Meet Jeanne Armstrong, the new host of Information Morning Fredericton

When Jeanne Armstrong got the call offering her the CBC radio job of host of Information Morning Fredericton, she was in an art gallery in Ottawa, looking at Rembrandts with her partner, Kevin Spencer.

She went outside to answer, and when she hung up, she told Spencer she couldn't go back in — she felt she needed to pace the streets in excitement and to celebrate.

"And he said, 'Why don't we just drive out there and explore the city that we're going to be moving to?'"

They were already on vacation, so that same night, they packed their bags and bikes in their car and about 15 hours later were in Fredericton.

They biked along the St. John River, went to Picaroons for beer and discovered some antique shops downtown.

"Honestly, it made me even more excited about taking on this role and meeting people in my new city," said the award-winning journalist, who is originally from Thornhill, Ont.

"I know how important the show is to listeners. It's where people go in the morning to figure out what the big issues are in their city and in their province. And I feel so much gratitude and privilege to take this opportunity on."

Armstrong is taking over from longtime host Terry Seguin, who retired this month.

She has worked in radio for more than 10 years and is currently a producer with CBC's As It Happens, based in Toronto.

A few months before graduating from Carleton University with a degree in journalism, she started working with Ottawa Morning, where she brought human-interest stories from  the Ottawa-Gatineau region to local CBC listeners.

"I have always loved the intimacy of radio," she said in an interview Thursday. "There's no other medium where you could be driving your car, sitting in your driveway, not being able to turn it off until you hear the rest of the story.

"It's the driveway effect. That's what radio does."

In 2020, Armstrong won the Ron Laidlaw RTDNA Award for As It Happens' coverage of women fleeing Saudi Arabia for safety and moving to Canada.

Armstrong's first day in the CBC Fredericton office will be Aug. 30 and she will start hosting in  mid-September.

One of the things she's most excited about as the next Information Morning host is meeting new people every day.

"I'm going to be out in the community exploring new places. I'm going to be telling people things about their city and neighbourhoods that maybe they didn't realize or perspectives they hadn't considered."

Taking the show on the road is part of her plan.

"I'm also just excited to — this is a small thing, but — to know what all the fuss is about fiddleheads."