Tayler Parnaby, a 50-year broadcaster who led the CKO (Canada All-News Network), before becoming a staple on Toronto’s CFRB, passed away on Monday. He was 83.
Parnaby’s interest in radio started early. Growing up in Orillia, one of the stops along his paper route was local radio station CFOR. Soon, Parnaby was stopping in with regularity to observe the morning show, which eventually led to a part-time job helping with the show’s production before school.
After going on to attend both Queens and Carleton University in the 1960s, Parnaby opted not to graduate from either in favour of pursuing a journalism career. After a stint at CFOR, he became the news director at CKLC Kingston, followed by CHUM where he worked under former Toronto Star editor Bill Drylie and whom he and wife Lynda named their first born after. From there, he went to Ottawa to serve as Bureau Chief for the Newsradio network, before returning to Toronto as Editor-in-Chief at CKEY and President of Newsradio. He joined the fledgling CKO radio network in 1981, holding roles from President to Editor-in-Chief over the next eight years.
At Allan Slaight’s insistence, he went on to join CFRB, inheriting Gordon Sinclair’s 11:50 a.m. news broadcast and commentary, and reporting, working out of Queen’s Park for the last decade of his career. After 23 years with the station, he was among those caught up in a round of cuts at Astral Media in 2009. At age 67, he had been CFRB’s chief correspondent since 1988, having semi-retired 18 months earlier.
In retirement, he continued as a community columnist with the Caledon Enterprise. After 20 years and 724 columns, he penned his last column in November 2022 after surviving a battle with both COVID-19 and pneumonia, quipping Canadian broadcaster Pierre Berton that for every journalist, the moment arrives when you’re “written out.” He ended that column the same way he ended countless newscasts, “Take care and … thank you for your time.”
Broadcast veteran Erin Davis worked alongside Parnaby at CKO, where he became a good friend and introduced Davis to her husband.
“I can tell you from the heart that without ‘Hap’ (as everyone knew him – a nickname bestowed upon him by his grandfather) there would be no Erin Davis and certainly no 37-year marriage to Rob Whitehead, who knew Hap long before I did and through whom we met and married,” Davis told Broadcast Dialogue. “Tayler spoke at our wedding, was a good friend to us and countless more, and lived and breathed news and truth in broadcasting.”
Over the years, Parnaby was recognized with industry accolades including the RTNDA Canada (Radio Television News Directors Association) President’s Award, multiple Canadian Association of Broadcasters (CAB) Gold Medals, and three Edward R. Murrow awards. In 2011, he was inducted into the Caledon Walk of Fame, and in 2012, was named to the Orillia Hall of Fame.
