Barbara Frum

Barbara Frum joined CBC Radio in Toronto in the late 1960s and built her early reputation as a co-host of As It Happens, known for a direct, well-prepared interviewing style that pushed back against evasive answers rather than simply letting guests talk. That approach made her one of the most respected interviewers in Canadian broadcasting well before she moved to television.

The Journal, and a lasting Toronto tribute

Frum became the defining host of The Journal, CBC Television's nightly current affairs program, from its 1982 launch until her death in March 1992, interviewing world leaders and newsmakers with the same rigorous, unwilling-to-settle-for-spin style that had defined her radio work. She died just as the CBC's new Toronto Broadcasting Centre was being completed, and the building's large central atrium was named the Barbara Frum Atrium in her honour, a lasting physical tribute inside the building that now anchors the CBC's English-language operations.

Sources

• The Canadian Encyclopedia — Barbara Frum
• Wikipedia — Barbara Frum

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