How About This presents Jeanne Armstrong

Interviewing former CBC As It Happens producer and current CBC Radio Information Morning Fredericton radio host Jeanne Armstrong, a recent transplant to Atlantic Canada

Welcome to Atlantic Canada Mondays, a regular feature of How About This where we interview interesting residents of the Canadian provinces of New Brunswick, Nova Scotia, Prince Edward Island and Newfoundland and Labrador. Today we welcome one of New Brunswick’s newer residents, CBC Radio Information Morning Fredericton host Jeanne Armstrong. As you’ll see in this interview, Jeanne’s had a solid broadcasting career both on air and off air and took a chance to relocating from Toronto to a different pace in Fredericton, NB. In additional to her morning radio show you can also find Jeanne interacting with people all over the world on Twitter (@JeanneCBC).

Cue the mike, here’s Jeanne!

Jeanne Armstrong photo courtesy of CBC

Jeanne, what did you want to be when you grew up?

I think that answer changed by the week when I was a kid. For a while it was an architect, because my cousin was studying that in school and showed me some scale models she had made and it blew my mind. My best friend’s mom ran a hat shop downtown and she had every type of hat imaginable. That seemed very cool to me. There was a friendly waitress serving us at a Kelsey’s once, and her job seemed fast-paced and thrilling, so I figured serving would be a fun profession.

I think I probably picked journalism because it’s the only way you can live vicariously through other people.

What kinds of jobs have you had prior to focusing on news and broadcasting?

I babysat, tutored, packed boxes at my dad’s screenprinting business, worked the express line at my local grocery store, and made complicated drinks for people at Starbucks… not all at the same time!

Jeanne Armstrong photo courtesy of CBC

You've worked in radio for a number of years both as a host and as a producer.  How did you make your way into your current CBC Radio hosting gig?

I had this idea in my head for a long time that at CBC, there are people who are on the air, and people behind the scenes, and it’s rare that the circles in that Venn diagram overlap. I know now that this is far from the truth, but it kept me from pursuing hosting.

When I worked at CBC Ottawa earlier in my career, I had done a lot of on-air work, and I fell in love with the immediacy and connection of it. Producing for As It Happens had its own excitement to it, of course, but the pandemic has a way of refocusing you, and I had been there for six years and was open to a change.

When the Fredericton posting came up, I threw my hat in the ring. It seemed like perfect timing. I had visited the city before, thanks to a close friend who went to UNB, so I was familiar with it and could picture myself there. 

Are there any particularly good or funny stories that you can share from your work as a producer for As It Happens (CBC Radio's national evening current affairs/public interest program)? 

So many. One of my favourite interviews was with a man who had been hanging on to Richard Nixon’s half-eaten sandwich in his freezer for 60-plus years. I just love stories about people doing these hyper-specific things that give them so much enjoyment. 

I also loved the thrill of the chase in the job, especially if it was a hard-to-reach guest or a celebrity. In 2019, we were trying to find fun ways to mark the 50 year anniversary of Woodstock, and I tracked down Grace Slick (of Jefferson Airplane). Found a phone number online, called it, and she answered right away… and I started to shake. I could barely get the words out but she agreed to speak to us, so we patched it through to the studio and just had a free-flowing conversation. At one point she started telling us how sandwich bread has become huge and you can’t make proper sandwiches anymore. It was truly wild. (why are my favourite AIH memories about sandwiches? Hmmm)

How has your life changed since getting the morning radio host job, heard by tens of thousands of listeners every morning?

I never thought I’d be waking up at 3:30am every morning on the regular, so that’s different. I’m used to the schedule now, and I love having my afternoons off to do whatever I want, but it makes having a social life difficult. People now recognize me, which is definitely something new for me.

I love striking up conversations with curious strangers and getting to know our listeners that way. It is a very odd feeling to speak into a microphone to people you can’t actually see, and not know who is listening or how it’s resonating with people. Instead of picturing tens of thousands of people, I try to picture one person and talk to them. That tends to make it feel a little less overwhelming.

Jeanne enticing listeners on Twitter with a photo of the Listener of the Week prizes for CBC Information Morning

In addition to changing your job to a morning radio host you've also moved from Ontario (Toronto, in particular) to a much smaller city in New Brunswick.  Is there anything about the change of surroundings that particularly surprised you?

My first week in Fredericton, I would wake up in the middle of the night, awoken by the sound of complete silence. Our previous apartment had been right in the heart of the action in downtown Toronto and the sirens, honks, crowds, etc. was a constant background hum.

The immediate access to remote nature in NB was also a pleasant surprise. From Toronto it can take you a couple hours to get to a trail or park, and when you get there, you realize everyone else is there, too. In Fredericton, you might pass one or two other hikers on a trail that is 10 minutes from your house.

I also love how accessible the river is in Fredericton, whether it’s the Wolastoq or the Nashwaak... The waterfront is Toronto is quite built up and feels like an afterthought.

Jeanne and her colleague Myfanwy Davies in Woodstock, NB

You've been able to travel to several NB communities this year for in person reporting as well as providing a more public face for CBC Radio in NB.  How has that been going?

It’s been an amazing summer so far. I’ve sampled soft-serve cones for “research,” gone on an awesome boat ride, got a million mosquito bites (worth it), ate the best strawberries of my life (Ontario has peaches… NB has strawberries), got some cemetery tours, hit up some covered bridges, went geocaching… I could go on.

But the best part has been the people. We held a meet and greet event in Woodstock and – again, it’s that feeling of not always knowing who is out there listening to the show, so to get to meet even a fraction of that audience was really nice and affirming. I left Woodstock with a notebook full of business cards and story ideas. Part of the plan was to actually cover those stories for CBC this summer, but it was also about building a rolodex of contacts for the rest of the year.

Jeanne and the World’s Largest Axe in Nackawic, NB

As a newbie to NB, it was also a great bonus to get to visit communities like Florenceville-Bristol, Nackawic, Hartland and beyond. These are communities I talk about on the show all the time but had never actually been to before this summer. Going forward, it’ll give me a much deeper appreciation and understanding of the issues facing people in our listening area.

Plus, it’s been so much fun. Best job ever.

Do you do any creative writing, personal journaling, etc?  Is there anything there that you would ever publish in some manner?

Every single year I try to get into journaling and… I just can’t make it stick! I have friends and family who spend 30 minutes daily reviewing the day and their reflections in a journal, and I so envy that.

I did a gratitude journal for a while, writing out three things I’m thankful for every day (a suggestion from a listener… thanks, Isabelle!). But I couldn’t make that stick, either. If people reading this have any tips on how to make journaling a permanent daily habit I’m all ears, because I really do think it’s valuable to go back in time and ask “have I changed? Or am I the same? How did I solve that problem?“.

I have no immediate plans to write anything, but perhaps non-fiction writing is in my future. 

Jeanne practicing her early morning wink before airtime

My impression is that social media has become an increasingly important tool for the modern radio host.  Do you see any significant disadvantages to this?  I believe I've heard Ezra Klein suggest that it might not be bad if the mainstream media made less use of Twitter, as an example.

I think we have to remind ourselves that social media, especially Twitter, isn’t always representative of reality. It’s hard not to get sucked into the zeitgeist-y thing of the day on Twitter. And it seems important in the moment. Until you ask family or friends if they’ve been following it, and they have no clue what you’re talking about. So it can be a bubble that way, at times.

But I do think, as a radio host, there are so many benefits to a platform like Twitter. I feel like it’s a (mostly) positive and welcoming space. It makes my day to get sunrise photos, “good morning” greetings, and poetry on the regular. I also appreciate the questions I get in real-time from listeners while an interview is happening live.

Pretend you wake up one morning and the Internet has been destroyed.  What's the first thing that you do?

I would probably call my mom, and ask if she’s heard the news. Then I would go out my front door and go for a walk and intercept any person I saw and ask if they heard, and how they were dealing with it. Then in a panic, I’d realize I need to get as much cash out as possible.

The banks would no doubt be overflowing with people, so I’d probably give up, go home, dust off my pile of records, put on Astral Weeks, lie on my carpet and contemplate my existence without the internet.

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Thanks to Jeanne for agreeing to do this interview! Following a productive summer “in the field”, you can listen to Jeanne on air again this fall every weekday morning, starting at 5:55 AM Atlantic, on CBC Information Morning Fredericton.