CBC Music has returned holiday classic “Baby, It’s Cold Outside” to its playlists after overwhelming audience demand.
CBC Music was among the Canadian platforms and networks that revealed last week they would stop scheduling the tune, following opinionated debate about whether the song’s lyrics are too predatory in the #MeToo era.
An editorial note posted to CBC Music today (Dec. 11), said the song will be restored to the two playlists it was pulled from following overwhelming audience feedback.
“As you know, last week we decided to press pause to consider the different points of view on playing ‘Baby, It’s Cold Outside.’ Because we value our audience input which was overwhelmingly to include the song, we have put it back on the two playlists where it had been removed,” CBC public affairs head Chuck Thompson said in a statement. “Appreciating not everyone interprets lyrics the same way, listeners may wish to skip the song as we understand not everyone will agree with this decision.”
Following a highly-publicized decision by Cleveland’s Star 102 (WDOK-FM) to dump the song from its holiday rotation, many broadcasters followed suit. Bell Media and Rogers’ all-Christmas stations didn’t schedule the song this year, while Stingray Radio left the decision up to individual program directors before ultimately deciding it was best to stop playing the song altogether across the network. Some Corus Radio stations are still airing “Baby, It’s Cold Outside” in limited rotation.
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