It was a Friday night staple on CBC in the three-channel universe of
peasant vision – four panelists, who were renowned Canadian journalists, trying
to guess the identity of a news story or news maker receiving easier and easier
clues.
I was reminded of “Front Page Challenge” awhile back when I
heard Betty Kennedy had passed away. She had been a longtime member of that
panel, and a trailblazer for women across Canada.
Front Page Challenge
The showed debuted on CBC in 1957, and Betty Kennedy joined
the panel in 1962 staying until the show went off the air in February of 1995.
For much of that time, she was joined by host Fred Davis and fellow panelists
Pierre Berton and Gordon Sinclair.
I liked the show because it presented people in the news
from athletes to politicians, entertainers and more. Once the panel had
guessed, or failed to guess who the guest was, the celebrity would sit and
answer questions from the panelists. It really was a neat idea – part game show
and part news magazine.
Renowned journalist
Betty Kennedy brought an impressive resumé to the panel. She
had her start at the Ottawa Citizen newspaper, then moved to radio, settling in at CFRB
in Toronto where she hosted “The Betty Kennedy Show” from 1959 to 1986. In that
27 years, according to Wikipedia, she interviewed 25,000 guests. She also wrote
two books and did some TV work.
She was named to the Order of Canada in 1982; the Canadian
News Hall of Fame in 1983; and the Canadian Broadcasting Hall of Fame in 1992.
Then, in 2000, she was appointed to the Canadian Senate by
Prime Minister Jean Chretien. However, she only sat in the upper chamber for
six months, retiring when she turned 75.
She died at the age of 91, in 2017.
Letter to the editor
I have a very personal connection to Front Page Challenge”.
For more than 15 years I have been the editor of the
Claresholm Local Press, a community newspaper in Southern Alberta. The very
first letter to the editor I wrote was a reaction to something I saw on “Front
Page Challenge” in Grade 12.
The guest was a member of parliament who voted against his
party and the government, which was the reason he had made national headlines,
or front page news.
Panellist Pierre Berton, who I knew was an ardent Liberal,
took the MP to task on his actions. He claimed in this system of responsible
government, an MP had a responsibility to vote with his or her party. He was
quite condescending about it too.
I was enraged, and vented to my high school guidance
councillor Ed Ryan the next time I was in school. He told me to write Berton a
letter. I was all excuses then. I didn’t have his address, he wouldn’t even get
it anyway and on and on. He refuted all those, producing the CBC address as
well as a pen, paper and envelope.
So right there in Mr. Ryan’s office at Kate Andrews High
School in Coaldale, Alberta, I wrote a letter to Pierre Berton. Mr. Ryan talked
on and off about writing his memoirs, and he was always photocopying stuff. He
asked if he could take a photocopy of my letter, then did.
The next week, I opened the local community newspaper, “The
Sunny South News”, and there was my letter staring me in the face. Obviously
Mr. Ryan had submitted it.
For that I am eternally grateful.
Not to Pierre Berton though. I never did get a response from
him.
Parting thoughts
“Front Page Challenge” was another one of those very
Canadian institutions that has passed into history. There is nothing really
like it on the air, neither a news magazine nor game show.
Betty Kennedy was always a striking part of that show,
because she was the only female on the panel. I always recall how articulate
and professional she was.
That alone made her a trail blazer. Once you drill down deeper
into her career, she built quite a body of work as an interviewer and
journalist, primarily on radio.
Yet, for me, she was part of a Friday night ritual in the
three-channel universe, that taught me about current events and Canada.
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