Radio Active

Radio Active was a Canadian TV show that aired from 1998 - 2001, based on Quebec French series Radio Enfer. The premise was simple: a group of students at Upper Redwood High School manage and run their own school radio station, entitled Radio Active. Chaos frequently ensued as the group worked to avoid and undermine the sneaky teacher-supervisor Ms. Noelle Atoll, who always believes (usually rightly) that they're up to something.

The original cast of characters consisted of students George S. Goodwin III, Tanya Panda, Morgan Leigh, Kevin Calvin and Ethan St. John. In 1999, Kevin and Ethan were replaced by Blair Resnicky and Roger Richards, who remained for the remainder of the show. The students were joined by supervisor Ms. Atoll and incompetent vice principal Mr. Noseworthy, and occasionally joined by Morgan's annoying younger sister, Sarah.

Not to be confused with the British radio show of the same name, nor with actual radioactivity.


 * Annoying Younger Sibling: Sarah, to Morgan.
 * Belligerent Sexual Tension: Morgan and Kevin. To a lesser extent, later, Morgan and Blair.
 * Bottle Episode: Every single one. This series was made on the cheap. In the entire first season, only the eight regulars appeared, very literally; there were no other people in the entire school. Even then, one or more of them was often missing. The producers decided to splurge on a few token extras in later seasons, but it did little to hide the "budget" feeling.
 * Catch Phrase: "I remember when I was your age..." by Mr. Noseworthy.
 * Cloudcuckoolander: George Goodwin.
 * Double Standard Abuse (Female on Male): Zig Zagged in the episode where Blair had a female bully. While a lot of her bullying was played for laughs, the other members of Radio Active were genuinely horrified and supportive of Blair.
 * Earpiece Conversation: There's an episode wherein Kevin is being coached through an oral exam by a hidden microphone with Morgan on the other end.
 * Executive Meddling: In-universe. The school hosting the Struggling Broadcaster leaves the broadcast open to incessant meddling by the school administration.
 * Hey, It's That Voice!: Michael Yarmush, who plays Ethan, is much better known as a voice actor. He had a very successful career playing young boy characters, most famously the first Arthur.
 * High School: Obviously.
 * High School Dance: At least twice. Neither dance is actually shown, but the preparation of each of the main characters is.
 * In one case, the center of the episode is the group finding dates, with Morgan teaching her younger sister that the best way to convince a guy to go with you is to tell him you don't want to go, and her master plan to go with the captain of the football team is to... tell him she's going with Kevin.
 * The later episode was focused on how everything was going wrong in the planning (Morgan has a huge zit, Tanya can't decide how to do her hair, and so on), until Roger saves the day at the last minute that the new theme is "everyone has flaws".
 * I Am Spartacus: In one episode, a mysterious "DJ X" has been broadcasting messages that Ms. Atoll doesn't approve of, using voice distortion to conceal their identity. When Ms. Atoll finally simply gathers all the crew together and insists they tell her who DJ X is, or face punishment, they all, one by one, claim to be DJ X... except Roger, who is punished for it.
 * Is This Thing Still On?: One episode involves Morgan accidentally playing herself singing along on the radio, and becoming a hit. As a result, each of the others makes an attempt to get some skill of theirs known by trying to fake up having done the same thing, and the student body quickly becomes sick of it.
 * Jerk Jock: Kevin, and later, Blair.
 * Literal Genie: Mr. Noseworthy was once hypnotized into falling in love with the first thing he saw. And then he was shown a chair.
 * Meaningful Name: Ms Atoll, the strict disciplinarian that no one likes.
 * Mistaken for Gay: Ethan (and George), by Kevin, after the latter found a love letter in his locker and Ethan unthinkingly confirms it's from him, as he thinks Kevin is talking about his application to join the hockey team. Leads to such lines as, "I thought you knew, I've wanted this for a long time." and "You won't be disappointed, I've been practicing with George". When George tells Kevin that he wrote the letter, Kevin panics, convinced that his new cologne is responsible for his sudden attractiveness to men. It turns out the letter really was written by George, but he hadn't intended to give it to Kevin.
 * Quote Mine: Roger is extolling the virtues of Mr. Noseworthy on the radio show. However, due to "technical difficulties", the sentence, "In his field, competence knows no equal!" is rendered as, "In...competence knows no equal."
 * The Rashomon: In one episode, Ms. Atoll flies off the handle because someone has defaced and damaged a CD. Morgan tries to find out what happened to cause a CD to get damaged, and so sets up an office and interviews the others. Everyone had a different report on what happened in the room, how everyone acted and what happened to the CD. The only constant in any of them is that George was reading a comic book, wearing a hat (which changes depending on who's telling it). George's retelling consists entirely of a shot of the comic book while the voices of the other cast members can be heard babbling incoherently in the background.
 * School Play: In one episode Ms. Atoll "suggests" that the main cast put on a radio play.
 * Spiritual Successor: The show Fries With That - same production company, same network (YTV still airs re-runs in pretty good timeslots), and one of the same leads. The acting and writing styles are virtually identical. To his credit though, the returning actor, who plays George in Radio Active, plays a very different character (more an Ethan/Roger type).
 * Suspiciously Similar Substitute: Kevin and Ethan were replaced by Blair and Roger, who had similar roles on the show.
 * Two-Teacher School: Lampshaded--Ms. Atoll and Mr. Noseworthy are the only teachers the students can name. (A few other teachers appeared, but never in more than one episode.)
 * When I Was Your Age: Mr. Noseworthy; see Catch Phrase.
 * Yet Another Christmas Carol: One episode in which the students plan to use this to convince Ms. Atoll not to give them homework over the holidays. It turns out to be All Just a Dream. (Or Was It a Dream?)