From National Post
One is a hardcore newshound, the other leans toward entertainment stories. Together, Paul Cook and Lisa Brandt keep the news coming fast and, well, not furious, but really, really fast weekday mornings on 680 News. Dave McGinn spoke to Cook and Brandt as part of an ongoing series of interviews with Toronto morning radio show hosts.
Q How would you say your personalities complement each other?
Cook We're both dark. We both have very dark senses of humour.
Brandt If I haven't made Paul laugh out loud to the point where coffee almost comes out his nose at least once in the morning I feel I haven't done my job.
Cook We have discovered a lot of commonalities. We both love John Irving novels, we both like the fat Elvis more than the skinny Elvis.
Brandt We are very different. But we complement each other. We call each other work wife and work husband and I think it's kind of the best parts of a marriage, like a long-term marriage. You know -- no sex.
Q How did the two of you get in to radio?
Cook I started as an "op," a technical producer, an operator, playing records. I was going to Ryerson taking radio and television arts at the time and I was able to get a job for $35 a shift spinning records. We were at the old location on Adelaide Street and I remember looking out the window and seeing the CN Tower. I'm a Northern Ontario boy, and my goal was always to come to Toronto and make it here in broadcasting. I was looking out the window and I thought, wow, I've made it.
Brandt My first full-time job was in Red Deer, Alta. I stayed out West for a few years.
Q Did you always know that you wanted to do radio?
Brandt Actually, I wanted to be an actress. But I didn't have the self-confidence to think that I could make it. I didn't want to eat out of garbage cans in New York. Radio seemed like a really good fit. There's performance, there's a regular paycheque. Once I got in to radio it was magic, I loved it.
Q What sorts of stories do you gravitate toward?
Brandt One of the reasons I think Paul and I get along so well is that we're able to go beyond our own personal tastes and our own personal experiences and know what matters in the big picture. I kind of have a little bit of an entertainment bent but I'm just as interested in the hard stuff and international news as anything.
Cook We want to nail stories that we know people are talking about already or will be talking about. I think that's what we really shoot for.
Q You guys have the largest audience of any radio show in Canada -- at least that's what a rep from the station tells me. Does that make for more pressure, or less?
Cook It took a lot of work to get us here, so I don't know that we feel the pressure any more because it's just something we've gotten used to. We come in everyday and we don't necessarily think of the large audience but we think about the responsibility. We're not finding a cure for cancer, but we know that what we do is really useful.
Q What is the best thing about radio, and what's the worst thing?
Brandt The best thing about radio, I think, is that it implies intelligence among its audience. You don't have to draw them a picture, you just expect that people are smart enough to get the single dimension of it.
Cook That's the best thing about radio, the immediacy of it.
Brandt The worst thing? Bar none, it's the sleep.
Cook I fall asleep at dinner parties now.
Dmcginn@nationalpost.com
