Keiko Margaret Lyons (née Inouye; November 21, 1923 – October 4, 2019) was the first female vice president of the

Canadian Broadcasting Corporation The Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (french: Société Radio-Canada), branded as CBC/Radio-Canada, is a Canadian public broadcaster for both radio and television. It is a federal Crown corporation that receives funding from the government. ...

(CBC). She is known for her role in the CBC's "Radio Revolution", a populist revamp of the

CBC Radio CBC Radio is the English-language radio operations of the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation. The CBC operates a number of radio networks serving different audiences and programming niches, all of which (regardless of language) are outlined below ...

network which resulted in programs such as '' Quirks and Quarks'' and ''

As It Happens ''As It Happens'' is a Canadian interview show that airs on CBC Radio One in Canada and various public radio stations in the United States through Public Radio Exchange. Its 50th anniversary was celebrated on-air on November 16, 2018. It has been ...

''. Lyons was designated a

Member of the Order of Canada The Order of Canada (french: Ordre du Canada; abbreviated as OC) is a Canadian state order and the second-highest Award, honour for merit in the system of orders, decorations, and medals of Canada, after the Order of Merit. To coincide with ...

in 2010 for her work in broadcasting.

Early life and education

Lyons was born Keiko Margaret Inouye on November 21, 1923, in

Mission, British Columbia Mission is a city in the Lower Mainland of the province of British Columbia, Canada. It was originally incorporated as a district municipality in 1892, growing to include additional villages and rural areas over the years, adding the original To ...

, to Japanese immigrants Yoshinobu Inouye and Teru Tsuji. In 1942, Lyons and her family were forced to leave Mission due to a mass expulsion of

Japanese-Canadians are Canadian citizens of Japanese ancestry. Japanese Canadians are mostly concentrated in Western Canada, especially in the province of British Columbia, which hosts the largest Japanese community in the country with the majority of them living ...

from the area. The family settled in

Winnipeg, Manitoba Winnipeg () is the capital and largest city of the province of Manitoba in Canada. It is centred on the confluence of the Red and Assiniboine rivers, near the longitudinal centre of North America. , Winnipeg had a city population of 749,6 ...

, where Lyons did domestic work. In 1944, Lyons moved to

Hamilton, Ontario Hamilton is a port city in the Canadian province of Ontario. Hamilton has a population of 569,353, and its census metropolitan area, which includes Burlington and Grimsby, has a population of 785,184. The city is approximately southwest of T ...

, and worked as a maid at

McMaster University McMaster University (McMaster or Mac) is a public research university in Hamilton, Ontario, Canada. The main McMaster campus is on of land near the residential neighbourhoods of Ainslie Wood and Westdale, adjacent to the Royal Botanical Ga ...

while completing her high school diploma. She then attended the university and earned a degree in economics. After graduation, she married fellow student Ed Lyons and relocated to

London, England London is the capital and largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary down to the North Sea, and has been a major s ...

Career

Lyons began working as a typist for the

British Broadcasting Corporation #REDIRECT BBC Here i going to introduce about the best teacher of my life b BALAJI sir. He is the precious gift that I got befor 2yrs . How has helped and thought all the concept and made my success in the 10th board exam. ...

(BBC) in 1952. A year and a half later, she became a producer for BBC's Asian current affairs service, where she worked for six years. In 1957, Lyons interviewed

Lester Pearson Lester Bowles "Mike" Pearson (23 April 1897 – 27 December 1972) was a Canadian scholar, statesman, diplomat, and politician who served as the 14th prime minister of Canada from 1963 to 1968. Born in Newtonbrook, Ontario (now part of ...

following his receipt of the

Nobel Peace Prize The Nobel Peace Prize is one of the five Nobel Prizes established by the will of Swedish industrialist, inventor and armaments (military weapons and equipment) manufacturer Alfred Nobel, along with the prizes in Nobel Prize in Chemistry, Chemi ...

, and he encouraged her to enter the Canadian journalism industry. Accordingly, Lyons moved to

Toronto Toronto ( ; or ) is the capital city of the Canadian province of Ontario. With a recorded population of 2,794,356 in 2021, it is the most populous city in Canada and the fourth most populous city in North America. The city is the ancho ...

in 1960 and became a public affairs producer for

. She was soon promoted to supervisor. Lyons headed CBC Radio's current affairs department and directed the

AM radio AM broadcasting is radio broadcasting using amplitude modulation (AM) transmissions. It was the first method developed for making audio radio transmissions, and is still used worldwide, primarily for medium wave (also known as "AM band") transm ...

service before being promoted to vice president of network radio in 1983, becoming the first woman vice president at the CBC. Within the CBC, Lyons held a reputation of "benevolent ferocity" and was affectionately referred to as the "Dragon Lady". During the early 1970s, Lyons was tasked with revitalizing CBC's struggling radio service, which, according to

Barbara Frum Barbara Frum, OC (September 8, 1937 – March 26, 1992) was an American-born Canadian radio and television journalist, acclaimed for her interviews for the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation. Personal life Barbara Frum was born Barbara Rosber ...

, had become "ponderous, a sort of university of the air... it talked down to people and was patronizingly intellectual". Aiming to create a more informal and entertaining atmosphere, Lyons hired several young producers and hosts, including Frum,

Mark Starowicz Mark Starowicz, ( ; born September 8, 1946) is a Canadian journalist and producer. Born in Worksop, England, the son of Polish émigrés, he and his family immigrated to Montreal in 1954. He attended Loyola High School and received a B.A. from ...

and

Peter Gzowski Peter John Gzowski (July 13, 1934 – January 24, 2002), known colloquially as "Mr. Canada", or "Captain Canada",Mary Gazze Canadian Press via The ''Toronto Star'', August 23, 2010. Retrieved 2016-06-27. was a Canadian broadcaster, write ...

. Lyons incorporated pop and rock and roll music into her programs and eliminated lengthy documentaries. Under her leadership, CBC produced influential programs like '' Quirks and Quarks'', ''

'' and '' Morningside''. This

populist Populism refers to a range of political stances that emphasize the idea of "the people" and often juxtapose this group against " the elite". It is frequently associated with anti-establishment and anti-political sentiment. The term developed ...

reimagining of CBC Radio was termed the "Radio Revolution". Lyons's changes were met with controversy: producer Val Clery complained that Lyons prioritized marketing over content, and newspaper critics accused Lyons of pandering to

yuppies Yuppie, short for "young urban professional" or "young upwardly-mobile professional", is a term coined in the early 1980s for a young professional person working in a city. The term is first attested in 1980, when it was used as a fairly neu ...

and turning the CBC into the "Burger Queen of public broadcasting". Supporters called Lyons "formidably brilliant" and commended her for saving CBC Radio from a "suicidal" trajectory. Lyons was remembered by CBC executive

Peter Herrndorf Peter A. Herrndorf (October 27, 1940 – February 18, 2023) was a Canadian lawyer and media businessman. He retired as the president and chief executive officer of the National Arts Centre on June 2, 2018. Born in Amsterdam, Netherlands, he gr ...

as "arguably the most important and the most influential CBC radio executive in the past 60 years" and one of the network's greatest talent developers. In 1986, Lyons moved back to London, where she worked as Director of European Operations for the CBC. Lyons retired from the CBC in 1991 and returned to Toronto. Lyons was awarded an honorary

Doctorate of Letters Doctor of Letters (D.Litt., Litt.D., Latin: ' or ') is a terminal degree in the humanities that, depending on the country, is a higher doctorate after the Doctor of Philosophy (Ph.D.) degree or equivalent to a higher doctorate, such as the Doctor ...

by McMaster University in 1996. The university's Lyons New Media Center is named for her. In 2010, Lyons was made a

for her achievements in broadcasting.

Personal life and death

Lyons (née Inouye) married Ed Lyons in 1949. She had two children, a son and a daughter. Lyons served on the McMaster University Senate for six years and volunteered for local historical preservation societies and Japanese cultural organizations. Lyons underwent medically assisted death in Toronto on October 4, 2019.

References

External links

A Tribute to Margaret Lyons—documentary

Interview with Margaret Lyons for the Sedai Oral History Project
{{DEFAULTSORT:Lyons, Margaret 1923 births 2019 deaths Canadian radio executives Canadian women business executives Canadian people of Japanese descent Members of the Order of Canada BBC people Canadian Broadcasting Corporation people McMaster University alumni People from Mission, British Columbia Deaths by euthanasia Suicides in Ontario