Julio Pastora, 41, on Nov. 19. Pastora started his broadcasting career with CKNW-AM Vancouver in 2000, while still a student in the Journalism, Radio, and Television Broadcasting program at BCIT. He worked as a producer on The Bill Good Show, Moneytalks, The Agenda, The World Today and Nightline BC, among other programs. After getting caught up in the 2006 wave of layoffs at Corus Vancouver, he moved over to Global BC where he served as a news producer, working for both Global National and the affiliate newscasts. Since late 2015, Pastora had been working for the BC government as an events coordinator and most recently as an online content editor. With a keen interest in public service, he worked on several election campaigns at the local, provincial and federal levels, in addition to time with the Premier’s Office and the Ministry of International Trade.
Michel Pepin, 57, on Nov. 19 of pancreatic cancer. The son of Quebec trade unionist Marcel Pepin, Michel Pepin began his career as a journalist on community television and radio in Amqui, in the Bas-Saint-Laurent, in 1983. He made a two-year detour to serve as political attaché to Federal Min. Monique Vézina, before returning to Radio-Canada television and regional radio in Ottawa from 1988 until 2000. He also taught journalism at La Cité College. From 2000 to 2010, he worked as a journalist and radio host at Radio-Canada Montreal, before moving to the National Assembly as a political analyst and parliamentary correspondent. Pepin was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer in Oct. 2015.
Randy Tieman, 64, unexpectedly on Nov. 16. Tieman had a 34-year career with CTV Montreal, up until this past June, when he was part of layoffs at Bell Media that saw the CFCF-TV sports department eliminated. Hailing from the small town of Exeter, ON, Tieman started his radio career at CKY Radio and TV in Winnipeg after attending Fanshawe College, going on to work with CFGO-AM Ottawa and then CJOH-TV. He landed at CFCF Radio in Montreal in 1983. After moving over to the television side, he served as sports director for both the Ottawa and Montreal stations. He also hosted a radio show on Team 990 (now TSN 690) between 2009 and 2012. Tieman had previously cheated death three times, surviving a quintuple bypass, Stage 4 Hodgkin’s lymphoma and meningitis within an 18-month period in the mid-1990s. The Montreal Canadiens paid tribute to Tieman during Monday night’s game, with photos of the broadcaster shown on the jumbo screen during the first period of play.
George Jonescu, 84, on Nov. 16. Jonescu had a nearly 70-year career in broadcasting between stations in Montreal, Sault Ste. Marie, Barrie and Toronto, spending 25 years on CJIC-AM Sault Ste. Marie. Lloyd Walton, who was in the art department at CJIC-TV during Jonescu’s time there recalls “CJIC Radio and TV personalities were regarded as “stars” in the community, and George was a star. He exuded a love and knowledge of the music he presented and when assigned news or sports commentary for both radio and television, he was authoritative. He had a passion for the music he played. He’d be in intense debates about the merits of various musicians and styles which made for entertaining and informative radio.” Jonescu took a break from radio in the late 1970s to work for the Sault Ste. Marie convention bureau before eventually returning to the medium. A lover of jazz, he hosted Big Band Saturday Night on CHAY 93.1 FM Barrie, going on to be part of the original team that launched AM 740 (CFZM-AM) on Jan. 8, 2001. He wrapped up his career as the host of Big Band Sunday Night on Zoomer Radio. His final show, which had been pre-recorded three days earlier, ran on Sunday, Nov. 18. Jonescu was also community-minded and gave his time to a number of charitable causes including mental health. Read Art Osborne’s tribute here.
Rick Meaney, 71, on Nov. 15. Meaney graduated from Loyola College with a Bachelor of Commerce in Economics in 1970, and worked at BP Oil and Revenue Canada before moving to Calgary and starting Country 105 with R.E. Redmond. The station signed on in July 1982 and was sold to Shaw in 1997, and assumed by Corus Entertainment two years later. Meaney was the station’s general manager for over 18 years and in his final two years in broadcasting was GM for Corus Radio Calgary, overseeing Country 105 (CKRY-FM), CHQR 770 and The Peak 107.1 (CFGQ-FM). After retiring from the radio business, Meaney and his wife spent much of their time in Arizona.
Bob MacDonald, 69, on Nov. 4. MacDonald’s on-air career began at CJIC-AM Sault Ste. Marie delivering news and weather. He brought his talents to Thunder Bay in 1977, where he became an announcer with 580 CKPR. He also spent several years delivering the weather on the local television news, where he was known for both his humour and dexterity, able to write temperatures on the weather board with both hands as he delivered the nightly forecast. MacDonald devoted much of his time to local charities over the years, including the Cystic Fibrosis Telethon and Easter Seals.
Fred Napoli, 82, on Nov. 9, in Nova Scotia. Napoli’s rich baritone voice was first heard in 1960 on CJOY Guelph, with his career taking him to CHML Hamilton, and then Toronto stations CBC, CKFM and CFRB, including a three-month stop at CHOW Welland along the way in 1962. While at CHML, he hosted the station’s Nightcap program, including a series called “Journey to the Unexplained.” While hosting the overnight show “Music Till Dawn” at CKFM, he began to include his own poems and short stories that would become the hallmark of his career. After a brief stint at CBC, he returned to CKFM in 1979 to host late-night, 90-minute talk show Toronto Tonight, then bounced back to the public broadcaster in 1981. Napoli joined CFRB in 1986 and built a strong late-night following, up until 1993 when the station flipped to the Newstalk 1010 format. In addition to his work on radio, Napoli voiced more than 400 documentaries, many for TV Ontario and the National Film Board. His autobiographical book of essays “Re-Inventing Myself” was first published in 1988 and had three printings. He continued working on projects from commercials to narrating History Channel series “Nazi Hunters.” Napoli also composed his own music on his restored 1883 Mason & Risch piano which he rescued in parts from Hamilton’s Grand Opera House before it was demolished in 1961.
Jeffrey Fry, 92, on Nov. 6. Born in Westcliff-on-Sea in southeast England, Fry grew up during World War II where as a school child he was evacuated during ‘The Blitz’ and relocated to several locations in England and Wales. After enlisting, he moved to Bermuda in the mid-1950s where he worked as a journalist for the Royal Gazette. It was in Bermuda that he met his Canadian wife who brought Fry to Oshawa, ON in 1958. He briefly worked at the Oshawa Times before moving on to the CBC newsroom. He was recruited in 1960 to join new TV station CFTO as a journalist which later expanded into CTV where he became the first producer of W5. For a short period of time, Fry served as a producer for the National News and then became associate producer of new consumer lifestyle show ‘Live It Up,’ assisting with its successful launch.
Dan Tohill, on Oct. 27. Tohill was a key grip on The Beachcombers for many years, in addition to working as a studio production assistant at CBC Vancouver. He also worked as an assistant director and actor, known for Harsh Realm (1999), Past Perfect (1996) and Abducted II: The Reunion (1995).
Bob Hooper, 79, suddenly on Oct. 17. Hooper worked for over 40 years at CHML Hamilton, starting in 1961. During those four decades, he was the voice of early morning news, hosted talk shows, produced music shows, and eventually served as the station’s vice-president. For several years he worked on the station’s Hamilton Tiger Cat’s broadcasts as a statistician and producer, eventually becoming the play-by-play voice for the last four years of his career before retiring in 2001. He later served as the team’s media relations director for two seasons, up until 2004.
Myrtle Fowler Gallup, 97, on Oct. 31 at Sunnybrook Veterans’ Residence in Toronto. Born in Quebec’s Eastern Townships, Fowler Gallup attended McGill’s Faculty of Education and taught in a rural school in Danville, QC until the call of WWII enticed her to join the RCAF. At war’s end, she married Merrick Gallup, and started a family on their farm in Danville. Her love of writing led to book reviews and columns in the Sherbrooke Daily Record which caught the attention of CBC Radio Montreal where she was hired to do live broadcasts on Radio Noon, reporting on the challenges and pleasures of rural life, including live reports from Expo ‘67. In her late 50s, she wrote and published two children’s books and a short story collection, one of which was featured on Peter Gzowski’s radio show and included in his book “About this Country in the Morning.” In her 70s, she became an accomplished oil and watercolour artist, with successful exhibitions in Quebec and Ottawa, including at the opening vernissage of the Bombardier Museum. She moved to Toronto in her 80s and lived at the Performing Arts Lodge among her fellow artists and writers.
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