Mack Furlong is known as many things: CBC Personality, drummer, event host extraordinaire … but for the rest of the fall, know him as the latest winner of the John Drainie Award.

This award is presented by ACTRA — the Alliance of Canadian Cinema, Television and Radio Artists. He’ll be presented with the award at a reception in St. John’s on October 15.

“It gives me great pleasure to present this honour to Mack Furlong,” says ACTRA President Ferne Downey.”Like John Drainie, he is an actor and broadcast journalist par excellence.”

Downey elaborates that “Mack’s complex radio characters deliver a conscious comedy – they provoke us to laugh and think at the same time. Mack is a rare gem and deserves this national recognition.”

The award is named after one of Canada’s best known actors, described by Orson Welles as one of the greatest radio actors in the world. Previosu winners of the award include Peter Gzowski, Gordon Pinsent, Shelagh Rogers, Carol Off, and David Suzuki.

In Drainie’s fine tradition, Mack Furlong is an acclaimed and passionate performer. Billed as Newfoundland’s “cultural magazine,” Mack starred on the CBC Radio comedy The Great Eastern from 1994 to 1999.

Ed Riche, one of the writers on the show, says “Mack is one the true masters of the radio medium. He’s precisely what the Drainie Award celebrates. I cannot think of a more worthy recipient.”

Mack played Paul Moth on The Great Eastern - the fictional broadcaster whose hearty introductions and stories were performed in a cinéma vérité style within an audio format. Mack is an actor, writer and musician with credits including Rare Birds and Crackie.

His beloved character Moth resurfaced for the radio show Sunny Days and Nights in 2004. Mack is a regular on the CBC Radio talk show, “Crosstalk,”. and has hosted and produced the CBC Radio program Weekend Arts Magazine off and on since the early 1990s.

This award is far from his first: others include a CBC Radio Award for Programming Excellence and a Writers Guild of Canada Award for The Great Eastern.

Ferne Downey, ACTRA National President, will be presenting Mack with the award at a reception at the LSPU Hall during the St. John’s International Women’s Film Festival on Wednesday, October 15, 2014 from 4:30 to 6:30 p.m.