Q, the CBC Radio show formerly hosted by Jian Ghomeshi, is re-launching 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 upper- to lower-case.

Are lower case letters cooler? Is it somehow supposed to make listeners forget that the disgraced Ghomeshi ever hosted the show? After all, it still sounds the same.

“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 lower case 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, who was 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.

The investigation only dealt with complaints and concerns related to Ghomeshi. Employees were told last year that they should bring any other complaints of inappropriate behaviour to the human resources department.

q relaunches on April 20 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, and even amused, 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. They feel they still own the asset, that it’s not the Jian Ghomeshi show.”

The public likely won’t get specifics on allegations of harassment against Ghomeshi at the CBC when the third-party report is released Thursday.

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When employment lawyer Janice Rubin was appointed independent investigator last November, the CBC said she would deliver two reports.

One will deal with complaints and concerns about Ghomeshi and will only be given to senior management. The other, containing recommendations on improving the CBC’s policies around harassment, will be made public.

“The CBC is a public body. It’s paid for by us. If there’s a climate of harassment, the public should know about it,” said Toronto employment lawyer Howard Levitt. “I think we’re going to get the top layer of the onion (on Thursday), and that’s all we’ll ever see.”

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