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The Arts Tonight

Open-knowledge reference entry

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General referenceInterpretive dossier study · Crown Archives visual atlas
Record originEnglish Wikipedia
Text licenseCC BY-SA 4.0
Source revisionApr 29, 2023
Entity authorityQ7714613
Source-derived summary

The Arts Tonight was a Canadian radio programme that aired weeknights from 10:00 to 10:40 p.m. on CBC Radio 2.

It debuted in 1988 with host Shelagh Rogers and covered theatre, dance, books, music and visual arts in Canada in a magazine and interview format. It was followed at 10:40 p.m. by Between the Covers. In 1993, it expanded for a time into a one-hour magazine show on Radio 2 followed by three hours of recorded concert performances of classical music; the concert portion was initially hosted by Paul Kennedy, and later by Peter Tiefenbach. This format lasted until 1996, when Tiefenbach moved to host a new daytime classical music show, Radio Concert Hall, while The Arts Tonight narrowed back down to a half-hour magazine format hosted on a rotating basis by Eleanor Wachtel, Erika Ritter and Carol Off.

In later years, the show was hosted solely by Wachtel.

The last episode aired on February 16, 2007.

Editorial summary

“The Arts Tonight” enters the record as open-knowledge reference entry. Crown Archives preserves that source wording while asking what Arts, Tonight and Open-knowledge can confirm, complicate or overturn.

Editorial reviewA concise reference frame for defining the subject, testing terminology and identifying the institution closest to the evidence. The current lead gives the account dated anchors—1988, 1993, 1996, 2007—that can be checked directly. The selected authority fields contribute no independent date. Its strongest next move is a source search built around Arts, Tonight and Open-knowledge.
Editorial analysis

Why this record matters

“The Arts Tonight” is worth following because a concise public description often conceals a longer documentary argument. Here, Arts, Tonight and Open-knowledge provides the most credible route into that argument.

Evidence profile

Vocabulary and entity names are the principal evidence signals here, because they determine the precision of every later search. The source revision retrieved here is dated Apr 29, 2023. The linked authority identifier is Q7714613. None of the 0 selected statements returned an explicit reference. The first chronological checks are 1988, 1993, 1996 and 2007.

Critical limits

A concise general-reference account can conceal disagreements about scope, terminology or the weight assigned to individual sources. The lead is largely declarative, so disagreement and counter-evidence require a deliberate search beyond the opening account. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.

How to read it

Use the entry as an orientation point, then follow its citations and revision history. Names, dates and institutional relationships should be checked against the original record.

Best used for
  • Subject orientation
  • Search vocabulary
  • Locating named sources
Verify next

The closest primary source, responsible institution and strongest cited specialist reference.

Three-step research path

  1. Establish the record: confirm the title “The Arts Tonight”, its source revision and the description used here.
  2. Expand the search: follow The Arts Tonight primary sources, The Arts Tonight archive and Arts research across catalogues and specialist indexes.
  3. Test the account: compare the strongest cited source with the responsible institution’s current record and note any disagreement.

Questions for further research

  1. Which source most directly establishes the central claim about “The Arts Tonight”?
  2. What terminology or title could unlock a more precise catalogue search?
  3. Which institution is responsible for the underlying evidence?
Subject index

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Source & attribution

This entry incorporates text from The Arts Tonight” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.