Ira Basen, Faculty Member
Leadership Development Programs
Ira began freelancing in radio in 1981, and has been full-time with CBC Radio since 1984. He spent several years as a documentary-maker for Sunday Morning, and was Senior Producer of that program between 1989-91. From 1995 and 1997, he was Senior Producer of CBC Radio’s national science program,
Quirks and Quarks. He has developed three new programs for the national network, including a sports journalism program The Inside Track in 1985, for which he was Senior Producer for three years. In 1997, Ira created This Morning, a three-hour, six days a week, current affairs magazine
program, and was Executive Producer for three years. In 2001, Ira developed his newest program, a weekly hour-long examination of the world of work called Workology. He has done several special series on topics such as the brain, language and the Olympic movement. Ira has won several awards,
including the Canadian Science Writers’ Awards, The New York Radio Festival Awards, and the Gabriel Award.
Ira has written articles for Saturday Night Magazine and The Globe and Mail. His essay "The CBC and the Public Interest: Maintaining the Mission in an Era of Media Concentration" was included in the book "Public Broadcasting and the Public Interest," published in the fall of 2002. Currently on leave from CBC Radio, Ira is writing a book on public relations and the media to be published by Penguin Books in 2004.
Ira has taught for The Radio and Television Arts program at the School for Continuing Education at Ryerson Polytechnic University. He has developed new training courses for CBC Radio and been a frequent guest lecturer at Ryerson’s School of Journalism. In the fall of 2002, he taught "Spin: PR, Journalism and the Search for Truth" at the Department of Continuing Studies at the University of Toronto.
Ira has a B.A. from Carleton University and an M.A. from University of Wisconsin-Madison. He completed all course work and preliminary exams for his Ph.D., but did not complete his dissertation.
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