BROWN TURNS OFF THE LIGHTS
CBC Radio 2 music show The Signal is set to send out its final transmission
“It’s a very hard transition for people to make, from daytime to nighttime. It’s a sort of retreat back into yourself.”
Laurie Brown would know. As host of CBC Radio 2’s dreamy latenight music show The Signal, she has been helping listeners make that transition for the past decade, telling stories and playing songs that drift through the Canadian ether from 10 to midnight, six nights a week.
Ironically, she has been doing so from the other side of the day’s dividing line. Just past noon on a recent Thursday, Brown was calling from her desk at CBC’s Toronto headquarters, where she was following her regular routine.
“I’ll go into the studio around 1 o’clock and roll out another couple of shows before this long weekend,” she said. “I’ll dim the lights, make it feel like 10 p.m., when in fact my day starts at about 8 in the morning. I listen to all the music at home, I think about it and then come in here and blab.”
She was playing it pretty cool for a woman who’s coming to the end of the line. Brown will be hanging up her microphone on Sept. 2.
It’s the end of an era, for the veteran media personality and her legions of loyal fans who turn to their radio each night seeking solace in her soothing voice, thoughtful anecdotes and the transportive music she plays, which come courtesy of longtime Signal producer and musical selector Andy Sheppard.
The most important consideration for both, she recounts, was the time-slot.
“That governed just about everything that we brought to the table; it has to feel like late at night.”
Music is the great unifier at The Signal, bringing together listeners of all stripes, all ages, from all walks of life and all corners of the country. Decidedly contemporary and borderline hip, yet never alienating. “The music is the most important thing,” Brown said, “and the music inspires what I say. I listen and my mind wanders when listening to the music, like yours and everyone else’s, and I just say things into a microphone. And the thoughts that come are kind of like the dust bunnies under your bed. They’re like clues — they hold the signal.”
The show’s fans write letters, send emails sharing stories, and post on The Signal’s popular Facebook page, sharing thoughts on the music she plays and offering snapshots of their lives.
“I hear from all kinds of people,” Brown said. “People who are struggling in rehab, people at home with chronic pain, people who have just had babies, are unemployed, and people who are having the best nights of their lives.
“And I think that all of them, if there’s something they have in common, it’s that they have big hearts. I think all these people are aching for a way to show more heart.”
Being exposed to all that vulnerability has left Brown with a sense of responsibility to her audience.
“When I first started (the show) it really scared me,” she said. “I thought, ‘I have to treat this very carefully. This is a very powerful medium — way more powerful than TV.
“I started to understand the power of being in the room with someone, and the comfort that can offer; and to feel that, if I was going to be invited into the bedrooms of the nation, I needed to be someone they wanted to have around in their private space.”
That space is about to change, for her and for us. The Signal will end for good after Sept. 2. While she and Sheppard are leaving, a new show and host will take over two days later.
What’s next for Brown? She has committed to a podcast, called The Pondercast, the first episode of which will be available Sept. 3.
“I have no idea what else I’ll do,” she says. “The thing about doing something new is you have to take the first step yourself. You have to show faith by jumping into nothingness and seeing what comes up.”