Keven Drews, 45, on May 2, after a 15-year fight with multiple myeloma. Before joining the Vancouver bureau of the Canadian Press in 2011, Drews worked at Vancouver Island community newspapers the Tofino-Ucluelet Westerly News, Alberni Valley Times and Nanaimo Daily News, eventually starting his own online news outlet, The Westcoaster, which built a reputation for breaking stories. Drews was diagnosed with multiple myeloma in 2003 and underwent a stem cell transplant as well as multiple rounds of radiation and chemotherapy. Through those treatments, he continued to report and completed an MFA in creative non-fiction at Pacific Lutheran University in Tacoma, Washington.
Liz Hughes, 67, on May 4, of complications due to breast cancer. Hailing from the small, rural town of Ormstown, Quebec, Hughes moved west at 19 and started working as a print reporter, first in Campbell River and then Victoria, before she was recruited by CBC Vancouver. Hughes played an instrumental role in helping bring shows like Canada Now to life and acted as executive producer on current affairs programs Pacific Report and Monitor. One of the first internal consultants at the CBC, she was involved in helping implement mobile first strategy at the public broadcaster before her retirement in 2014. After retirement, Hughes served as a board member with Farm Radio International, a non-profit that works to deliver radio to Africa.
Wayne J. McLean, 73, on Apr. 30. McLean was just 15 when he started broadcasting to anyone who would listen from atop the A & W drive-in in Windsor-Walkerville using a homemade transmitter. He started operating the Sunday ethnic programs on CJSP Leamington and worked on-air for a year at CFOS Owen Sound, before returning to CJSP as an afternoon jock. He went on to make a name for himself, mostly in talk radio, at stations including CFPL London, CFRB Toronto, CKWW and AM 800 (CKLW-AM) Windsor, among others in Sarnia, Ottawa, Kitchener and Hamilton. Few of his radio fans knew that McLean was also an ordained Baptist minister. With his wife Sandra, he formed The Gospel Meeting, which operated in Windsor from 1972-77. McLean applied all of the principles of Top 40 radio to produce Sunday School sessions that attracted school buses full of young people to each gathering. He went on to take his talk show skills with him to a cable TV program in Kitchener. He also taught Communications at the University of Windsor and Film Studies at Walkerville Collegiate and Windsor Library. In the final 10 years of his life, he operated a global film script consultancy with clients all over the world.
