Listeners get new voice on CBC arts magazine
Regular listeners of the “Weekend Arts Magazine,” on CBC Radio One, are hearing something new.
Chris O’Neill Yates, formerly of the Corner Brook “Morning Show,” is now at the helm of the popular show about the province’s arts and culture, which airs Saturday and Sunday mornings from 6-9:30.
She’s taking over for Mack Furlong, a much-beloved member of the arts community and long-time contributor, co-host and host of the program.
Though the two now have the same job listed on their résumés, the similarities in their professional experience ends there.
Furlong began his career with the CBC in the early 1980s, acting, hosting, and writing for the variety program, “A Few of the Best.” He went on to do the same for “Goosebumps,” and then hosted “Weekend Arts Magazine” from 1994 to 1996. Following that, he co-wrote and starred in “The Great Eastern.”
When that wrapped up, he went back to the “Weekend Arts Magazine” in 2003, reporting, co-hosting and filling in when host Angela Antle was away.
“When (Antle) took a leave of absence last year, the job came up to host the program,” says Furlong. “I applied and I got it.”
His contract was up in May of this year. On the heels of huge federal budget cuts to the CBC, there wasn’t a new one.
Known for his conversational tone, his thoughtful questions and his humour, Furlong built a dedicated fanbase during his years at “Weekend Arts Magazine.”
“I’m a communicator,” he says. “And I’ve always loved radio. As a child, I used to have a little tiny reel to reel tape recorder, and I would make up my own Top 10 lists. When I went off to university at Memorial, they had MUN Radio and I joined that and it was great fun. I always feel like there’s a conversation when you’re on radio. It’s not just a monologue.”
Since he left “Weekend Arts Magazine,” he says those conversations are what he misses most.
“I really loved meeting the artists and being on air,” he says. “I hated getting up at 4 a.m. on Saturday and Sunday mornings, I hated the Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday editing, scripting, arranging interviews, and writing routine, but I loved it once I was on air, and once I start talking to the artists. I just loved it.”
There’s a good chance that he’ll be back on the “Weekend Arts Magazine,” but it’ll likely be as an interviewee rather than an interviewer.
Furlong is a musician, an actor and a writer. He was a drummer with the Newfoundland Symphony Orchestra, he’s a member of the improvisational group The Black Auks, he’s written for “Riddle Fence” and co-written numerous stage productions, and he’s acted in movies such as “Crackie,” “Grown Up Movie Star,” and “Love & Savagery.”
“I’m so happy that I’ve lived my entire life here and I’ve been able to make a living in the arts,” he says. “That was always my ambition … and I’ve done it. I’ve worked with visual artists and dancers and comics and writers and rock ‘n’ roll bands and blues bands and improv bands. I’ve been the host of the Sound Symposium and the “Weekend Arts Magazine,” and I don’t know that I’d be able to do that anywhere else.”
O’Neill Yates, on the other hand, is best known for her hard-hitting journalism. A 20-year veteran with the CBC, she’s an award-winning journalist and has covered many notable stories, including the allegations of research fraud made against retired MUN professor Dr. Ranjit Kumar Chandra.
“I’ve done a lot of investigative enterprise stories which didn’t scare me half as much as coming into the chair at “Weekend AM!’” she laughs.
“It’s such a big responsibility,” she says. “It’s a dearly loved program, and it’s so much to so many people. And I absolutely and completely adored Mack Furlong. My first thought was, ‘Oh, gosh, where’s Mack going?’”
Though O’Neill Yates is used to grittier material, she has also been a contributor to the “Weekend Arts Magazine” throughout her career.
“I did a lot of things for the program when I worked in Corner Brook,” she says.
“One of my first interviews was with Christopher Pratt. I got to interview Gerry Squires and Al Pittman, and though it wasn’t for the “Weekend Arts Magazine,” I also made a documentary about accordionist Minnie White. And I often got asked to fill in on the “Weekend Arts Magazine.’”
The position fits with her own interests, she says.
“I’ve always loved the arts,” she says. “I’ve always been a huge consumer of the arts.”
Though she stopped to give the job offer a lot of thought, so far O’Neill Yates says the change in subject matter has been welcome.
“I really like it,” she says. “A good story is a good story. I approach things as a journalist. I always like to find the stories, even if I’m just doing a story about an event that’s coming up, I like to dig in and find the stories. Because everybody’s got one.”
And though the subject matter is different, the pace of the job hasn’t changed much.
“It’s overwhelming, but I mean that in the best possible sense of the word,” she says. “It’s just the technician and I putting that show together.”
“If anything, it’s overwhelming in the sense that you get to pick from all these great stories,” she adds, after a pause. “You’re talking to people everyday who are doing things for a reason. They’re completely driven and they can’t imagine doing anything else. And so many of them have this incredible entrepreneurial spirit. They really have to work creatively to get people to buy their CD or get people’s bums into the theatre seats. I keep joking that I’m finally talking to people who want to talk to me.”
As for when Furlong might be on the show with his latest project, he’s not quite sure yet. But he has irons in a few fires.
“McGraw Hill commissioned me to write a little piece for them for the next series of high school readers,” he says. “
And I just played a role in “Hold Fast,” the feature film adaptation of Kevin Major’s book. I’m interested right now in doing some voice work or doing some more writing. What kind of writing, well, I have absolutely no idea, but I think that’s a good place to start.”
Whatever he decides to do, he’ll be taking an important lesson with him, which he learned by interviewing — and listening to — the province’s best and brightest artists over the years.
“Be true,” he says. “The artists that I’ve spoken to whose work I’ve enjoyed, or whose work I’ve understood, are people who are true to themselves. Whether they be poets or visual artist or drummers or whatever, if they’re popular, it’s not because they’ve sought popularity. They’re not trying to figure out what sells. They’re not asking what consumers need. That’s the worst possible question to ask yourself, it seems. You have to be secure in yourself, or insecure in yourself and seeking, but it all has to be true.”