For 17 years, her voice has filled the airwaves for an hour each weekday evening as Canadians tuned in to hear the "story behind the story."
And now Barbara Budd, the co-host of CBC's current affairs show As It Happens, has announced she's leaving the program.
At the tail end of her broadcast Monday night, the CBC Radio veteran announced her departure without giving a reason for it.
Her last show on April 30th will cap a 26-year career with the CBC. Her regular stints on As it Happens, one of the most popular and long-running radio shows in the world, began in 1987 when she filled in for broadcaster Alan Maitland.
"[That's]when show scripts were hammered out on clunky Underwood typewriters and you actually had to dial a telephone," Ms. Budd said in a release. "For all that time, it's not only been a real delight to me, but a tremendous honour to share some of the most exciting stories and people in the world with our audience."
In her announcement Monday, Ms. Budd asked listeners to send their photos to the CBC as a memento of who had been tuning in to her broadcasts over the years.
"I'll be leaving here with a whole lot of wonderful memories," she told her listeners. "But I'd like to be able to leave here too being able to put faces to your ears, which you have lent me for so long."
Her presence will be missed in the studios of CBC Radio One, said Denise Donlon, general manager of CBC Radio, who extended best wishes as Ms. Budd "embarks on her next great adventures."
"As one of only two co-hosts in the show's history, Barbara has introduced audiences in Canada, the United States and online around the world, to thousands of stories, events and people great and small," she said in a release. "The one great constant, thanks to her unique style and tone, is the way those stories caught the imagination of As It Happens listeners. Barbara has made a significant contribution to a legendary CBC program."
The CBC will start a formal search for a new co-host shortly. As It Happens has been broadcast across the country since 1968.