Source : Globe & Mail

As he gears up to host Radio 2's new show Drive, Rich Terfry can't think about listeners' expectations

The green LED light on the studio clock hits the top of the hour. The cue comes from the control room, and CBC Radio 2's new host Rich Terfry (a.k.a. musician Buck 65) gives a quick introduction as Ben Harper's Put It on Me fills the studio with jangly guitars.

This is a practice run for Terfry's two-hour daily show Drive, replacing Jurgen Gothe's DiscDrive on Tuesday. At the microphone, Terfry is a mass of fast-twitch muscles suited to the alternative hip hop he performs. Readying himself for the next song intro, he sits alone at a large microphone console in the dimly lit Studio 205 of the CBC's Toronto production centre.

It's an imposing room. A baby-grand Steinway sits in one corner. Art-house movie posters and ironically out-of-style 45s - Debby Boone's You Light Up My Life, John Cougar's (pre-Mellencamp) Jack and Diane - hang on a far wall.

Terfry said he tries not to think about the expectations riding on the new weekday program, airing from 3 p.m. to 6 p.m., or the fact that many loyal listeners may consider it the most conspicuous change in this final phase of Radio 2's programming revamp.

Focusing on contemporary pop songs, Drive's play list is a lot like the typical record collection of someone in their 30s or 40s.

Wilco, Stars, Sloane and alt-crowd favourites such as the Bicycles, are alongside new material from Al Green. Coldplay's Viva La Vida even sneaks in following Ron Sexsmith and the edgier rock of Manu Chao.

"We're definitely interested in song craft," Terfry said. The show's emphasis will be on Canadian performers and songwriters, particularly the tier critically praised around the world, but which lies below the mass-selling music that gets played on commercial radio.

However, Terfry said, "We're not going to turn our backs on our friends because they have become successful.

"So, for example, we wouldn't not play Feist because she's had humongous hits - because her music is a perfect fit for our show. That having been said, there's a lot of stuff [on our show] that otherwise doesn't really get played on the radio at all," he said.

Producer Michelle Parise added: "We never want it to seem like we know so much about this great music and here it is. To be know-y is not our goal. We want to share music with people, just like a friend who always seems to know everything about music, but doesn't do it in a snobby way."

It's a distinction that hints at how Radio 2 producers view the new format, with music that's different from predictable commercial radio, yet also different than the eclecticism of community and college radio.

Terfry, who worked at the Dalhousie University student radio station CKDU for 11 years and recently was a host on the CBC's Internet and satellite new-music network Radio 3, doesn't seem intimidated by the high expectations for the show. A rabid record collector, he owns 50,000 vinyl albums, "which, as I've come to understand, is a little unusual."

The fact that he's even in the studio chair is unexpected. He was asked by the CBC to audition, given his prior experience. But he makes it clear that he isn't giving up on his musical career. His last album, Situation, was his biggest seller yet.

Drive will follow the new five-hour classical weekday show Tempo. Drive, in turn, will be followed by Katie Malloch's jazz show Tonic, which is already in the 6 to 8 p.m. slot.

As CBC Radio's music director Mark Steinmetz noted, the rationale of Radio 2's revamp is to attract a larger audience by catering to the wider musical tastes of its listeners. Those who tune in to Radio 2, the CBC hopes, will obviously have their preferred shows, but ideally won't seek out different stations along the dial.

Terfry seems to have already adopted a style recognizable in the new breed of CBC hosts. A slight breathiness. Subtle jokes with a clipped laugh. And although he talks about the artists he plays and adds in a fact or two about himself, Terfry isn't trying for the storytelling approach of, say, Bob Dylan's XM Satellite Radio show. Still, there are surprises in his on-air personality that let you know an artist is on the mike.

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