Final 'Basic Black' to air Saturday

Paul Grant - The Arts Report

Broadcaster Arthur Black is hanging up the headphones after 19 years of hosting CBC radio institution Basic Black .

The Saturday morning show featured interviews with people around the world with strange hobbies, odd jobs or just an interesting story to tell.

There were also regular features such as "The Humline," where listeners phoned in bits of half-remembered song lyrics, and "Come On, Arthur, Give it a Try," where Black invited the audience to dare him to try something new, such as synchronized swimming or getting his back waxed.

Arthur Black got his start in radio doing the livestock reports for CBC Radio Noon in Toronto. After another 13 years on the noon show in Thunder Bay, he was asked if he'd like to host a national poetry show.

But CBC executives were less than impressed with the pilot for that show.

"It didn't work as a poetry show," said Black.

"The brass said what else would I like to do. So I said I'd like to talk to ordinary people who have good stories, so that's how Basic Black came about," he said.

And for 19 years the show has remained true to that original idea, even if Black's guests weren't always "regular folks."

There was the man who would pack your ashes into a shotgun shell and fire them over your favorite hunting ground. Or the guy whose PR company got the contract to try to improve the image of iceberg lettuce.

Basic Black story producer Chris Straw said the stories at least had to be "useful."

"There's got to be at least one thing in the show that if a listener finds themselves at a dinner party on Saturday night and they're stuck for something to say, they can say 'Did you hear about the woman who's got Elvis's toenail in a box in her living room?'" said Straw.

"I think that's useful," he said.

The last episode of Basic Black airs Saturday morning at 10:05.

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