The Luminaries

Inspiring Neighbours on CIDI Radio

To close out this crazy year and kick off a better one for 2021, CIDI, the Lac Brome/Knowlton-based community radio station, has an intriguing treat, “The Luminaries” to be broadcast for five Sundays at noon & Thursdays at 2 pm, starting Sunday, December 6th.

The programs are a rare opportunity to personally get to know inspiring neighbours from the area. Listening to “The Luminaries” puts you with them at a kitchen table. Sharing conversation over a glass of mulled wine in front of a crackling fire. Listening to their life stories and favourite music selections. The experience is truly absorbing.

For some weeks, during the recording sessions in the softly lit, below-ground CIDI studio, your neighbours evidently relaxed and felt at home with the host, David James, a sculptor based in Sutton and a former CBC Radio News and Public Affairs correspondent whose last post was in Paris. The luminaries share intimate and candid stories you simply do not expect them to divulge.

In relating their life, a guest, almost in passing, mentions such private tales as flirting with criminality, but never succumbing, and being terrorized by students while teaching at Massey Vanier High School in Cowansville. Another relates the family name was changed because of antisemitism. A survivor of a terrible car accident reveals the experience of being in an induced coma. A sufferer of clinical depression courageously shares that battle. And then there’s the chance meeting of friends after some thirty years that happens in prison, at Christmas.

While you think the conversations are nourishing enough, the favourite music selections provide fascinating windows into their lives and personalities. One poignant selection is a Grateful Dead track chosen by a father who tells his son to be sure it is played at his funeral. In a twist of fate, the song is played first at the son’s funeral after he dies in a car accident.

Inspiring neighbours you will hear, in order of their weekly broadcast, are :

Dr. John Fowles of the Bolton Pass, retired orthopedic surgeon, member of the Order of Canada for work in Africa and at the University of Montréal, long-time member of The Tour des Arts. 
Sunday December 6th, Thursday December 10th.

Peter Turner of Sutton, Queen Elizabeth Golden Jubilee Medal recipient, retired country lawyer, educator, volunteer for many organizations including Au Diapason. 
Sunday December 13th, Thursday December 17th. 

Reverend Tim Smart of Abercorn, priest at Grace Anglican Church, Sutton, many responsibilities in the Parish of Brome, part-time chaplain at Cowansville penitentiary. 
Sunday December 20th, Thursday December 24th.

Danielle Dansereau of Frelighsburg, president of the Mount Pinnacle Land Trust, ocean sailor, screen writer. 
Sunday December 27th, Thursday December 31st.

Stanley Lake of the Ruiter Valley, Dunkin, ceramist, multi-talented musician, impresario, founder of the Sutton Jazz Festival and co-founder of The Tour des Arts. 
Sunday January 3rd, Thursday January 7th.

The Luminaries—Inspiring Neighbours, a five-part series, is broadcast weekly on Sunday at noon, repeated Thursday at 2 p.m., starts Sunday, December 6th. CIDI is heard at 99.1 FM and around the world via cidi991.com and on TuneIn Radio at tunein.com/radio/CIDI-991FM-s130550.