The show was noted particularly for Farr's irreverent and surreal humour. He billed himself as "Captain Radio"[2] and "The Prairie Groovemaster",[1] regularly claimed that his program was being "pirated by a prestigious New York-based show" which he never named, and made exaggerated claims about the size of his radio audience; the number increased each week throughout the show's run, and by the time the show ended in 1992, he was claiming to have two billion listeners worldwide.[3]
Guests were interviewed on offbeat topics, such as champion pumpkin growers,[2] doormen to royalty,[4] people reporting attacks by wild cows,[5] and inventors of new gadgets of varying usability. Ongoing stories included claimed attempts to locate the stolen brain of Albert Einstein and the missing Last Spike,[1] and coverage of the cancellation of Christmas because Santa Claus was on strike.[6]
Regular contributors to the show included Allan Fotheringham as a political commentator, Bill Casselman as a columnist on words and language, Danny Finkleman as a financial correspondent, Joy Fielding as a book reviewer, Mary Ambrose as a television critic, Peter Jordan as a "know-it-all", Stan Fischler as a hockey commentator,[7] and Jon Ljungberg (billed as Elvis Presley) as a travel and Olympics correspondent.[8] Impressionists Bob Robertson and Linda Cullen, who would later be given their own CBC Radio show as Double Exposure, got their start as contributors of comedic sketches to the program;[9] comedy musical group The Arrogant Worms also gained their first national exposure as contributors of comedic songs to The Radio Show.
In a column upon the show's cancellation, The Globe and Mail critic John Doyle lauded Farr's "haute hoser" aesthetic, singling out "dog-bark operas, dust-bunny sculptures and impassioned debates about whether curling is really a sport",[3] and called Farr "a sort of Peter Gzowski from hell" — which he meant as a compliment.[3] Debates on issues "of no consequence" were a recurring feature of the show; another famous debate was on the resolution that being green (in the environmental sense) "is pointless because it's too hard".[1]