Last fall – well before we knew Shad would even be considered for host of CB’s Q – we reached out to him for the CMG campaign to Champion public broadcasting. After months of sorting out logistics, we connected with Shad, and here is what he told us:

Hey, my name is Shad, I am an artist, I am a rapper, among other things.

And yeah, for me the CBC has been, for one thing, a pleasant surprise in my career as far as their openness to my music and their desire to support what I do.

I’ve always encountered people there that are passionate about this country, passionate about culture in this country and art, and (who) work to protect that, work to make our culture and our values here something that we can all be proud of.

I think that the value of a public broadcaster in terms of providing information, providing culture, providing programming that speaks to Canadians, speaks to the issues going on in this country and tries to do so at a level that is worthwhile and with the public interest in mind, I think that there is tremendous value in that. So I support  that.

And as far as what I hope for for the future, I hope for programming that is, yeah that is broad, and rich, and risk-taking and inclusive.

And that’s me. Thank you guys very much. Merci beaucoup pour votre temps. I am Shad.