Good Morning, Nova Scotia

Offering an open line for callers, talk radio often gets a bad rap in Canada. Many highbrow listeners tuned to CBC Radio One tend to denigrate the commercial format, especially, as a magnet for local cranks and a bully pulpit for right-wing commentary. Yet call-in shows attract thousands of daily listeners — of all stripes — in markets both large and small.

Misconceptions arise when the story of Canadian talk radio is conflated with that of our neighbours to the south, where right-wing voices have come to dominate, especially since The Rush Limbaugh Show debuted in 1988, airing in syndication on over 650 stations at its peak. Out of the 1,600 stations that carry talk radio in the United States, only a hundred or so buck the trend by offering progressive takes on social and political issues.

Compared with American programming, there are few national talk shows in Canada beyond CBC Radio’s venerable Cross Country Checkup and, perhaps, The...