an age addicted to memes, and sound bites, it's a refreshing format that allows space for frank and incredibly honest conversations that frequently delve quite deeply into her guests' life experiences, and unique outlooks on the world. 

And perhaps it is the incredible amount of research she is known to do in preparation for each conversation, but Eleanor seems particularly capable as an interviewer in creating an environment where her subjects feel understood and comfortable, so that even those who normally shy away from press or tend to be quite reticent in discussing their personal lives, often end up speaking candidly with her about many of the most intimate aspects of their lives and work. 

The end results are thought-provoking and in-depth interviews that shed new light and are remarkable in their candor; interviews which go beyond the specifics, and often become meditations into those large, persistent questions of human existence which great works of literature are so adept at posing.

The list of those Eleanor Wachtel has interviewed during her career as a broadcaster is truly remarkable. Her guests have included the likes of Alice Munro, Yoko Ono, George Saunders, Patti Smith, and Julian Barnes just to name a few. Eleanor Wachtel also hosts Wachtel on the Arts for CBC Ideas, and previously hosted The Arts Tonight from 1996 until 2007. 

I spoke to Eleanor Wachtel from the CIUT studios in Hart House at the University of Toronto. During the interview we discuss her early love of books growing up in Montreal, the very first literary interview she conducted (with an emerging Margaret Atwood) while she was a student at McGill, and what greater meaning she sees literature and the arts holding.

Listen to the interview below: