The Current (radio Program)

The Current (radio program)

The Current is a Canadian current affairs radio program, hosted by investigative reporter Anna Maria Tremonti on CBC Radio One. It airs weekdays starting at 8:37 a.m. local time and runs until 10 a.m. for most of the year, although during the summer the program airs until 9:30 a.m. and the remaining half hour is filled with a program from the network's schedule of short-run summer programs.

On Fridays, a guest host is used for the broadcast, who is introduced on the preceding Thursday to read listener correspondence with Tremonti. Guest hosts are usually CBC personalities such as Maureen Taylor, Adrienne Arsenault, Nancy Wilson, Erica Johnson, Ian Hanomansing and Anthony Germain, although other Canadian journalists, including Haroon Siddiqui, Jan Wong and David Frum, have also appeared. In 2005, the program also did a one-off joint broadcast with the American radio program Democracy Now!, with Amy Goodman acting as the guest host of The Current.

In recent years, the series has run a regular season-long arc of stories that deal with a particular theme. For instance, the 2007-08 series was "Diet for a Hungry Planet" that dealt the food and world hunger issues, the 2008-09 had "Watershed" dealing with the politics and issues dealing with water and the 2009-10 had "Work in Progress" which explored issues of labor and employment related issues. The 2010-11 season has a series on population demographics and the changing nature of Canada's population called "Shift." The 2011-12 theme is "Gamechangers," about people and significant events that had made a noticeable in the world in some fashion. During the network's summer schedule when The Current is shortened to an hour, these features are rerun as a separate half-hour program.

Although primarily a serious news program, The Current has traditionally (since 2003) begun each show with a brief satirical commentary by a character credited only as The Voice. Long thought to be played by a CBC producer, it was revealed in 2008 that The Voice is in fact played by actor Stephen Hart.

The Voice has also announced fictional advertisements for the "Ambiguous Party", a fictional political party. A few campaign ads were created and aired for morning show listeners' amusement in which The Voice tried to persuade listeners to vote for the Ambiguous Party. Comparisons are made between the Ambiguous Party (complete and utter fence-sitters on all issues) and the current parties of the day.