Well, technically Shelagh Rogers did not say “shit” herself, she lured one of her minions into doing so, in this CBC lockout podcast.

But it got me thinking: although the CBC lockout podcasts are messy and angry and flippant and not at all “professional” like the “real CBC,” they also serve to make the CBC presenters — like Shelagh — a lot more likable and, well, human.

I’ve heard Bill Richardson and Ian Hanomansing and Kelly Ryan and a gaggle of other CBC hosts through their podcasts, and I think they’re making better radio than when they’re forced inside the straightjacket of CBC “authoritativism.”

Yes, there is a place for rigor in broadcasting, and that is indeed one of the appeals of the CBC. And I’m not quite sure I’m ready for an anarchic improvised Island Morning.

But perhaps in the lockout CBC staff are rediscovering parts of their soul that, of necessity, they lock away while they’re working “on the inside;” would it be such a bad thing if, once they’re let back inside, they keep some of that soul around?