RadioActive wrote:

You can certainly understand why the Gong Show that is this year's American race for the White House would be considered a ratings or attention grabber. And so it is that the inevitable has happened - CFRB has announced it will be airing Monday's first showdown between Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump on its airwaves starting at 9 PM. It's certainly possible other news/talk radio stations across Canada will also pick up the feed. 

My question: has this ever happened before? Sure, many outlets have put on the Canadian leaders' debates, some even staging their own, often to middling ratings. But I can't quite recall ever hearing broadcasters in the Great White North picking up an entire 90 minutes of what is essentially American-only politics on this side of the border.

I guess it shows the interest this insanity has engendered and I can only wonder if there are fireworks at the first tete-a-tete, if they'll also air the debates that follow.  

CBL carried the first Kennedy-Nixon debate on September 26, 1960 on a tape-delayed basis. The debate, which started at 9:30 p.m., was broadcast at 11 p.m. on CBL.

Don't know about other years.
 

Last edited by Dale Patterson (September 22, 2016 10:55 am)

I was actually thinking of commercial stations, rather than the CBC, but the Nixon-Kennedy debate certainly counts. That was also the first televised one, if memory serves, so it would have been a big curiosity in any event. Monday's tussle has the opportunity to be a train wreck. It will be interesting to see if the same phenomenon applies in this case, as it did back then, where radio listeners thought a sweaty, non-make-up laden Nixon won, while TV viewers gave the nod to the more attractive Kennedy.

By the way, the start time is actually 8:30 not 9. I'll be listening to see if any other Canuck stations pick this up. 

Still, the debate can't hold a candle to what you might call the "pre-debate moment" of the Fall - Jerry Agar getting Kathleen Wynne on his show on Friday at 11:45 in the morning. That one could well be a pay-per-view event!