Tom Armour, 79, on Dec. 7. Armour began his radio career in 1959 at CJQC Quebec City, then moved to CJSS in Cornwall, ON. He returned to Montreal in the early 1960s to work at CFCF Radio, and later CJAD, remaining a staple in the Montreal market for the next five decades. According to Armour’s obituary “Attempts to lure him to television news were graciously, but consistently declined. Tom loved radio and said that was where he wanted to be.” He retired from CJAD in 2015, as the weekend morning anchor.
Lyman Potts, 102, on Dec. 9. Potts career in radio started while he was still in high school as an announcer with CHWC in 1935, which shared frequency with CKCK Regina. In 1940, he transferred to the company’s Hamilton station, CKOC, as production manager. He moved on to CKSL London in 1956 to manage its launch, then helped CJAD Montreal owner Arthur Dupont apply for a TV licence. He was later appointed general manager of CJAD’s sister station CJFM-FM, which he helped put on the air in Oct. 1962. Potts eventually worked his way up to become president of Standard subsidiary Standard Broadcast Productions, an umbrella for Standard Broadcast News, program syndication, and music publishing. From 1970-74, he was president of Standard Broadcasting Corp. (UK), a consultancy for applicants for commercial radio licenses. He retired from broadcasting in 1981 and formed J. Lyman Potts and Associates, a consultancy for broadcasting, recording, music services and copyright. In 1962, he convinced the Board of Broadcast Governors (BBG), which had taken over the regulation of programming from the CBC, that a station’s support of Canadian talent should be assessed on the amount of Canadian content used in its programs, and that money expended by a station to produce Canadian music programming, whether live or recorded, should be credited by the BBG in analyzing a station’s performance. Potts went on to create the Canadian Talent Library, a non–profit trust supporting Canadian recording, that was eventually merged with FACTOR. By 1985, it had produced 265 albums containing 3,000 performances by Canadian musicians and singers. Potts was named a Member of the Order of Canada in 1978, inducted into the Canadian Music Hall of Fame in 1976 and to the CAB Broadcast Hall of Fame in 1987. He also inspired the formation of the Central Canada Broadcast Engineers Association in 1953 , an idea which spread to other regions, and was a founding member of the Canadian Communications Foundation, serving as its vice-president From 1994 to 2004.
Not A Subscriber? Subscribe Now – Free!
Broadcast Dialogue has been required reading in the Canadian broadcast media for 25 years. When you subscribe, you join a community of connected professionals from media and broadcast related sectors from across the country.
The Weekly Briefing from Broadcast Dialogue is delivered exclusively to subscribers by email every Thursday. It’s your link to critical industry news, timely people moves, and excellent career advancement opportunities.
Let’s get started right now.
