Tyler Bieber, 29, and Brody Hinz, 18, on Apr. 6, near Tisdale, SK. Tyler Bieber joined Golden West Broadcasting in his hometown of Humboldt in 2015. This was his first season as the play-by-play voice for Humboldt Broncos broadcasts on 107.5 Bolt FM (CHBO-FM). Accomplished for an amateur sports journalist with no formal training, Bieber was also a contributor to CFL.ca and ran his own website over the years – cfldaily.ca and @CFLDaily on Twitter.
A passionate volunteer, he was also vice-president of the Humboldt touch football league, involved in Big Brothers Big Sisters as a mentor and gave his time as a local basketball and football coach. Aspiring radio assistant, Brody Hinz, 18, who had recently joined Golden West and was being mentored by Bieber, acted as statistician and colour commentator for the team. Both were traveling with the Broncos on Apr. 6 en route to Nipawin and were among 15 people killed in the tragedy.
Jim Nielsen, 79, on Apr. 4 in New Westminster, BC. Nielsen’s broadcasting career started as a staff announcer at CJVI Victoria in 1959. A year later, he joined CJOR Vancouver reading mornings news with stints to follow as a talk show host and news director at CFUN Vancouver and CFAX Victoria. In 1975, he was elected as the MLA for Richmond and won two successive elections, serving as Minister of the Environment, Minister of Consumer & Corporate Affairs, Minister of Health, Minister of Social Services and Chairman of the Workers’ Compensation Board of BC. Following his political career, he was a public speaker, newspaper columnist and eventually returned to talk radio at CKST Vancouver. He spent his later years living in Langley.
Ray Renning, 82, on Mar. 28 in Maple Ridge, BC. Renning was CBC Vancouver’s senior electronics maintenance technician for many years. He eventually started his own electronics/television design company and was also a video electronics design engineer for Viscount Video Systems.
Christopher Cunnington, 42, on Mar. 23. After graduating from the Journalism program at BCIT, Cunnington worked with CKVU-TV, CTV Vancouver and News 1130 (CKWX-AM). In 2016, he suffered a devastating stroke which he never fully recovered from.
