Arthur Raymond Black
30 August 1943 – 21 February 2018
Arthur Black was a Canadian humorist and radio personality best known to Canadians as the long-time host, from 1983 to 2002, of Basic Black on CBC Radio One, which had a weekly audience of more than 600,000 listeners. He also authored 19 books and for 40 years wrote a weekly humour column which at its peak was syndicated to more than 50 newspapers in Canada and internationally. Most importantly to this community, for the last 23 years of his life Art was a Saltspringer, through and through.
After studying journalism at Ryerson, Art headed off to Europe where he wandered and worked at whatever took his fancy for a few years before returning to Ontario where he again he eagerly took on a variety of jobs than many folk would shirk from: a door-to-door encyclopedia salesman, peep sea oil tanker deckhand, cow wrangler, sheet metal apprentice, and plumber’s assistant are a few examples.
His broadcasting career started with CBC Radio in 1972 when he was hired to contribute livestock reports to Radio Noon in Toronto. In 1974, he moved to CBC Radio station CBQ in Thunder Bay where Basic Black began as a national variety program, relocating to Toronto a few years into its run, and finally to Vancouver in 1995 until it concluded its run.
For television, he wrote and hosted Weird Homes and Weird Wheels for five years on the Life Network in the late 1990s.
Arthur is a three-time winner of the Stephen Leacock Memorial Medal for Humour as well as many other writing and broadcasting awards and honours, including a National Magazine Award for Humour, an ACTRA Award for Best Opinion/Commentary, a Cadogan Award for Best Weekly Newspaper Column, and the Ohio State Award for Best Children’s Series.
Art moved to Saltspring in 1995. After ending Basic Black in 2002, he was still heard on various broadcasts and continued writing his syndicated column until “retiring” in 2016. Here on Saltspring Art was a vocal and visible Islander, whether volunteering as a driver for Meals on Wheels, MC’ing a myriad of events to help raise money for local causes, or simply enjoying (and being part of) the vibe of the local coffee shops, the Legion snooker table and his fellow “grumpy old” Book Club buddies.
On January 2nd of this year Art was diagnosed with Stage IV terminal pancreatic cancer and blogged in the last weeks of his life about what he called his “final journey”. In excruciating pain as the cancer became more aggressive, Art chose to die with medical assistance, surrounded by family and close friends, at Lady Minto Hospital on Salt Spring Island on 21 February 2018.
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