''The Entertainers'' was a Canadian radio program, which aired on
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 ...
and
CBC Stereo
CBC Music (formerly known as CBC FM, CBC Stereo and CBC Radio 2) is a Canadian FM radio network operated by the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation. It used to concentrate on classical and jazz. In 2007 and 2008, the network transitioned towards a ...
from 1971 to 1992.Greg Quill, "The Entertainers a gem". ''
Toronto Star
The ''Toronto Star'' is a Canadian English-language broadsheet daily newspaper. The newspaper is the country's largest daily newspaper by circulation. It is owned by Toronto Star Newspapers Limited, a subsidiary of Torstar Corporation and part ...
'', October 6, 1989. Initially conceived as a magazine-style show on all aspects of
popular culture
Popular culture (also called mass culture or pop culture) is generally recognized by members of a society as a set of practices, beliefs, artistic output (also known as, popular art or mass art) and objects that are dominant or prevalent in a ...
,Blaik Kirby, "CBC radio steps on the road to...?". ''
The Globe and Mail
''The Globe and Mail'' is a Canadian newspaper printed in five cities in western and central Canada. With a weekly readership of approximately 2 million in 2015, it is Canada's most widely read newspaper on weekdays and Saturdays, although it ...
'', April 6, 1978. the show gradually narrowed its focus to concentrate almost entirely on musical culture, showcasing music from many different genres through documentary features on musical history, feature interviews with influential musicians and recordings of live concert performances.
Initially airing only on CBC Radio, the show premiered on the CBC Stereo network on April 6, 1978 with a new host, Kevin Gillis. The first episode of the CBC Stereo show was devoted to the history of
Canadian country music
Country music has a long history in Canada. The genre evolved out of the diverse musical practices of the Appalachian region of the United States. Appalachian folk music was largely Scottish and Irish, with an important influence also being the ...
, featuring artists such as
Don Messer
Donald Charles Frederick Messer (May 9, 1909 – March 26, 1973) was a Canadian musician, band leader, radio broadcaster, and defining icon of folk music during the 1960s. His CBC Television series '' Don Messer’s Jubilee'' (1959–69) feature ...
,
Hank Snow
Clarence Eugene "Hank" Snow (May 9, 1914 – December 20, 1999) was a Canadian-American country music artist. Most popular in the 1950s, he had a career that spanned more than 50 years, he recorded 140 albums and charted more than 85 singles on t ...
and
La Bolduc
Mary Rose-Anne Bolduc, born Travers, (June 4, 1894 – February 20, 1941) was a musician and singer of French Canadian music. She was known as Madame Bolduc or La Bolduc. During the peak of her popularity in the 1930s, she was known as the ...
. Other episodes that aired in the first several months were devoted to
Mel Brooks
Mel Brooks (born Melvin James Kaminsky; June 28, 1926) is an American actor, comedian and filmmaker. With a career spanning over seven decades, he is known as a writer and director of a variety of successful broad farces and parodies. He began h ...
,
Muhammad Ali
Muhammad Ali (; born Cassius Marcellus Clay Jr.; January 17, 1942 – June 3, 2016) was an American professional boxer and activist. Nicknamed "The Greatest", he is regarded as one of the most significant sports figures of the 20th century, a ...
,
Oscar Peterson
Oscar Emmanuel Peterson (August 15, 1925 – December 23, 2007) was a Canadian virtuoso jazz pianist and composer. Considered one of the greatest jazz pianists of all time, Peterson released more than 200 recordings, won seven Grammy Awards, ...
, the rocking
Randy Newman
Randall Stuart Newman (born November 28, 1943) is an American singer-songwriter, arranger, composer, and pianist known for his Southern American English, Southern-accented singing style, early Americana (music), Americana-influenced songs (often ...
,
Stevie Wonder
Stevland Hardaway Morris ( Judkins; May 13, 1950), known professionally as Stevie Wonder, is an American singer-songwriter, who is credited as a pioneer and influence by musicians across a range of genres that include rhythm and blues, Pop musi ...
, and the history of punk rock.
The show faced some criticism for a 1979 episode devoted to the comedy of
Monty Python
Monty Python (also collectively known as the Pythons) were a British comedy troupe who created the sketch comedy television show '' Monty Python's Flying Circus'', which first aired on the BBC in 1969. Forty-five episodes were made over four ...
. Initially planned to centre on an exclusive preview clip from the troupe's then-forthcoming film ''
The Life of Brian
''Monty Python's Life of Brian'' (also known as ''Life of Brian'') is a 1979 British comedy film starring and written by the comedy group Monty Python (Graham Chapman, John Cleese, Terry Gilliam, Eric Idle, Terry Jones and Michael Palin). It wa ...
'', the CBC responded to the clip's potentially controversial religious humour first by blocking the episode from airing at all in the show's early afternoon time slot on the Radio network, permitting it to air only in the later evening Stereo timeslot; then by censoring the clip down to less than half of its original length; and finally by simply blocking the entire episode from airing on the network at all.
The show was hosted by a variety of network personalities, until being taken over by
The Globe and Mail
''The Globe and Mail'' is a Canadian newspaper printed in five cities in western and central Canada. With a weekly readership of approximately 2 million in 2015, it is Canada's most widely read newspaper on weekdays and Saturdays, although it ...
'', July 6, 2015. A special episode of the series, which aired in 1984, was devoted to the 15th anniversary of
Woodstock
Woodstock Music and Art Fair, commonly referred to as Woodstock, was a music festival held during August 15–18, 1969, on Max Yasgur's dairy farm in Bethel, New York, United States, southwest of the town of Woodstock, New York, Woodstock. ...
.
During Carew's time as host of the program, CBC Radio launched the nightly pop culture magazine series ''
Prime Time
Prime time or the peak time is the block of broadcast programming taking place during the middle of the evening for a television show. It is mostly targeted towards adults (and sometimes families). It is used by the major television networks to ...
''; also hosted by Carew, that program essentially subsumed ''The Entertainers'', which continued to air but became little more than a "best of" compilation of ''Prime Time'' content. The compilation format continued when
Ralph Benmergui
Raphael "Ralph" Benmergui (born 1955) is a Canadian television and radio personality, a writer, an ordained spiritual director, and a strategic advisor in political, environmental, and academic realms.
Early life and education
Born to a Sephar ...
replaced Carew as host of both programs in 1987; however, when Benmergui left the programs in 1989 to become cohost of ''
Midday
Noon (or midday) is 12 12-hour clock, o'clock in the daytime. It is written as 12 noon, 12:00 m. (for 12-hour clock, meridiem, literally 12:00 noon), 12 p.m. (for 12-hour clock, post meridiem, literally "after noon"), 12 pm, or 12:00 (using a 24 ...
'', the programs were separated again, with
Geoff Pevere
Geoff Pevere (born October 1957) is a Canadian lecturer, author, broadcaster, teacher, arts and media critic, currently the program director of the Rendezvous With Madness Film Festival in Toronto.John Semley, "Can we play with madness?: Toronto' ...
taking over ''Prime Time'' and retaining that program's broad pop culture mandate, while Karen Gordon took over ''The Entertainers'' and relaunched it as a program devoted entirely to broadcasting live concert performances.
The program was cancelled by the CBC in 1992, being merged with
Marie-Lynn Hammond Marie-Lynn Hammond (born August 31, 1948) is a Canadian folk singer-songwriter, broadcaster and playwright. Born in Montreal, Quebec, Canada to a Franco-Ontarian mother and an Anglo-Quebecer father, she is fluently bilingual and writes and perform ...
's folk music series ''Musical Friends'' into a new music magazine show, ''The Beat''.Greg Quill, "CBC's Musical Friends, The Entertainers disappear from airwaves". ''
Montreal Gazette
The ''Montreal Gazette'', formerly titled ''The Gazette'', is the only English-language daily newspaper published in Montreal, Quebec, Canada. Three other daily English-language newspapers shuttered at various times during the second half of th ...