CBC rebrands show Q as q

Q, the CBC Radio show formerly hosted by Jian Ghomeshi, is relaunching next week with a new look, new host and a sort of new name.

The public broadcaster announced Wednesday that Q will be known as q. That’s right. The name of the popular arts and culture program has undergone the monumental shift from uppercase to lowercase.

Are lowercase letters cooler? Is it somehow supposed to make listeners forget that the disgraced Ghomeshi ever hosted the show?

“Speaking personally, I think it’s a ridiculous change,” said Queen’s University marketing professor Kenneth Wong, “because no one has shown me a way to communicate lowercase on the radio.” It’s unclear how much head scratching and drawn-out brainstorming sessions went into the rebranding exercise. The CBC did not return a request for comment.

Ghomeshi, fired last October, is facing seven counts of sexual assault and one count of overcoming resistance by choking. His lawyer said he intends to plead not guilty. His next court date is April 28.

CBC’s q announcement came a day before the results from a third-party investigation into the CBC’s handling of allegations of harassment against Ghomeshi are released.

This q launches Monday with a two-hour live broadcast from Glenn Gould Studio, the CBC said Wednesday. It will mark the debut of new host Shadrach Kabango, the Canadian hip-hop artist better known as Shad.

While the average listener may be perplexed by the switch to q, some branding experts see it as a plus.

“Anything that they can do visually, personality-wise, format-wise, to distance themselves from the gong show that was Ghomeshi is a good move,” said Wayne Roberts, chief creative officer at Blade Creative Branding. “I think of even greater importance is that they’re trying to make a statement; that the asset, this show called q, is more than Jian Ghomeshi. They can adjust it a little bit, but it still has value as a brand.”