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CBC Program Guide > Programs A-Z > Cross Country Checkup
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Cross Country Checkup
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CROSS COUNTRY CHECKUP is Canada's only national open-line radio program, broadcast live across Canada every Sunday afternoon. Each week, broadcaster and writer Rex Murphy presides over a lively discussion on an issue of national interest, and invites listeners to call in with their opinions and thoughts.
A Canadian tradition, CROSS COUNTRY CHECKUP has been on the air almost every Sunday for 38 years. The program was first broadcast in the spring of 1965, during the bitter debate over whether there should be a national publicly funded health-care system (hence the somewhat medical name of the show!). It has proven to be a mainstay in fulfilling CBC Radio's mandate to reflect Canada to all Canadians. Close to half-a-million listeners tune in each week to hear a lively exchange of ideas between callers and invited guests, as well as a broad cross-section of opinion on the topic of the day. On average, 20,000 people call the program during the broadcast to join the discussion.
Host Rex Murphy was born and raised near St. John's, Newfoundland, where he graduated from Memorial University. A Rhodes Scholar, Murphy attended Oxford University in 1968. After returning to Newfoundland, he soon established himself as a quick-witted and accomplished writer, broadcaster and teacher, noted throughout Newfoundland for his biting comments on the political scene. His nightly television tussles with prominent politicians, including Premier Joey Smallwood, on the supper-hour show Here and Now became required viewing for a huge audience.
Rex Murphy gained an insider's view of the political scene when he worked as executive assistant to the Liberal leader of the opposition in Newfoundland. To get an even closer taste of politics, he tried electoral politics, running in elections for both the provincial Tories and the Grits; he lost every time.
Rex Murphy has received several national and provincial broadcasting awards and has been awarded honorary doctorates in letters by Memorial University, St. Thomas University and Nipissing University.
Want to know more? Visit the Cross Country Checkup website:
http://www.cbc.ca/checkup/
You might also be interested in:
Ideas
Generations with Peter Mansbridge
OR any of our other CBC Opinion & Commentary Shows.
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Sunday, October 29, 2006, 3:00 p.m.
29/10/2006
Sunday on Cross Country Checkup... boom or bust. There's a great movement taking place in Canada and it's all about jobs. This time it's Alberta that's booming... but it hasn't always been so. Thompson, Manitoba, the Hub of the North, has seen both sides – boom times and hard times. Join host, Rex Murphy, live from Thompson. How has an abundance or a lack of jobs affected your community? That's Sunday on Cross Country Checkup.
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