Roger Abbott

Roger Abbott began his career off the air in programming and management at a number of radio stations in the 1960s, including Montreal’s CKGM, before accidentally stumbling into comedy. He was one of the co-founders of The Royal Canadian Air Farce in 1973. The Air Farce began life as The Jest Society, which was started by John Morgan and Martin Bronstein, along with Gay Claitman, Roger Abbott and author and broadcaster, Patrick Conlon. In 1971 they decided to leave Montreal and head to Toronto where Don Ferguson, Luba Goy and Dave Broadfoot were invited to join the troupe. They made their CBC Radio debut on Dec. 9, 1973 as The Royal Canadian Air Farce. They turned their radio success into a one hour special on CBC-TV in October, 1980 and that led CBC to commission a 10 week series, which began airing in February 1981. They also produced specials in 1982 and 1983, but retreated from TV until New Years Eve 1992. On October 8, 1993 they went weekly. In April of 2008 it was announced that The Air Farce would end on December 31, 2008, 35 years after starting their radio series. Diagnosed with chronic lymphocytic leukemia in 1997, Abbott kept the progressive disease secret from everyone but a few close friends and family until a week before he died in Toronto General Hospital. He had received numerous awards over the years including 15 Actra awards, a Juno and the Governor General’s Performing Arts Award.