Browse "Radio"

Alain Lefèvre, OC, COQ, pianist, composer, broadcaster (born 23 July 1962 in Poitiers, France)

John Allan Slaight, CM, media mogul, philanthropist, reporter, broadcaster, magician (born 19 July 1931 in Galt, ON; died 19 September 2021 in Toronto, ON). After briefly working as a magician, Allan Slaight started his career as a radio reporter. He quickly rose through the ranks and bought his first radio station before his 40th birthday. By the time he sold his holdings to Astral Media for $1.08 billion in 2007, the media magnate had amassed more than 50 radio stations and a pair of TV stations. He also owned the Toronto Raptors and was a notable philanthropist, with numerous awards now named in his honour. Slaight was made a Member of the Order of Canada and has a star on Canada’s Walk of Fame.

Andrew Edward Fairbairn Allan, radio-drama producer, actor, writer (b at Arbroath, Scot 11 Aug 1907; d at Toronto 15 Jan 1974).

At 3 p.m. on Feb. 27, only 90 minutes before the federal budget was tabled in the House of Commons, CBC president Anthony Manera was handed a single sheet of paper that made him do a double take. In three neat columns, figures spelled out the bleak financial future of the Crown corporation.This article was originally published in Maclean's Magazine on March 13, 1995

Guido Basso, CM, flugelhornist, trumpeter, arranger, composer, conductor, harmonica player (born 27 September 1937 in Montreal, QC; died 13 February 2023 in Toronto). One of Canada’s pre-eminent jazz trumpeters, Guido Basso was also known for the lyricism of his flugelhorn work. He was credited with the theory that one attacks the trumpet and makes love to a flugelhorn. Basso appeared on some 30 recordings by the Boss Brass, and on albums by Anne Murray, Ian Tyson, Holly Cole, Lenny Solomon, Oliver Jones and others. Basso’s Lost in the Stars won the 2004 Juno Award for Traditional Jazz Album of the Year. He was made a Member of the Order of Canada in 1994.

Jacques Languirand, dramatist, essayist (born 1 May 1931 in Montréal, Québec; died 26 January 2018). In the 1950s and 1960s he was Canada's most important exponent of the theatre of the absurd, having been much influenced by playwrights in vogue during his stay in Paris, 1949-53.

Jian Ghomeshi, singer, songwriter, musician, broadcaster, writer, manager (born 9 June 1967 in London, England). Jian Ghomeshi was a member of the quirky, alternative pop-folk group Moxy Früvous from 1990 to 2001. He parlayed that recognition into a radio and television career with the CBC, hosting such entertainment talk shows as >play, The National Playlist and Q. He wrote a best-selling memoir, 1982 (2012), about growing up as an Iranian Canadian in Thornhill, Ontario, and stayed active in the music business as an artist manager. His career and national profile unravelled in the fall of 2014 when he was fired by the CBC and charged with sexual assault in incidents involving several women (see Jian Ghomeshi Case).

Kathleen (Kay) Livingstone (née Jenkins), organizer and activist, broadcaster, actor (born 13 October 1919 in London, ON; died 25 July 1975). Kay Livingstone founded the Canadian Negro Women’s Association in 1951 and organized the first National Congress of Black Women in 1973. An established radio broadcaster and actor, Livingstone also devoted a great deal of her life and energy to social activism and organizing. Her tireless work to encourage a national discussion around the position of racialized people in society, particularly Black women, led Livingstone to coin the term visible minority in 1975.

Lisa LaFlamme, OC, OOnt, journalist, broadcaster (born 1964 in Kitchener, ON). Lisa LaFlamme is known for her long and distinguished career as a high-profile television journalist. She was the first woman to host CTV National News, a role she held — as chief news anchor and senior editor — for over a decade. She was named Best National News Anchor at the Canadian Screen Awards five times. Her abrupt termination from CTV, announced in August 2022, was met with broad public outrage. She has been appointed to the Order of Canada and the Order of Ontario.

Pierre Perrault, OQ, film director, poet, writer (born 29 June 1927 in Montréal, QC; died 23 June 1999 in Montréal). Pierre Perrault was one of Quebec’s most significant and celebrated artists. His collective work in radio, film, television and print explores the genesis and nature of French Canadian culture and identity. A pioneer of direct cinema, his elegiac 1963 documentary Pour la suite du monde, co-directed with Michel Brault, is a landmark in Canadian cinema. His writing received three Governor General’s Literary Awards: for poetry, theatre and non-fiction. An Officer of the Ordre national du Québec, Perrault received the Prix Ludger-Duvernay, Prix Albert-Tessier, Prix Victor-Barbeau, the Médaille des Arts et des Lettres from the Government of France, and the Médaille d’argent du Mouvement national des Québécois et Québécoises.