She's definitely not Nora Young
Sook-Yin Lee takes over as host of Definitely Not the Opera
Former MuchMusic on-air personality Sook-Yin Lee has recently made a life-altering career change, and in the process of switching occupations she has helped shift the emphasis of Definitely Not the Opera, one of the few shows on the CBC dedicated to contemporary culture and music. Longtime host Nora Young left the show at the end of the summer to pursue other endeavours, leaving a space for some much-needed fresh blood on CBC's airwaves.
On air, the most immediate difference is Lee's personability. Young was often presented as an ultra hipster, surrounded by minions who played the role of sidekicks. Considering the drought of actual radio personalities in the 1990s, this was not necessarily a bad thing, but by the end of Young’s tenure the show was a shell of its former self. Lee brings to the air an honest charm that is endearing without pandering and, most importantly, a sense of impassioned enthusiasm for the medium.
She honed her skills in the rapid-fire realms of the nation’s music station, Much Music, and she says it was an important experience.
"Perhaps the best thing was that I learned to always be aware of the situation, whether it was a particular artist or music or our audience," Lee says.
Despite this, there were some drawbacks to her experience with Much, specifically that TV didn’t always allow for deeper exploration.
"Things were so compacted, you had to present a particular artist and convey something in these chunks – it didn’t often allow for putting a different spin on things, for really getting to know somebody," she says.
Her most memorable deviation from the Much sound bites, or at least the one she recalls most easily, was when she asked the Backstreet Boys what it’s like to be perpetual androgynous teen boys, even though they were in their early 20s at the time.
"They were these men, but the way they were being marketed as these teen boys who didn’t have a sexuality, who weren’t of age, who weren’t adults, I mean, to me that’s gotta be the weirdest thing, that your public life is dedicated to this uniform image of safe androgyny."
Her final days with Much led her to the conclusion that she needs more from the industry than she could find as a VJ. If the station left a lasting impression on her, it is that it's the industry that makes the music, not the music that makes the industry. She came to the conclusion that she was most interested in the people who comprise the sidelines of pop culture, and that drove Lee to seek her current position with the CBC.
She felt public radio broadcasting, and Definitely Not the Opera in particular, would allow her more leverage with guests and the ability to further develop a show that seeks out the more obscure angles of Canadian experience and, at the same time, keeps its fingers on the pulse of Canadian pop culture.
"I want to explore things differently and this program allows for that. There are so many really interesting things and people in Canada – I’d love to catch them all and showcase that aspect of Canada."
As a result, she now carries a mini-disc recorder with her at all times, to capture those quirky moments in time that you normally wouldn’t be able to replicate in the hallowed studios of the CBC.
Her aim as host of DNTO is to satisfy her curiosity, her need to know more about Canada, and at the same time present radio that keeps the listeners interested and engaged.
"What I want to help people to see is that this is a reflection of ourselves – this Canadian culture – that Canada is a great place to be in with all these sorts of people in all these isolated places doing these fascinating things."
Part of her ambitious plan with DNTO is to broadcast the show from the most remote regions of the country, to expose the majority of Canada to these gems of the Canadian experience.
"I’d really like people to get a chance to see that, even though we’re really spread out, there are these pockets of people everywhere, usually feeling separated by the vastness, but that they’re doing similar things as others across the country." |
