Longtime CBC Sports commentator and CBC Vancouver morning show host Rick Cluff has passed away. He was 74.
Cluff followed his father Harold into broadcasting against the advice of the CFRB and Air Force Radio performer, initially testing the waters in campus radio at Seneca College and Western University.
“I remember when I was going to college, I started on student radio, and he said, ‘If I can give you any advice, it’s this: don’t go into radio. And for God’s sake, never work for the CBC,'” Cluff recalled in a 2016 interview. “I said, ‘Why not?’ He said, ‘Because the CBC is full of left-wing communists. And radio is a dead-end career.'”
After obtaining a Journalism degree from Carleton University, Cluff went on to a 41-year career with the public broadcaster, starting as a reporter and commentator with CBC Sports in Toronto, covering a variety of events including the CFL, NFL, MLB, NHL, PGA and LPGA, eight Olympic Games and five Commonwealth Games.
Rick Cluff signing off for the (second) last time from @CBCEarlyEdition 📻 #RickCluffpenultimate pic.twitter.com/An5dXE4Mvk
— Farrah Merali (@FarrahMerali) December 21, 2017
Cluff made the move to Vancouver in 1997, hosting CBC Radio’s Early Edition for another 20 years. After retiring from the public broadcaster at the end of 2017, he briefly hosted a show for online platform, Orca.ca. More recently, he’d been consulting and coaching under the banner of his own media consultancy Countdown Communications.
He was inducted into the Canadian Football League Hall of Fame in 1999 and received a Lifetime Achievement Award from RTDNA Canada in 2018.
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