Speakers Corner

Our comedy guide and broadcasting guide cover Moses Znaimer's Citytv as a scrappy, street-level alternative to conventional television. Nothing captured that spirit more literally than a coin-operated video booth on a Toronto sidewalk.

A camera, a coin slot, no editorial filter

In 1990, Citytv installed Speakers Corner — a video booth outside its studio at Queen and John Streets, modeled on London's Hyde Park tradition of public speech. For a dollar, anyone could step in, hit record, and say whatever they wanted; producers pulled the best (or most memorable) clips for broadcast, with no interview, no host, and minimal editorial control over what people chose to say.

From gimmick to cultural phenomenon

What started as a single booth grew into its own 30-minute weekly program and eventually more than a dozen booths across the country — a genuine cultural phenomenon that let ordinary people, not just broadcasters, control what got shown on television, years before user-generated video became the default on the internet.

Shut down, then revived

Rogers shut Speakers Corner down entirely in 2008 after acquiring Citytv from Znaimer's CHUM Limited. The original booth now sits on display at Znaimer's own Television Museum in Liberty Village — and in 2022, Znaimer revived the format under a new name, VoxBox, at ZoomerMedia's studios in the same neighbourhood.

Sources

• BlogTO — The History of Speakers Corner in Toronto
• Wikipedia — Speakers Corner (TV series)