Ron Pumphrey, 87, on Jan. 8. The broadcaster, author and former St. John’s, NL city councillor was the longtime host of Open Line and Nightline on VOCM St. John’s. Known for fighting for the listener, he briefly changed the name of VOCM Open Line to VOCM Action Line, in an effort to make decision makers more accountable. Over the years, Pumphrey wrote three autobiographies and released three spoken-word albums, including How To Be Happy And Avoid A Nervous Breakdown, From The Voice Of The Common Man and Ha! So You Sleep On Your Belly, Eh, Baby? His last book, The Events Leading Up to My Death, was published in 2010.
Jim Taylor, 82, on Jan. 7. Taylor wrote more than 7,500 sports columns and 15 books over a six-decade career. Best known for his sports coverage for the Victoria Times Colonist, Vancouver Sun and Vancouver Province, in addition to a nationally-syndicated column for the Calgary Sun, Taylor also dabbled in broadcasting. He served as a commentator for CKWX-AM and CBC TV Vancouver in the 1980s and later was a regular contributor on the Frosty Forst morning show on CKNW-AM Vancouver. He retired in 2001. Taylor was inducted into the B.C. Sports Hall of Fame in 2005, the CFL Hall of Fame, and received the Bruce Hutchison Lifetime Achievement Award from the Jack Webster Foundation in 2010. He was also the recipient of a lifetime achievement award from Sports Media Canada.
Len Chapple, 96, Jan. 2. Chapple began his broadcasting career at CKMO Vancouver shortly before the start of WWII, during which he served in the Royal Canadian Air Force. He eventually became an executive producer at CBC Vancouver which afforded him the opportunity to travel for the network, working on the Olympic Games in Mexico City, Munich, Montreal, and Calgary; the first World Masters Games in Toronto and the Goodwill Games in Seattle. In 1978, he led CBC as host broadcaster for the Commonwealth Games in Edmonton. Chapple retired to Victoria in 1990.
Adrian Graham, 66, suddenly on Jan. 1. Graham started his career in the early 1970s at CHCM AM 740 Marystown, an affiliate station of VOCM St. John’s. For many years he hosted the CHCM Morning Show. In the early 1980s, he moved over to VOCM as an announcer. Graham retired in the early 2000s after a more than 30-years in broadcasting. Donations in Adrian’s memory can be made to the Heart and Stroke Foundation.
Ken Condon, 61, on Dec. 30. Condon was a radio engineer, working for various radio stations throughout Atlantic Canada, including CJCH and C100 (CIOO-FM) Halifax, and AVR (CKEN-FM) Kentville, NS.
Stuart Adam, 79, on Dec. 26, of complications from a brain tumour. Adam arrived at Carleton University in 1959 from Toronto and by his final year was editor of the campus newspaper. Upon graduation he spent three years with the Toronto Star as a reporter and desk editor, before returning to Carleton to pursue his M.A. in Canadian Studies and then went on to doctoral work in Political Studies at Queen’s. While still a doctoral student, he began to teach in what was then the School of Journalism at Carleton, and in 1971 joined the faculty as an assistant professor. Two years later, he became the school’s director and served in the role for another 14 years. Along with his teaching and research, Adam continued to work as a journalist, notably as consultant and producer on 10-part CBC documentary series Lawyers; editorial director on Patrick Watson’s CBC series The Struggle for Democracy, and production consultant on CBC documentary “Rights and Freedoms.” In 1987, he took up a two-year post at the University of Western Ontario, where he was Visiting Professor and Chair of the Centre for Mass Media Studies. Shortly after his return to Carleton, he became Dean of the Faculty of Arts and later Provost and Vice-President (Academic). He retired in 2004 and took up a position as Visiting Professor at the Poynter Institute for Media Studies in Florida, but inevitably returned to Canada and Carleton. He kept an office in the School of Journalism and Communication until Parkinson’s disease made that no longer possible. In 2015, Nik Nanos, Chair of the university’s Board of Governors, spearheaded the creation of the G. Stuart Adam Graduate Award in Journalism.
Michael Maclear, 89, on Dec. 25. Originally hailing from the UK, Maclear moved to Canada in 1954 and joined the CBC a year later. During his tenure with the public broadcaster, he travelled to more than 80 countries as a foreign correspondent covering the Cuban revolution, the Soviet invasion of Czechoslovakia, and the Cultural Revolution in China, among other big stories of the day. Maclear made several wartime visits to North Vietnam between 1969 and 1972 for CBC and later for CTV, the first western TV correspondent granted permission to travel to the North. In 1963, as CBC’s Far East correspondent based in Japan, he married Yoko (Mariko) Koide, a news researcher whose contacts with newsfilm agency Nihon Denpa News and its Hanoi bureau made a series of exclusive reports possible that also aired on CBS, NBC and were syndicated by The New York Times. Maclear subsequently independently produced 13-hour television history “Vietnam: The 10,000 Day War,” in 1980. He earned an ACTRA Award for Best Broadcaster, three Gemini Awards and was honoured by the Canadian Film and Television Producers Association with a Personal Achievement Award. In 2004, he received the Outstanding Achievement Award at Toronto’s Hot Docs Festival. He was made an Officer of the Order of Canada in 2008.
Bert Luciani, 89, on Dec. 22. The Sault Ste. Marie broadcast veteran worked in television for nearly 40 years, holding positions with Hyland Radio and TV and Maclean Hunter Cable TV. Over the years, Luciani held behind-the-scenes roles from operating a camera to studio set-up. He worked on programs like Lionel McAuley’s Personalities in the News, public affairs and supper hour news broadcasts, and remote broadcasts including Queen Elizabeth II’s 1959 visit to Sault Ste. Marie. Luciani later served as operations manager with Lake Superior Cablevision, where he trained camera operators, directors, and editors.
Bob Service, 84, on Dec. 14. Service had a lifelong love of radio, with his first radio show at age 14. He eventually became a broadcast engineer and helped launch CHQM AM 1320 Vancouver in 1959. He went on to a 35-year career at CBC-TV. Service was also an avid ham radio operator.
Neil Arnold, 74, on Dec. 12. Arnold, whose real name was Neil Waldman, was a longtime news anchor in the Vancouver market. He started at CFUN Vancouver in the mid-1970s, moving on to CJOR Vancouver and then CKWX in the early 1980s. He later anchored for CKO-FM-4 Vancouver.
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