[Swprograms] Quirks and Quarks 30th birthday

[Ricky Leong <rleong@xxxxxxx>]

By Tabassum Siddiqui
Toronto Star

TORONTO (CP) -- What's the key to making sure your show stays on the air a long 
time?

Animal sex and black holes, apparently. At least that's the immediate response 
Bob McDonald, the host of CBC Radio's Quirks & Quarks, comes up with when asked 
to account for his program's longevity.

The popular science program, which airs Saturdays after the noon news on CBC 
Radio One, is celebrating its 30th birthday.

Known for its easygoing, often amusing approach to covering even the most 
complicated topics, from the beginning Quirks has operated on a premise that 
television is only now catching up to: there's nothing like reality.

``The world is far more complex than we'll ever know _ it's an endlessly 
fascinating journey of discovery,'' McDonald says. ``It's amazing to constantly 
be riding that wave of, `I didn't know that!'''

McDonald, who followed legendary environmentalist David Suzuki and science 
broadcaster Jay Ingram into the Quirks host's chair, began his career at the 
Ontario Science Centre in 1973 and hosted kids' science TV show Wonderstruck 
before landing the Quirks gig.

``So when it came time to put on the Quirks hat, I had some of that background 
already, in terms of having learned how to make science fun and interesting,'' 
McDonald says.

``The wonderful thing about science is that you'll never run out of ideas. Ideas 
are always entertaining, and the beauty of radio is that the listener is 
creating the images in their head,'' explains Suzuki, who was handpicked to host 
the fledgling show in 1975 by Quirks creator Diana Filer after she heard him 
speak at U of T.

Suzuki has fond memories of Quirks'' formative years, recalling its disastrous 
first broadcast _ the tape was sped up so that he and his guests ``sounded like 
chipmunks'' _ and an April Fool's joke played on him: ``There was this producer 
posing as a professor claiming that there had been eyewitness reports of 
prehistoric sharks seen in the ocean. He was going to use these dead cows to try 
to lure them out. And I totally bought into it, asking him all these questions. 
It was very, very funny, he totally suckered me in,'' Suzuki says.

When Suzuki departed in 1979 to focus on his TV show The Nature of Things, he 
``gave up the warmth and immediacy of radio with great regret.'' On the other 
hand, Ingram, who landed at Quirks after freelancing science pieces to CBC 
Radio's Morningside, later moved on to TV (he's currently the host of Daily 
Planet on the Discovery Channel) in 1992 because he was ready for a new challenge.

``I felt like I'd done it all -- every conceivable interview in every 
conceivable setting,'' Ingram says. ``But science and technology is always 
changing. It's not the evolving format that's kept (the show) popular, it's the 
content.''

Ingram notes that Quirks, which has won over 40 national and international 
awards for science journalism, has garnered a loyal audience by explaining even 
the most abstract concepts in a way everyone can understand. He also points out 
it's one of few broadcasts in North America solely dedicated to science. 
Interestingly, that very short list includes Ingram's Daily Planet (going on 13 
years now) and Suzuki's The Nature of Things (the granddaddy of science shows at 
45 years).

``There's never been a time in human history when science has been so ingrained 
in our lives. From technology like IPods and the Internet to genetic 
advancements in food and medicine, when we learn about science, we are finding 
out about our own society." McDonald says.

``Plus, people are always interested in the really bizarre stuff.''
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