Power Point
Tom Power, new host of CBC Radio’s q, is already creating a positive impression on his guests
It’s a week before launch and Tom Power is recording one of his first interviews as the new host of CBC Radio’s q in a “brand-spanking-new, just-took-the-plastic-off” studio.
One of his guests, Blue Rodeo’s Greg Keelor, finds his tongue as tightly tied as one of his band’s harmonies.
Power, sitting at the centre of the band in one of two blue-hued q studios at CBC’s Toronto headquarters, has just asked Keelor and fellow frontman Jim Cuddy to summarize what they’ve each learned from one another over their 30-year partnership. With characteristic lucidity, Cuddy answers first and eloquently pays respect to his longtime bandmate.
When Power shifts the spotlight to Keelor, however, the snow-haired rocker struggles for the right words, first offering a rather trivial anecdote before eventually acknowledging the awkwardness of the scene.
“It’s a little early in the morning for me,” he says apologetically, though it was nearing 2 p.m. “I had a late night.”
At this, Power, 29, steps in for the save with the sure-handed grace of a veteran broadcaster.
“I think the fact that it’s hard to express is the answer,” says Power with conviction.
“Thanks, man,” replies Keelor. “That’s really generous of you. I hope you do well in this business.”
Power already has. A Newfoundland musician, roots aficionado and folklorist, he earned radio phenom status at age 21 by becoming the youngest host of a national CBC Radio program since Peter Jennings. Three years later, Power swapped sleeping in for a gig hosting Radio 2 Morning, quickly becoming an audience favourite for his deep knowledge, fleet patter and easygoing approachability.
This past week, Power assumed his most prominent post yet: Host of q. Taking over CBC Radio’s flagging flagship property can’t be considered a simple promotion, not after the damage inflicted to the brand by Jian Ghomeshi’s scandal and Shad’s brutally brief succession. When it comes to hot seats, few are warmer than this particular hosting chair. And for all Power’s ascendant momentum, it’s a mighty burden to task one person with being the answer for q.
Power has no illusions about being a one-man saviour — if his q succeeds, it will do so not as a solo performance, but something more akin to a loose-limbed kitchen party. Power’s show seems less about the dulcet tone of its authoritative host, and more about the benefit of voices from across the country and behind the scenes, with the goal of making art of all kinds more accessible and appreciated.
“The one thing I want to do on this show is not be afraid to look a little stupid,” Power says. “What we’re working really hard at here is opening up the doors of access to various art forms, so that people can get it.”
‘A bit of an odd kid’ Conversations with Tom Power, it seems, often eventually take a detour through his birthplace: St. John’s.
Speaking of his childhood, he sometimes paints a scene so melodically convivial it seems torn from our most idyllic imaginations. Around the house, his father, Gordon — a college instructor who helped start the largest public sector union in Newfoundland — would regularly sing and strum a guitar, while his mother Sheila, a high school teacher, trilled in her “absolutely stunning voice.” Power’s siblings Erin, a sister 11 years his senior, and Bryan, who’s older by nine years, were musical, too. (Erin just won a Juno as a member of the Swinging Belles.)
Tom was the youngest Power in his extended family, and early on became comfortable with the spotlight afforded him. Around Christmas, his relatives would gather and sing Irish or Newfoundland favourites “and Power soon contributed cheerful solo performances.
When he was 11 or 12, Power’s dad suggested he try guitar; he took to it quickly. At 15, he started learning to play the banjo. He was becoming immersed in bluegrass, and getting deeper into folk.
“I was a bit of an odd kid,” he mused in the CBC offices, clad in black from his Blundstones to his well-worn sweater. “When an old folkie from the ’60s would come to St. John’s, I’d want to go. I remember Eric Bogle, the guy who wrote ‘The Band Played Waltzing Matilda’ and ‘The Green Fields of France,’ came to St. John’s. My dad looked at me (at the concert) and said: ‘Everyone here is my age.’ ”
Power’s taste, or at least enthusiasm, was infectious. He sang in the Newfoundland Symphony Youth Choir until puberty changed his voice, then started a series of bands in high school: A rock group called the Machines That Were Previously Raged Against (“it wasn’t any funnier then,” he concedes); and a bluegrass outfit called Bart and the Breadpicks. Power learned to play euphonium and trumpet, but his musical facility was less of a revelation than the depth of his fascination with it.
“I understood there was something else I liked about it, something ineffable,” mused Power, who wound up studying folklore at Memorial University. “I liked the idea of exploring why people made the music they did.”
Power’s passion for folk music was matched by his interest in radio. His home was filled by the CBC from early morning into the wee hours, when his father let the BBC World Service Overnight trickle out deep into the night.
Power’s first foray into broadcasting came running a bluegrass show called Do-Si-Don’t on college radio. A chance meeting while Power was bussing tables at a dinner theatre led him to reading regional weekend news for VOCM in Newfoundland.
Similar serendipity later touched Power again, when he was onstage saying a few words before a Newfoundland Symphony Youth Choir show and CBC producer Francesca Swann was in the audience. She was impressed by Power and encouraged him to pitch an idea for a show, so he ditched class to dash off his vision for Deep Roots at the university library. He was still a Memorial student when he learned that CBC was interested in developing him and putting his folk-music show on the air once a week.
“I said, ‘whoooof, OK,’ ” he recalls. “And then on my 21st birthday, we started working.”
He saw the show as an extension of both his ongoing studies and his life as a musician. Around the same time, Power and four friends from St. John’s founded the lively folk act the Dardanelles.
With guidance from veteran CBC producer Glen Tilley, Power doggedly sought to improve, listening back to his performances and isolating flaws in his delivery. Then, as now, he could scarcely believe his luck.
“My grandfather used to haul oil from the harbour on St. John’s up to the Newfoundland Margarine Company on a horse,” he says. “I can’t get over that this is an actual job.”
In fact, it was Power’s father who most inspired his dedicated work ethic. His dad used to drive him past the Confederation Building in the evening and point out that the premier’s light was on, therefore he was still working.
His dad was his “biggest supporter” and a committed fan of Deep Roots. In 2011, Power graduated at age 24 to the host chair of Radio 2 Morning, CBC’s biggest national music show. Power started the major new assignment on a Monday; his father died of cancer that Wednesday, just 64 years old.
He was frail toward the end of his life and wasn’t present enough to listen to his son’s new show. In happier times, he was the “funniest person” Power ever met, and he remains a potent inspiration.
“All I ever wanted to do was make him laugh,” Power says. “And when I was older, I was able to do that. And that was the coolest.”
‘I’m not crazy about this’ As much as Power’s a talker — and what a talker he is, his ideas spilling forth in rapid-fire bursts that would stymie the most nimble stenographer — he doesn’t much like to talk about himself.
“I don’t mind performing, but I’m not crazy about this,” he says, eyeing a tape recorder and chafing at questions that demanded some irritating degree of self-analysis.
He’s perhaps not that interested in reading about himself, either; when news broke that he was replacing Shad, Power was overwhelmed by the response.
“I like to say I hid myself in blankets for two days,” recalls Power, who moved to Toronto in February 2012. “It felt kind of scary.”
Power’s nerves were soothed only when he began helping to build a team, and a team-based ethos. The q staff he was assembling was much bigger than he had on Radio 2 Morning. In addition to Power and executive producer Jen Moroz, the q staff numbers 16, two-thirds of whom are new to the show. (CBC says no jobs were lost in the transition.) “I started realizing I’m not alone in this.”
That idea extends to the show itself. In Power’s mind, he’s still as much musician as broadcaster and the new q is intent on packing more music, more musicians and more movement. Power also wants more voices, and promises to cede the spotlight whenever possible to a team of expert contributors across the country.
Still, Power himself will need to stand on his own as a persuasive draw for listeners. Those behind his show, which first airs at10 a.m. weekdays on CBC Radio One and Sirius XM, aren’t concerned. When discussing Power, supporters tend to arrive at words like “genuine” and “authentic” multiple times.
“He’s funny, he’s genuine, he’s approachable . . . he’s naturally curious,” says Moroz. “He’s the type of guy who you kind of want to have around your kitchen table.”
Of course, Shad was funny and affable, too, and Power and Moroz are at a loss to explain why his hosting stint wasn’t a success. “I don’t know — I liked that show and I liked Shad,” Power says. “Shad had a tremendous humanity in his interviews.”
Shad was placed in the unenviable position of trying to hoist the show from the lingering muck of Ghomeshi’s scandalous exit. The core CBC personality was fired and faced multiple criminal allegations. (In February he was acquitted at trial on four counts of sexual assault and one count of choking.)
Shad was immediately criticized upon taking over the show for his lack of broadcast experience, supposedly punchless interviews and stilted introductions. Ratings dipped dramatically during his first season, from Ghomeshi’s peak of 282,000 listeners in September 2014 to 220,400 listeners in June 2015 and 168,000 a year later.
Even if Power can reverse that, observers wonder whether q can ever entirely recover its reputation.
“I think Canadians would be really receptive to a revitalized music and arts show in the morning, and that q could come to mean something to Canadians again, but it’s going to be a challenge,” says Ryerson University journalism professor Marsha Barber.
“It’s got its work cut out to really connect with Canadians across the country.”
Initially, it was q’s other host Power was worried about. Power had auditioned a year-and-a-half ago and was one of the “top contenders,” says CBC executive Susan Marjetti. He became a popular guest host on q when, in August, he was called in for a meeting with the head of CBC Music about his potential interest level in hosting q.
Power’s immediate response was to ask about Shad. He was assured that Shad would be transitioning into a different role, but Power still didn’t feel “entirely comfortable.” So, one morning, he and Shad sat down in a “secret little studio” at the CBC to talk.
“He was really gracious and kind and encouraging and said to me: ‘Man, you gotta do this,’ ” Power remembers. “He said, ‘This is going to be really good and you’re going to be really good on it.’ I can’t imagine that (kindness). We hugged and we talked a little bit more.”
Even at 29, Power does have broadcasting experience on his side. To listeners, it can be clear that the thoughtful host has been navigating radio airwaves for the entirety of his adult life.
Further, he’s committed to improving. He has made a habit out of the “excruciating” process of listening critically to his own shows. (He has even more free time for self-scrutiny now; after sleeping only five hours a night for most of his 20s, he gets a luxuriant seven now before rolling into q at 8 a.m. each day.)
“I love his energy and the fact that he’s very comfortable on air,” Barber says. “He’s not pretentious, he’s always himself. He’s likeable, and he’s very experienced.”
He is, also, a sensitive and intuitive interviewer. During a pretaped segment with Mohawk Girls star Brittany LeBorgne and creator Tracey Deer, Power was gently persistent in exploring an uncomfortable discussion about race in one of the APTN show’s scripts. Later, he subtly steered the conversation into more emotional territory, as a LeBorgne answer about the show fulfilling her most unlikely dreams left Deer, who based the show on life on the Kahnawake reserve, in tears. After the taping — which was part of Power’s opening show — LeBorgne and Deer implored Power for a group picture.
That first show was a good indication of what was to come. Power’s voice didn’t even open the broadcast — that honour went to first interviewee Adam Cohen — and aside from a reference to himself as the “new” host of q, there was little to tip off listeners that this was Power’s grand bow.
More fundamental changes lurked under the hood. Following his interview with Cohen, Power addressed the audience with compelling insight into his feelings on the chat. Later, a seven-minute segment from a contributor persuasively delved into the birth of Auto-Tune, a conversation Power smoothly tied into his final pre-taped interview with synth-pop star (and now-memoirist) Thomas Dolby.
Finally, as his debut broadcast wound down, Power introduced himself. Framed within his new “Daily q Dedication” segment, he talked about the way Newfoundland nurtured his boundless passion for the arts, and pledged to make his q a “way in.” Then, after basking in his own show’s spotlight for all of one minute, Power was ready to leave listeners with someone else’s voice, airing a song from fellow Newfoundlander Amelia Curran.
Early reviews have been warm, though it’s early days and opinion has yet to gel. And clearly, Power has the goodwill of his guests on his side. After his handling of that awkward moment in the Blue Rodeo interview, Cuddy made clear his admiration.
“Good luck in the gig,” he said. “We’re all rooting for you.”
Before Power could let them go, he asked Keelor and Cuddy to record short on-air promos.
In a supportive flourish, Cuddy — as accommodating an interviewee as anyone is likely to find — edited his suggested script slightly, amending a nod toward the show’s new host.
“It’s Jim Cuddy of Blue Rodeo and you’re listening to q,” he said, before adding: “with Tom Powers.”
Yes, he accidentally added an additional “s,” sending a polite giggle through the control room.
If Power noticed, he didn’t let on. And why would he? Power has made it clear that with his q, he’s motivated by everything but making a name for himself.
“I liked the idea of exploring why people made the music they did.” TOM POWER “. . . He’s naturally curious. He’s the type of guy who you kind of want to have around your kitchen table.” JEN MOROZ EXECUTIVE PRODUCER OF Q