Toronto Mike'd: The Official Toronto Mike Podcast - Lloyd Robertson: Toronto Mike'd #1194

Episode Date: January 27, 2023

In this 1194th episode of Toronto Mike'd, Mike chats with Lloyd Robertson about his career in broadcasting, hosting The National at CBC and leaving for the competition, anchoring the CTV National News. We also talked about Ian Tyson, Terry Fox, Dave Hodge's pen flip, the dismissal of Lisa LaFlamme, Joe Flaherty's portrayal of Floyd Robertson, his relationship with Peter Mansbridge, and much, much more. Toronto Mike'd is proudly brought to you by Great Lakes Brewery, Palma Pasta, Canna Cabana, Ridley Funeral Home and Electronic Products Recycling Association.

Welcome to episode 1194 of Toronto Mic'd. Proudly brought to you by Great Lakes Brewery, a fiercely independent craft brewery who believes in supporting communities, good times, and brewing amazing beer. Order online for free local home delivery in the GTA. Palma Pasta. Enjoy the taste of fresh, homemade Italian pasta and entrees for free local home delivery in the GTA. Palma Pasta. Enjoy the taste of fresh,

homemade Italian pasta and entrees from Palma Pasta in Mississauga and Oakville. Electronic Products Recycling Association. Committing to our planet's future means properly recycling our electronics of the past. Ridley Funeral Home. Pillars of the community since 1921. Canna Cabana. The lowest prices on cannabis, guaranteed.

Learn more at cannacabana.com. And Sammy Cone Real Estate. Ask Sammy any real estate questions at Sammy.Cone, K-O-H-N, at properlyhomes.ca. Joining me today, making his Toronto mic debut, is Lloyd Robertson.

Hello, Lloyd. Hi, Mike. How you doing? Hello there. We can hear each other. Nice to meet you. Nice to meet you. Thank you very much. My goodness, you've interviewed

everybody on Earth, it seems. Well, it took me... Currently alive. It took me 1,194 episodes to get to Lloyd Robertson. Well, I guess I'm honored to be on the list anyway.

To be honest, I was probably intimidated by your legendary status. I probably felt like I needed to wait a thousand episodes to get half decent at this. Come on, Mike. I was thinking, my friend, by the way, welcome to Toronto, Mike. It's an absolute pleasure. Thank you very much. Lloyd Bridges, Lloyd Mosby, Lloyd Robertson, you're one of the great Lloyds.

Thank you. In esteemed company there. Happy belated 89th birthday, by the way. Happy birthday to you. Thank you very much. Yes, 89, that's incredible. As somebody said to me the other day, what you've got to remember is that you're now in your 90th year.

And I said, can we hold off on that? Can I forget that for a bit, please? But you look great. I'm on a Zoom with you right now. I wish you were here, but I know that's not always logistically possible. And you look fantastic, Lloyd. What's your secret? I have no secrets. I worked hard all my life from the time i

was 18 years old and uh just did what i loved which i think probably was one of the secrets because i found my bliss very early in broadcasting i knew what i wanted to get into and i got into it and i lived that life and I was doing things and I'm still doing a few things right up until the present time. Well I want to go back in fact I want to go all the way back to Stratford but just a couple of notes that came in I let the FOTMs that means friends of Toronto Mike Lloyd you're now an FOT. Hi, FOTM. So I got a bunch of lovely notes. I'll just shout out a few people. David says he's missing

you. He misses you on his TV. Jackie Delaney loves you. Oh, I know Jackie. Hi, Jackie. She says she loves you. And Colleen Christie says she had the honour of being your colleague and says you're a class act. Oh, hello, Colleen. So she had the honor of being your colleague and says you're a class act. Oh, hello, Colleen.

So nice to know that you're still there. Good. And Sparky, this is a great way to start before we go back to 1952. But Sparky wants to know, what have you been up to? He wants to know what's Lloyd Robertson's life been like since he retired from CTV National News? since life been like since uh he retired from ctv national news well uh first of all when i retired from ctv national news i went right on to uh fulton w5 which was really kind of part-time when i compared it to the five-day a week treadmill that i was on with the national news but um i got to do longer form journalism items and i very much enjoyed that. And I did that for five years, from 2011

until 2016, 2017. And then I continued as what they call a special correspondent, and that means they can call on me for a bit of this, a bit of that, from time to time. Since then, I've been on panels with elections. I have done a few other kinds of things for various CTV outlets across the country. Most recently, I was on the air during the Christmas period when Ian Tyson died.

I had done a documentary on Ian Tyson for W5. They called me and said, would you come on the air and talk about him? I went on and talked about him on the news channel for a period of time and uh i was clipped as they called it for the national news that is there's a little segment of the national news that night and then they took the news channel portion and they edited it down for the next day and they ran a longer piece on that because he was quite, you know,

he was a legend in Canada, of course. I mean, he was right up there with the greats. And I had the privilege of interviewing him out at his ranch and I got to the place, the little house where he wrote his songs on the prairie in Alberta and that's where he wanted to live. That's where he wanted to live and die in his last years, and I consider that a great

honor to have been able to spend that time with a great guy, and of course, we're both riders. I mean, I was a rider, horseback rider for a number of years with my pal Craig Oliver up there on the ranches in Alberta. So we had that in common, and we had a great time together. Yeah, great loss for the world, but for this country particularly. Four Strong Winds is sort of a Canadian anthem of sorts. Yes, and he told me about that. He said, you know, we made a mistake when we were doing that

originally on the original recording. And I liked the way it sounded, so we kept it in. And I think it contributed to the success of the song. And many people, of course, recorded it and went on to make it quite famous.

One of the major hits of all time. I love the Neil Young cover. I mean, I do like the Ian and Sylvia version, but that Neil Young cover, that's my go-to when it comes to Four Strong Winds. Well, he claimed that Neil Young was the one who really made that song as popular as it ultimately became, the Neil Young

cover. And then Neil Young himself, of course. And he also told me that he was the guy who got the Beatles on the pot. Now, this was a legend, and I asked him about that. This was a legendary comment that he had made many years before I talked to him, and he said, well, you know, I may have. He didn't really want to talk about that, but it was funny,

and I don't know whether it was actually true but as i say it's out there in the in the maze and it's something that i put to him and he kind of acknowledged it but didn't really go on to talk about it much well you know lloyd sometimes you need to print the legend right yeah can we do you mind going back uh on toronto mike do On Toronto Mic, we kind of go back and then we walk forward. But I wanted to go back to CJCS Radio, maybe even before that. What made you want to get into broadcasting, Lloyd? Well, my home life was kind of sheltered because my mother had very severe mental illness and I couldn't invite my

friends around to the house. My father was physically ill. I was born very late in life for the two of them. My father was 60 years old when I was born. So I listened to the radio a lot and I listened to those great shows of the time like the Fred Allen Show, Wayne and Schuster, shows of the time, like the Fred Allen Show, Wayne and Schuster, all of those kinds of things. And I listened to the end of the war. I remember the end of the war broadcast, World War II in 1945, the war in Europe. And then, of course, the end of the entire war later. And I was drawn to radio, but I was drawn to that world, which I think led me out of my own surroundings. So I think that was the first hint I had, that I was really interested in radio, the radio world. And then during the time the troops marched home from the war in Stratford, Ontario, where I was born and grew up, the Perth Regiment,

in Stratford, Ontario, where I was born and grew up, the Perth Regiment, I was standing with my friends under the broadcast stand that had been set up for CJCS. And I listened to the two broadcasters whose names I remember to this day, Ken Dugan and Ken Ellis. And I later worked with Ken Dugan at CBC in Ottawa. And he was amazed that I had remembered him from that day in Stratford all those years ago.

That was January of 1946. And then I started hanging around the local radio station. I just became a kind of a radio junkie. And as I said in the book I wrote, that while some kids, you know, their heroes were the great hockey players, mine were the local stars of the radio station. So I went up to the radio station and hung around up there to the point that I think I became a bit of a pest for some of the announcers who wanted to run downstairs for a beer. Because the radio station was just above the beer parlor of the Windsor Hotel in Stratford. So they would want to dash downstairs for a beer.

on Stratford. So they would want to dash downstairs for a beer and they didn't know whether the kid should see that or know about that if he had ambitions to get into radio. Some other guys wanted to bring their girlfriends up there on a Friday night or Saturday night and I'd be hanging around. So they finally asked the manager, could you get rid of this kid? We just don't like him hanging around all the time. So the manager came and talked to me and indeed said, come back in a few years, kid. So I did.

I was determined to get back to the radio station. So I was a friend of a young man by the name of Arthur Burt, who was the stepson of the owner of the radio station. So I got to know Art. I got an interview with the program director of the radio station. And he said, well, you seem as though you're really interested in this career, and I tell you what I'll And I would roll records for the other announcers during the busy commercial periods, specifically at noon and later in the afternoon.

And then when I was in my last year of high school, they allowed me to do one of the main shows of the day, Tops and Pops, which was four to five in the afternoon with all the top ten songs of the day and the top of the charts, no matter what they were. And I did that as my first broadcast on CJCS. And then later, when I finished high school, I managed to graduate even though I was hanging around the radio station a lot by then,

legitimately hanging around at that time. They said, well, you show some promise. We don't know, but we'll give you a try. So they put me on the air. And as luck would have it, two announcers quit at that time. This was 1952. And I think I must have filled both their slots because I was doing the morning show from 6.30 until 9.

I was doing the Stork Club, the arrival of the new babies in town at 11 o'clock. Then I did the noon run called Suggestions of Music, which included the radio news, the main newscast of the day at 12.30 read by Alex Smith, who was the program director who in fact had hired me for the station. And then on Saturdays it was my honor and he passed this along to me I was able to do the 1230

news which was not as much listened to on the weekend as it was during the week so he handed that one off to me and then I also did I came back at 5 o'clock I did Uncle Lloyd's Birthday Club and then I did the 630 edition of the local

news so that was my day which was kind of from 6 30 in the morning until 6 30 at night with a break in the afternoon of a couple of hours to pick records for the next day or sleep if i wanted to i guess i didn't get much of that but it was a lot of fun and I enjoyed every single minute of it and I enjoyed it all when I moved on to CJY Guelph and the CBC in Windsor I wanted to break into television I got that through the CBC in Winnipeg then Ottawa where I was introduced to the political culture of the country John Diefenbaker was the prime minister at the time, then Lester Pearson. And then I came to Toronto.

And Toronto, in Toronto, by the way, as a staff announcer, and there were about 30 of them on staff, I was right at the bottom. So I had to work my way up from the bottom because they said to you in Toronto, you know, okay, kid, you're now in the big time. We don't care what you've done. You've got to prove yourself here. So

that's what I had to do. And gradually I worked my way forward until I did the national news on the CBC from 1970 until 1976. Then I went to CTV, finished off there, and it was 41 years total doing national

news on CBC first and then CBB. So that was a distinct honor that I can carry with me being an anchor for both national networks and working on radio at CBC too. I really enjoyed that. Wow, Lloyd, we're definitely going to get there.

I actually have a nice note here from Mike Hannafin. He wants to know do you know, Lloyd, if your vintage Underwood typewriter from your early days at CJCS in Stratford had been saved? Because Mike writes in to say that he used it when he was working there in 1981 to 1984, and then later it got a display spot in the newsroom after the computers took over. So do you know anything about what happened to your Underwood typewriter from CJCS

in Stratford? I can tell you absolutely. It's right here in the den, over in the other corner, with a gold plate on it, because it was presented to me at an awards ceremony in Ottawa in 1996

when I received the gold-driven award from the Broadcast Society. And so I have it right here. Amazing. Apparently, it's the original typewriter. They saved it. I used to write commercials on that and some of the local news.

Unbelievable. That's Mike Hannafin. He's an FOTM. He's been on the radio here at cfrb and cfny etc but he's gonna be like tickled pink to learn that you have that typewriter that he was using in the early 80s but i have a question for you lloyd in 19 mike he's in vancouver now he's uh he'll be listening in from van city but in 1952 lloyd when you start on the radio and at cjcs did you have these pipes i'm hearing in from Van City, but in 1952, Lloyd, when you start on the radio at CJCS, did you have these pipes I'm hearing in my headphones right now?

I can't believe I'm listening to an 89-year-old man. You sound fantastic. Well, thank you, Mike. But I was blessed with a good voice right from the beginning. In fact, when I was in high school, the teacher got me to appear at a public speaking contest, and I won second prize on that. There were three of us who, you know, sort of gold, silver, bronze, so I guess I won the silver. But she said to me, the home teacher, homeroom teacher, said to me, you know, you have a great voice, Lloyd, but you should do something with it. Don't just be a

voice. So I want you to write something that you can do as a presentation to the senior class and for the other students in the school at the public speaking contest. So I wrote something about international public affairs because my father was very interested in politics and we talked a lot about politics and current affairs at the table in Stratford. That's something I managed to get from one of my parents when I was young. And I think it sparked an interest in current affairs forever for me. So I wrote something about that.

And the Soviet Union at the time, this was just after the Second World War, about 1948. And the Soviet Union had just constructed what Churchill described as the Iron Curtain. This was just before the Berlin Wall was built. But it was, in theory, this was the iron curtain around all those countries in Eastern Europe, controlled from Moscow under the aegis of Joseph Stalin. So I did that speech, and it got me interested in, further interested in broadcasting and current affairs, And I think that's where it started. And that was because she noticed my voice, first of all. Then I appeared in a number of plays, both the collegiate and later in the Stratford,

not the festival. Don't think this is the big time festival. No, this was the Stratford Little Theater. And I was in the Stratford Little Theatre while I worked at the radio station, and I performed a number of roles there. So I always had the voice, which attracted attention at the beginning, but as anyone who

knows anything about broadcasting will know, and my friend Peter Masbridge and I talk about this, you know, we had pipes, but you've got to do something with those pipes in order to move forward in life. You had the pipes. Can you imagine an alternate universe where you

sound like me and you never get to anchor the national, you never get to see TV national news. You were blessed with that great voice. I'll tell you something though. The arrival of television had a lot to do with this. Pipes became less important when television came along

because there was the visual dimension. So you had to also be aware, you know, you had to be in the culture, as it were. You had to dress neatly, but not garishly, because the whole point of doing the news was not to distract from the content that you were presenting. So you'd always try to be neat. I tried to buy the right kind of suits that wouldn't have too thick stripes in them, ties that weren't garish, that kind of thing.

Occasionally, I followed that up. I would buy something that drew too much attention to the dress code and not enough to what I was reading about. So the visual all about took away, I think, a little bit of that. And people who were not blessed with great voices, but had, I would say, pleasant voices or good voices like yours, then they would be able to participate in the broadcast industry. would be able to participate in the broadcast industry. Unlike the old days in the 40s and the early 50s, indeed going back to the late 30s, when you had to have the pipes for the Jack Benny program, that kind of thing.

You go back on some of those old big LP discs, you'll hear those guys. And they all had the big pipes and they were all doing the introductions to the great shows. And then there was Lorne Green, of course, who went on to Bonanza and he was a broadcaster in Canada at the CBC and he did the nightly news buttons during the war. And he was called the Voice of Doom. And of course, Lauren could really rumble it out. And he went on to

a local radio station in Toronto, CAY, when he also opened up a broadcast school, which he ran in Toronto for a period of time before he went to the States. Amazing. Now, Lloyd, I know we did that little jump ahead. We're coming back again. Before

I get you to Toronto, Stephen writes in, I'd love to know more about his time with 1460 CJOY in Guelph. Do you mind just a little more? Yes. Yes. I went from CJCS to Rowe, and it wasn't because I didn't enjoy what I was doing at CJCS. It was because I really felt that I had to get out of my hometown, and it was because all my friends, including my girlfriend at the time, who I eventually married, they'd all gone on to university, and they were following this profession or that profession. So I'm there working at the Lord Prager Station enjoying myself though. But people started to say to me, you know, you really should start moving on.

So one of the announcers at the station that I contacted, well, I auditioned there. I really wanted to go to CFPL London, which was kind of the go-to place for the announcers from Stratford. But I sent them a couple of tapes, and they said,

well, okay, kid, but call us back in a couple of years when you have more experience. So I thought the more experience part made sense to me, so I went to what at the time was a burgeoning, very popular radio station that had already turned out some stars onto the national scene, like Gordy Tapp for instance, and also the man who was the voice

of the friendly giant. Bob Homme? No, not Bob Homme. Oh my gosh, the name has escaped me. Anyway, he was the partner to the Tron Giant.

And they had turned out some really successful people. And Carl Bannis, who went on to become a great commercial broadcaster in Toronto and also worked for CKFM. They had all graduated from that station, even though it had only been on the air a couple of years. So I went there and I had a great time, because it was my first job out of town. There, too, I did the morning show, and I also became kind of the assistant news director, because there, the news director said to me, Lloyd, you have a great voice.

I know you're interested in news, so be my backup. So I was his backup to Al Hodge was his name, the news director at the time. And I was there for about a year and then purely by chance, Pete Griffin, who was Pete and Yates later on chum around Toronto, Pete said to me, Lloyd, you know, you've got the pipes. You should audition for the CBC. Well, I wasn't particularly anxious to work for the CBC. I was enjoying private radio, you know, the cut and thrust of private radio. Anyway, I came to Toronto.

I took the audition, which was a fearsome exercise. You were given a few minutes to look it over, and then you had to do it. And it was a few minutes talking about yourself. I had no problem with that. Then it was a short newscast. Then it was a classical music program with a lot of foreign composers' names. Then it was some poetry. And then it was some classical music.

And on and on, a jazz program, on and on, like this. And I was sweating when I finished. And I thought I'd never hear from them again. Well, as it turned out, I went back to Guelph, very happily went back to Guelph. Pete said, how did it go? And I said, I don't think I'll be hearing from them. And sure enough, I heard from them. And they offered me a job in Windsor, which was kind of a local repeater station,

but had a few programs of its own. And I went there, CBE Windsor, and I worked there as a summer replacement announcer for three months. And then when the time came, I got lucky again, because one of the announcers left there to come to the Jack Kent Cook station in Toronto, CKEY. And I was offered the slot, so I took it. That made me a CBC announcer, a much-committer role in those days,

back in 1954, when I started. And I worked there. The trouble with Windsor at that time was that it didn't originate very many programs. There was one called What's New which was on the old CJBC here in Toronto and it was a 15 minute broadcast at noon every day and I did some of that of new records and then I did some news there and sports there because everybody did everything in those days. If you could do it you did it. There was no real specialty. I did sports,

I did news, I did everything. But I wanted to break into TV, and I couldn't do that in Windsor, because the CBC at that time only had radio there. So I applied for Winnipeg, got it, and that started me on the path in television. But Guelph, I remember it very fondly and a great city too, a wonderful place to live and I'm hearing it still is. My most recent guest is MPP for Guelph, Mike

Schreiner, leader of the Green Party of Ontario. Oh, the Green Party leader, yes. Mike Schreiner, good man. He was here kicking out the jams as we say and we were talking about the Green Belt. That was here kicking out the jams, as we say, and we were talking about the Greenbelt. That was just the most recent episode. So yeah, Guelph is a wonderful, wonderful city.

Absolutely. All right, Lloyd, so we've got you at CBC now. You joined the Weekend News in 1962. Is that another addition, or did they just tap you on the shoulder and say, Well, I know that's in one of the bios they sent out. It didn't quite go that way. I came to Toronto and I worked my way through some programming in Toronto, including the

Observer with Harry Boyle. I did my first international assignment as host of the Tokyo Olympic Games in the evening. That was a great experience because it was the first satellite coverage at Olympic Games. And in those days, we didn't really trust the satellites that much. We carried the opening ceremony live, and I did that for the broadcaster, a great broadcaster by the name of Ted Reynolds from Vancouver,

passed away a few years ago, great friend of mine. And we recorded a half-hour show each day, which we then fed to the satellite to be sure that it was on tape and it wouldn't drop out during the broadcast. So, because we could feed it again if we had to. So, after that, I came back to Toronto, of course. And as I said, I did the Observer of Mary Ball. Then in 1969, the CBC wanted to start a program called Weekend,

and it incorporated current affairs programming and news, and they asked me to be the host of that. So I did the news on that, and I did some of the interviews. It was on Saturday and Sunday nights. The Saturday night edition lasted only about 14 weeks. And it was because we were filling in after the hockey games, and we never knew how much time we had. And we had a

singer on who was my guest, who was my host, my co-host. Her name was Julia Mato. And Julia and I would front this thing, but we never knew how much time we had. So the interviews would be either long, too long, or too short, depending on the time. So that just didn't work very well, so that was killed off in 14 weeks. After that, I did the Sunday night edition, and then in 1970,

they had gone through several anchors on the CBC National News in a short time. Earl Cameron was there for a long time, and he was replaced by Stanley Burke in 1966 with the intention that the CBC News would become more like CBS. They would have a main anchor like Walter Cronkite who would also guide them through the main events of the day and also of the day, and also of the times, like the space shot and that kind of thing, conventions, elections, whatever.

So this person, the anchor, and the person of Walter Cronkite in those days, and also Anthony Brinkley on NBC, and a fellow by the name of Frank Reynolds on ABC, and a fellow by the name of Frank Reynolds on ABC, they would be the face of the network for all those kinds of broadcasts. And they had to be good at what they did, of course, because they had to know their subjects and pass it around from reporter to reporter, handing things off. In fact, anchor comes from anchoring a relay. That is, you're taking the baton, and're passing it on and you're taking it back. You're summarizing, you're putting things in context for your audience, and then you're handing the baton off to someone else.

So that was the role of the anchor in those days. And that's what CBC wanted to do, to make it more modern so that it would be more like some of the major American networks, which were coming in here all the time, of course. And the CBC in those days, and CTV, which we've come along with sharply, we had to be as good as they were because we had to have our viewers. And we had to do it as professionally as we possibly could so that we looked as good with our own content. Well, Stanley didn't last all that long. He was there for two years.

He wanted very much to be involved, but because of union restrictions in those days, and I won't get into this because it's a minefield, but basically it was that if you did the news, you couldn't write anything for the news, and you couldn't run the reports. If you were doing the news. That's all you were supposed to do. Stanley did get some kind of allowance where he could write the

first page for himself, but it didn't work out. So then they hired another fellow by the name of Warren Davis, who was a long-time personal friend of mine, and Warren was on there in 1969, and Warren lasted less than a year in the job because of the the problems with this uh what was called a joint jurisdiction allegedly announcers could report and could also write but the guild the canadian marine service guild which was the other union involved it decided that it had the jurisdiction. So there was this huge fight

that went on for a very long time that caused Warren to leave that was involved in Stanley's departure too. Then I was hired by Nolte Nash and Nolte said, the time will come when we'll work all this out and

it'll happen when you're here. Well, it didn't happen while I was there, even though I think he was sincere in that wish. I think they were all sincere in wanting to make that happen. But it was just impossible, because they had given the jurisdiction to two different unions, and the jurisdictions were colliding, and the person who was the anchor of the CBC National News was always caught in the middle of that. I did it for a very long time because when you were, this was the crazy part of it, this little rejoinder, when I went into the newsroom I could only sit and read the news. That was my job.

However, because the elections and conventions and those kinds of things were under the jurisdiction of another department called current affairs, that meant that I could work on those programs, do those programs. And then things like Royal Tours, they were under the jurisdiction of yet another department called special events. So I could do those. So Knowlton said, you can keep doing all those kinds of things and we'll bring these elements together. So we did that. But then ultimately what happened was that the director of the news, who came along from Montreal Gazette, a fellow named Mike Daniel, he said to me, you know, we've got to break this thing. You've got to be able to go out and do reports.

So I went out and did reports. There was a whole walkout in the newsroom that day. The whole system closed down for 24 hours. And it was getting very, very nasty. So I hosted the Olympics in Montreal in 1976. And during that time, I had a call from CTV, a friend of mine who had been at CBC. His name was Don Cameron. And Don said, you're doing a great job in the Olympics, and I'd like to talk to you after you finish. So I had no idea what this was about. But because

he was a friend, I did exceed to meeting him and having lunch with him and that was when they dropped the offer on me for a ctv job uh so i'm getting maybe a little ahead of the question here mike but that takes you through uh the time of the cdb weekend which was really the weekend show established in 1969 to bring current affairs and news together in one show in that period. Well, Lloyd, in the 1970s, you were anchoring the National from 70 to 76. I would imagine, particularly at that time, that that's the best broadcasting gig in the entire country. gig in the entire country. It was, but it was a bit illusory. It seemed to be.

But if you were interested in what you were doing, if you were a true news person, you couldn't really be involved. And I think that's what frustrated myself, Warren Davis, and Stanley Burke before me, because they had made this policy change on paper, but they couldn't put it into practice. And it took 10 years to settle that, actually more, because when I left, they put Peter Kent on the job, and Peter, of course, was a reporter. And they said, from now on, they didn't say this publicly, but we all knew,

they were going to hire only reporters for the national news on CBC. Because Harvey Kirk, who was doing the news on CTV at the time, he could do everything. He could write a report and so on. So CBC knew they had to get into that game. It had to be able to say that this person, fronting the news, was a real news person, as was the person at CTV. So that's why I say it was a key position, yes,

in terms of public profile and public exposure, but it was a bit illusory until they changed it later. Robertson is leaving the CBC after 22 years, six as anchorman of the National. He's joining the opposition. Together with Harvey Kirk, he'll host the CTV National News. Robertson signed a 10-year contract. With cost of living bonuses, it'll pay him more than $100,000 a year,

twice as much as he earned at the CBC. At CTV, Robertson will be able to write and edit the news, something he couldn't do at the CBC because of union jurisdictions. He told a news conference today that the opportunity to function as a complete broadcast journalist, not money, was the main reason why he quit the CBC. Definitely not. Money was not the issue. The opportunity this offer presented was central to my final conclusion, and the growth that I foresee in myself as a broadcast journalist in the next five to ten year period is what helped me reach a final conclusion.

I've been very much involved over the last four or five days, next five to ten year period is what helped me reach a final conclusion. I've been very much involved for the last four or five days and then with Lloyd and his lawyers and his accountants and his tax advisors and they are very persuasive about they were about the irresistibility of the very large financial offers. That plus Lloyd's sense of wanting to be a writer and do more work of that kind, I think combined to make him decide to do it. And as I say, I'm sorry to lose him. I wish him a lot of luck, but not too much.

Nash said it would be several weeks before the CBC decided upon Robertson's replacement. Larry Stout, CBC News, Toronto. So that sounds like a major factor in how you were lured to the competition. So, you know, you wanted to write and do some things the union rules wouldn't allow you to do. But again, if this is, you know, off base, let me know. But the raise wasn't so bad either, right, when you go to CTV? Right. They made it very attractive for me. To my great surprise, they offered me a 10-year deal,

which they offered just after I told CBC that I was quite up front with CBC all the way through. I said, I've got this offer, and I'm bringing it back to you, et cetera. And CBC said, well, we can't. Dalton Nash, who was negotiating with me, he said, I can't do 10 years. I just can't. That's not possible.

I later found out that there was another fellow who was the vice president and general manager of the English government at the time, who allegedly said to her, because it was quoted, he said, I wouldn't give the Queen a 10-year deal. I'm not going to give her opposite a 10-year deal. So that was that. So I looked at the whole package.

But the money, because CBC, while the money wasn't as good from CBC, the security was terrific, because even if I was bumped from the news, I could go on and do other programming. So that had an appeal. But it was a really difficult decision, one of the most tough decisions I've had in my entire lifetime. And I had a limited amount of time in which to make the call. Really, they dropped the offer on a Tuesday in September. By the next Tuesday, I had to have made the call.

So I did, and it was a hectic week for me, I'll tell you. And it was a wrenching decision. And by the time I had added everything up and looked at everything, I just felt that this is what I had to do. Even though a large part of my heart would remain with the CBC when I went over to CTV, I do not regret making that decision because I found that what it did for me on a personal level was allow me to grow

both as a broadcaster but also as an individual because I had to learn more, I had to learn more. I had to know more. I had to read more. I had to really understand the context of all of the things I was doing, because I was then becoming a true anchor. I did the first seven years with Harvey Kerr, and he and I became great friends.

And then Harvey, who was suffering from congestive heart failure at the time, he left the news after seven years, went on to do other programming, and unhappily died a few years later at the age of 73. But he and I had become great friends. So then I took it on as a solo effort beginning in 1984 and went through until 2011. So in total it was 41 years on a desk in a national newsroom at both CBC and CTV. And like Tom Cochran would sing, no regrets.

No, no, I don't think so. I have often wondered what would happen if I had stayed at the CBC. And the problem is, I think I had become a battering ram. That's how the union, the news union regarded me, that management was using me as a battering ram to break through their jurisdiction. So I did wonder what would have happened. I realized that it wouldn't have worked. It just would not have worked. What they were trying to do would not have worked with me. I think when I made that decision to move, what happens with big bureaucracies, just as a little rejoinder, what happens with big bureaucracies, they tend not to want to do what really needs to be done because it's going to be disruptive.

And it was very disruptive. But when it was done and I had pulled the pin, then it was easier for them to say, okay, now we've really got to get serious and move forward with this. And they did. I have a few questions here. I mentioned I collected questions. Rock Golf has a good question for this time when you joined CTV News Department in October 1976. Rock Golf writes,

when Lloyd left the CBC to go to the private network, were there any reporters he wished had joined him? Well, I did manage to lure over there with me the executive producer of CBC News Specials, who was a terrific guy. And I had worked with him, Tim Kotschepits in name. And Tim came with me. And Tim really brought an enormous amount of experience to the table.

And I have often said that I think, you know, they got me. I was the high profile. But Tim was the nuts and bolts guy. I mean, he really knew how to put programming together. And he did a superb job turning the wheel at CTV News until we became the number one newscaster in the country. And I credit him with that as much as anything I could have done. Amazing. Now, Brian Gerstein, you actually, just a moment ago, Lloyd,

you were talking about Walter Cronkite and some of these American broadcasters. Brian's wondering, who are the broadcasters in the USA that you most respected at this time? Well, one was one of my very good friends, Peter Jennings. Peter and I worked together at CBC. People forget this, but Peter was at CBC for a while. And I remember to this day when he called me up to the announce booth at CBLT, the local TV station in Toronto for CBC.

And he said, the private network has made me this offer, and I don't know about it. I'm going to do their news. And I said, well, what does your father say? Because his father was the vice president of the CBC at the time, Charles Jennings, who was very well known in the broadcast industry. He said, well, he says, go ahead if you want. Go ahead. He encouraged me. cbc at the time charles jennings who was very well known in the broadcast industry he said well he says uh go ahead if you want go ahead he encouraged me uh and i think he knew i think

charles jennings knew instinctively that as long as peter works at the cbc uh everybody would be saying oh you're only where you are because your old man is the vice president so peter moved and uh that was the beginning of really his journalism career. He started at CTV on the news, and he went from there to ABC. And that first little period with ABC in the 60s didn't really work for him because he was dropped in with Cronkite on one side and Brinkley and Huntley on the other, and it just wasn't working. So he went out into the field for ABC.

And he worked as a reporter in the Middle East and in London and elsewhere for a very long time. And came back in the 70s and became a co-anchor on ABC News and eventually solo anchor. He was a very good friend and I admired him greatly. He was a full broadcaster in the sense that he could do everything. He spoke extremely well, great command of the language and he also had

a sense of history and I think you could see that in him. He put the events in context. He did a lot of that. He didn't know how to do that. Also, of course, there was Walter Cronkite, whom I had the pleasure of meeting a couple of times. And I think Walter was the quintessential anchor

because the word was made for him. I never got to know Chet Huntley. I met David Brinkley once. And all of them I admire greatly. And I think they set the tone for Canada because whether we like it or not, we are still influenced by American culture. I think the great success in Canadian terms

was that in news in Canada, we matched them and bettered them because our newscasts in this country on all three networks have higher ratings than the American networks have in this country now for a lot of the events that are American in orientation

people will go to CNN or CBS or ABC or that's different but when we're doing our own thing in Canada, our elections conventions the evening newscasts and certainly on the royal occasions we have the numbers which outdo the american number and that is because from the very beginning as i said earlier we made a distinct effort to look as good and be as good as they are in production terms.

But it was our content. We were speaking to our people. And that's what made the difference. I think that's what ultimately made Canadian News successful. And it is one of the great Canadian success stories. Canadian News, coast to coast. Did Walter Cronkite inspire, and that's the kind of day it's been?

Well, that happened late in the game, actually. I had been on the news for CTV from 1976, and I didn't start using that until the late 90s. We were just sitting around talking about things one day in the newsroom, kicking things around as you do in newsrooms.

And somebody said, why don't you devise a way of ending the show? You know, just something different. So I thought, tried a few things, and that worked. However, I thought I was getting tired of it. So in the year 2000, to begin the new millennium, I dropped it. Within a week, the news director of the time, Henry Kowalski, came to me. He was the vice president of the news. I said, Lloyd, I hate to ask this, but he said, can you put that sign-off back on?

Because we've had floods of people missing it. I said, you're kidding me. He said, can you put that sign off back on? Because we've had floods of people missing it. I said, you're kidding me. He said, no. So I did. So I put it back on. And that remained until I finished in 2011. It was just something that happened to catch on. And then when I did the book, I encountered it again.

Because we talked about a title. So the editor, HarperCollins was the publisher, the editor said to me, Lloyd, there's about a title. The editor, Harper Collins was the publisher, the editor said to me, Lloyd, there's only one title. That's the kind of life I'm seeing. I said, are you serious? My life isn't over yet. He said, that's the only catchy title that you can use because

it'll click in people's minds. You want to sell books? That's how you sell books. I said, well, okay. The book became a kind of life I'm seeing. and you want to sell books, that's how you sell books. So I said, well, okay, so the book of shame and that's got to play this bit. Well, you sold some books. Excellent, excellent. Hey, this will surprise you, Lloyd, but in your great legendary career

where you did so much wonderful work with the news in this country, the question I got the most often, and I'll credit it to Robbie J. and Marathon Mike and several other people. They all want me to know your thoughts on Floyd Robertson as played by Joe Flaherty on SCTV. What are your thoughts on that character? I'm Floyd Robertson. And I'm Earl Cannon, dear. And this is the SCTV AM News Today.

Today's top story, writers for the three major wire services, AP, UPI, and Reuters, went on strike causing a news blackout for major newspapers and television stations. Now here with details of that is Earl. I don't need details, Floyd. They went on strike. There's no wire services. I couldn't get any information. How could I have anything? They're on strike. Are you deaf? They're on strike.

I'm a journalist. I'm not a writer. I'm not a fiction writer. I'm a damn good journalist. He says. Oh, I love that character. I got to know those guys. Earl Camembert and Floyd Robertson.

I knew both of them. And the characters, the actors that played them. And I actually worked with them a couple of times in some of those skits, especially on the New Year's Eve specials. And they were great fun. I enjoyed every moment of it. And that, of course, was Eugene Levy playing Earl

Cannon Baron. Of course, Eugene Levy played Earl Cannon Baron, and I did something with him when they were in Toronto, of course, that group. And I did something with Joe Flaher in Toronto, of course, that group. And I did something with Joe Flaherty and Eugene Levy. And it was a stage thing.

It was something we were doing for charity. Amazing. And for the younger folks that are listening right now, they might not know Eugene Levy. The name of that character, Earl Camembert, is based on Earl Cameron, who was also an anchor for the CBC. I don't know if they called it the National back then, but this was in the late 50s and then up until

1966. That's right. Well, Earl was the second regular anchor on the National news. The first was Larry Henderson, and Larry left in the late 50s. Earl came on, and Earl was terrific.

Now, Earl was a very, very sound, good announcer. That's what he did. He read the news. And when they wanted to change to what they thought was a more modern format in the late 60s and brought in Stanley Burke, Earl went by the wayside. And that move, by the way, had an influence on me when CTV came

calling. Because I thought to myself, you know, if the culture changes here, and they want to do that, and they can't do it with me, I'm going to be out the door. Because that's just the way it works in television. So I,

I thought, well, I'd better make this move because, uh, you know, I too could be passed over in, uh, in years to come. Uh,

by the way, the name of the person who was on the friendly giant from Guelph, Rod Connybear just came to me. Okay, good. No, thank you. Because, you because everybody's fiercely googling that. That's amazing. And when you just said that sentence a moment ago, Lloyd, you just said, that's the

way it works in television. I could hear Dave Hodge flipping his pen. Wasn't that a great moment? I did a whole audio documentary about that moment, talking to people who witnessed it and talking to Dave about it. And yeah, that's like sort of when you leave, you know,

the National for CTV and then when Dave flips that pen, these are like great moments in Canadian broadcasting. Well, I remember that moment very distinctly and I heard something about that moment. It was when the president of sports, well, the head of sports, as he was called at the time, as you can see, was in a room with the head of the Russian television operation, the Soviet TV operation at the time, and a couple of other people, including a few Americans, all executives.

And they looked at him and they said, hmm, somebody did that on our network, we'd fire him. Next day, Dave was fired. You know, Dave tells me, this is a fun fact, Dave tells me he was never actually fired. He says he just went on and did something else and they didn't ask him back. He said it was like an unsaid quiet firing is how Dave explains it to me.

He just went on and took a gig, I think, with, I want to say the Minnesota North Stars, I want to say, but very interesting time in Canadian broadcasting. By the way, Lloyd, speak... I think what happened there was that he was on contract, of course, and I think they just

didn't redo or said we don't need you anymore or your time is up whatever and all that because uh him and bob cole were enjoying the uh the curling earlier in the day and it got it got uh preempted and he was so upset at the curling being preempted i think it was a briar that you know the idea that they weren't going to finish uh the overtime of the hockey game it was just briar that, you know, the idea that they weren't going to finish the overtime of the hockey game. It was just like, that was it. The straw that broke the Dave Hodge back. Well, it was a crazy decision.

I mean, I agree with Dave. It was a bad decision. They should have stayed with the hockey game. Right. No doubt about that. But I, and I, I, I, I, and I know Dave, I've talked him about this. And it was frustration. I said, you were just expressing what every broadcaster who was watching that felt. They should have continued.

Absolutely. And speaking of like hockey programming and executives, I got a great note from Scott Moore. Oh, Scotty Moore. Hello, Scotty Moore. Who, by the way, is working with Drake now. Yes, so I've heard. Good for him. Scott writes in,

ask him about the time we almost got arrested in Barcelona prior to the Olympics in 1992 doing camera stand-ups. He goes, I thought I was going to have to bail our main anchor out of jail. I thought I was going to have to bail our main anchor out of jail. Well, and this happens so often in these situations. You're in a foreign country. You're not quite aware of where all the rules are. It happened to be in China, too.

You're not quite aware of all the rules. And you're doing something somewhere where you shouldn't be doing it. And they came along and cornered us. And I was considered, you know, the culprit here. And so was he because we were the two principals putting this together. And Scott's a great talker. Great, great talker. He can talk his way out of anything.

And he talked us out of getting arrested. So congratulations to you, Scott. I remember it to this day. Yeah, yeah. He's a great talker. He's been over here a couple of times. But Heather McDonald writes in, Heather writes, My dad, a retired colonel, spent many nights in studio with Lloyd

answering questions regarding the Gulf Wars in the 1990s. My question is, what does he think about how the coverage of the Ukrainian-Russian war has been like in Canada? Does he think the current media is doing a good enough job covering this conflict? Well, she's comparing it to the Gulf War at the time. Now, there weren't as many outlets at that time. And I presume this is Brian McDonald's daughter.

See, I don't have that detail, but I think that's a fair guess, I think. What a wonderful man he was. What a wonderful man. He and I had great chats, great times together. We were going full tilt on that war because Canadians were deeply involved. It's a little different this time because Canadians have no boots on the ground there, whereas we did in the first Gulf War. And that's why we were covering it, you know, you would say wall to wall in those days as much as we could.

And Brian was a big help. I think they're doing Ukraine as well as they can do it. And I think the Canadian networks are matching the American networks. I watch a lot of the coverage of Ukraine. It's a very, very sad situation. And it shows no signs of wrapping up soon. And in fact, it seems we're getting deeper into it. But I don't know whether the free world, the Western world, has any choice in this, the democratic countries.

Because if you're going to seize territory, and Ukraine, of course, has always been close to Russia, not just literally and figuratively, but in cultural terms too. But they were always kind of the little brother. And Russia has always wanted to rule, although apparently, originally going way back, Ukraine asked for the Tsar to protect them way back two centuries ago. And that's how Russia got more control of Ukraine in the first place. But as I said, I think the coverage is being done as well as it could be done.

I watch a lot of different outlets. I watch the Canadian networks. I watch BBC, which is doing excellent coverage of it, and CNN, as well as others. David Angus is... I hear from you, Ms. McDonald. Beautiful. I know she'll be listening, so that's wonderful. David Angus writes in, What was the hardest news story that Lloyd Robertson ever had to break?

Oh, boy. Well, there were a few of those. One was the death of Terry Fox. And I did the Terry Fox funeral. I got to know him a bit. I interviewed him when he was in Toronto. And I remember when he started his mission, we thought, oh, yeah, a kid saying he's going to run across the country. And, you know, he has this leg amputated and he's going to do it and we

followed him to Newfoundland, touched the dip when he put his toe in the ocean we covered that and then we sort of went away from it for a while. Well we kept hearing that crowds were building and when he went into Quebec and in Montreal, people were turning up by the thousands to see him. Then he came to Toronto when he went to Nathan Phillips Square, and we saw the reaction. I went down and talked to him, and it was something unbelievable. And I have been asked many, many times to analyze what it was about Terry Fox.

And I always say, well, he was an average kid from an average family. And that's what people connected with. Just that he was one of us. We could feel what he was going through, and we empathized. So when his death, when the news came that he was dead, So when his death, when the news came that he was dead, we decided at CTV that we would mount a telephone. And we raised a lot of money that night. I think it was something like, I'm not sure now that I think about it,

but I think it was in the neighborhood of $10 million. And that helped carry forward the cause of the Terry Fox Marathon. And then I went out to BC to do the funeral. And I remember to this day, the mist coming off the asphalt on the streets around the church as the purse pulled away with the body. And I had great trouble controlling my emotions at that time, and I did, in fact, my voice cracked.

And I always thought that was okay. That's okay with anchors when you're in an emotional situation that everybody feels. You have to be very careful, of course, when you're covering politics because there you just have to park your prejudices at the door, as they say in newsrooms, and cover everything objectively. But for that occasion, you let your emotions go. That was one of the most difficult.

Then the other one, of course, was 9-11, which came as a complete shock, and having to rush into the studio, tearing through traffic to get there being bounced into the chair very quickly and being on the air for like 14 hours you know 9-11 horrific absolutely and but hearing you talk about terry fox i got uh i got chills because uh i was i guess the perfect age for that story as it was happening. And it really affected me where now every single year without failure, I run for Terry in the Terry Fox Run and raise money. That's every year for me because I was so affected by that young man. Good for you.

I do the walk now. I used to do the run. You know what? I will say this. I think because I go with my kids, I really do walk as well. I like to call it the Terry Fogg's run, just to sound impressive, but I'm walking that myself. This is for me, okay?

Forever, I'm a big fan of The Simpsons, and I had always heard a rumor, and now I'm going to get your take on it, but there's a rumor out there that the character Kent Brockman on The Simpsons was based on Lloyd Robertson. Have you ever heard this? Never ever heard that. Where did you get that from?

I can't remember. He's got a great voice like you, and he kind of looks like you, I would say, like a handsome anchor. There you go. There's your compliment of the day. We're just about to get our first pictures from inside the spacecraft

with average not Homer Simpson. And we'd like to... Ah! Ah! Ladies and gentlemen, we've just lost the picture, but what we've seen speaks for itself. The Corvair spacecraft has apparently been taken over, conquered, if you will, by a master race of giant space ants.

It's difficult to tell from this vantage point whether they will consume the captive Earth men or merely enslave them. One thing is for certain, there is no stopping them. The ants will soon be here. And I, for one, welcome our new insect overlords. welcome our new insect overlords. I'd like to remind them that as a trusted TV personality, I can be helpful in rounding up others to toil in their underground sugar caves. Don't worry, kids. I'm sure your father's all right.

What are you basing that on, Mom? Who wants ginger snaps? Well, this reporter was possibly a little hasty earlier and would like to reaffirm his allegiance to this country and its human president. May not be perfect, but it's still the best government we have. For now. Oh, yes. By the way, the spacecraft still in extreme danger, may not make it back attempting risky reentry, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah.

We'll see you after the movie. Well, you know, there was created during that period, before The Simpsons, actually, a number of anchor characters who

cut a certain mold. They had a mold for them. They cut them out and they said, this is what an anchor looks like. A good-looking but not too handsome guy. mold. They had a mold for them. They cut them out and they said, this is what an anchor looks like. A good looking but not too handsome guy. So that men could relate to him as well as women. And I think that may have come from that. Did you remember

there was a character who was really in the age of AI, you can relate to this, the head, radio head. Oh, Max Headroom. Max Headroom, yeah. Max Headroom. That was another character.

Cut out as the anchor. I don't think, you know, people say, well, artificial intelligence has come to the point where they won't need anchors for newscasts anymore. I really believe that Max Headroom showed the way with that because people want a real human being talking to them, not some creature that is created,

filled with words, which come out in a certain direction, which gives you the news of the day. You will be able to get that if you want it that way. But I prefer to think that people still want the human dimension. Agreed, agreed. Now Lloyd, before I get to the second most asked question when I said that Lloyd Robertson was finally making his Toronto Mike debut, I'm about to get to that second question after the Floyd Robertson question.

You mentioned Carl Banas earlier. Carl famously is heard every December on our TVs when we all watch Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer. But I did see you on Corner Gas. Not quite the same, but you have had your fair share of appearances

on the television outside of the news. Oh, yes. Well, you get those calls. I did a lot for the New Year's Eve show with Royal Canadian Air Force. A lot of those. And they were great fun. And then I did a lot for the New Year's Eve show with Royal Canadian Air Force. A lot of those. And they were great fun. And then I did a few ER was one for CTV, Kroner Gas, a couple of occasions with Brent Butt for CTV, Kroner Gas. No, no, I'm just moving up in the world. I got myself a big

screen TV, high definition surround sound. Makes you feel like you're right inside the show. high definition surround sound. Makes you feel like you're right inside the show. A general strike was called today by labor leaders in... Do I come to where you work and crunch chips? No, but you're welcome to. Yeah, a few things like that.

They're always fun. They came with the territory because I think when you become someone who is in people's homes every night, you're They came with the territory because I think when you become someone who is in people's homes every night, you're a familiar character. And they want to use that to, I don't know, pump their own shows. But also, I think if you enjoy it, it's fun to do. I really enjoyed my time with Air Force.

Amazing. Now, I got to get you out of this job. Did you suddenly decide that was it, time to retire? Like, why did it ever come to an end for you on CTV National News? Well, when Ivanko Sain became the CEO of CTV in 2011, he dubbed me anchor for life. And he said that I could stay there as long as I wanted. And I knew that as long as my health held out and the ratings held up, of course.

If the ratings had dipped, I wouldn't have been there. But as long as that all held together, I could go on until I just didn't want to do it anymore. I could go on until I just didn't want to do it anymore. And I think what led to 2011 was that we had a couple of people who were really ready to go. I never discourage people to become backups for me because I think that you have an obligation to encourage young talent. So in both cases, they could have gone elsewhere. So the time just came when I was 77 years old. It was time for me to, 76 at the time when I made

the decision, it was time for me to encourage a choice. So I encouraged a choice, and we made a choice, and it was Lisa DeLam, and that was that. And I went on to WVI full-time. So I believe to this day that was the right decision. And I felt that, you know, in 77, how much more do I have to prove? How much further do I have to go? I could have done it, I'm sure, for maybe another year or two, but I didn't want good people to get away at that point. This reminds me of when Knowlton Nash stepped aside so that Peter Mansbridge could become anchor at the National.

Well, I wouldn't put that comparison on it because I think Knowlton could have done many more years. He made that decision on his own, because Peter had an offer to go to CBS, and it was a good one. And I think he would have gone, because he was ready to go onto the National as the anchor. And that happened to me a couple of times too. There were people there ready to go, but it was early in my time and I was encouraged to stay. But I think in his case it was a different scenario,

so I wouldn't compare it to that. Now, is one of those people that was ready to go, is that Keith Morrison? Because I always saw him as possibly the heir apparent. Yes. Keith was, he came back to Canada from the U.S. in the, when was that, 1992? Well, this was in the early 90s, yeah.

Right. And Keith, for a couple of years, certainly became a kind of heir apparent, along with a few others. So, you know, it wasn't a solid go-to situation, but he was certainly in the run. But you just had too much gas left in the tank. You know, when you do find...

Well, that was 1995. I had 15 years after that. Right. And you know, by the time you do decide it's time for Lisa Laflamme to take over, you had already received, you were an officer of the Order of Canada, you had been inducted into the Canadian Association of

Broadcasters Hall of Fame. You had sort of collected all these recognitions. Yes. Well, that's one reason why I felt the time was up. But I think what kept me going was simply love of the job. I, you know, as we've talked about here, I got in very early. I loved it from the time I was 12 years old. I was interested in broadcasting. And, you know, I didn't know much else but that.

But it led me into a life that has been very rich and very rewarding on all kinds of scales. And it made me a person of the world. And I just didn't want to leave it too soon because I felt that a piece of myself was being severed if I dropped out too soon. Now I'm able to savor the accomplishments, look back on them, and also give back. And I spent a lot of time over the last several years doing charity work because I really believed, and my father always encouraged this, that if you do become successful in life, you owe because you don't do these things on your own.

And I truly believe that. You may be blessed with a certain talent, but if you are, people will help you and you have to give back. Awesome. That's fantastic to hear. It's also inspiring. And so we come to the end. And it couldn't happen at a more fitting time than the beginning of September 2011.

It was 35 years ago this month that I agreed to come to work for CTV, and Harvey Kirk and I teamed up for a successful seven-and-a-half-year run. During that period and since, we have had the usual ups and downs in the news cycle from natural disasters to royal weddings, and I am deeply grateful to the many of you who have stayed with us through it all. For me, it's been a rare privilege to have been able to serve in this position for so long. It's been a front row seat to history. If someone had told me 60 years ago this would be my life, I would have said they were crazy. Most of all, it's been fascinating to watch our country grow in confidence and stature. We have developed a unique place in the world.

We can brag, in that modest Canadian way of course, about our AAA credit rating, about the success of the Vancouver Olympics, of course, about our AAA credit rating, about the success of the Vancouver Olympics, and look forward with some assurance that we won't have to undergo the near-death experience of another Quebec referendum. Thank you a thousand times over for all of your touching messages, some that speak of watching through the generations. There is the woman from Ontario who tells me that as a student, our familiar opening music would take her from studying at 11 o'clock to join with her parents for the newscast and discuss the events of the day.

She now does the same with her own children. Without her and people like her, I would not have been around for so very long. very long. And it's not false modesty to say that I am only the most visible member of a highly skilled and thoroughly dedicated team of news, production, and technical professionals all around me here and out beyond. I can simply never offer them praise enough. The CTV National News with the ctv national news with lisa laflam begins on monday i will see you along the way and that's the kind of day it's been this thursday september the first for all of us at ctv news good night i'd be remiss if i didn't ask you the second most commonly asked question so number one goes to floyd rober Robertson at SCTV. But a close second, and I'll just credit a couple,

Emily and Melissa, there were literally like a dozen of these, but people are dying to know your thoughts on Lisa Laflamme being let go. She took over for you, and then we all know it was a huge story. Nobody could miss it. What are your thoughts on that, Lloyd?

Well, there's a lot there that we really don't know about because a lot of it has been not just not published. I think there's been a lot of speculation that it was about hair, about this, about that. Frankly, I just think it was a very bad decision to be done the way it was done. It was a bad way of laying off someone like that, given the kind of record she had, given the kind of popular person she was. I was very sad about it.

And I don't know all the details. And I don't know anybody who does know all the details. And it would be remiss of me to go ahead and speculate that it was this or it was that. Now, it is jarring for CTV national news viewers, of which there are hundreds of

thousands of viewers, and it's a bit jarring to see yourself who got almost like a proper farewell for somebody who had accomplished what you had accomplished. Like a true goodbye to the audience. You had a final show. Meanwhile, Lisa Laflamme just sort of one day wasn't there.

About a month later, she just put out a video on Twitter and said, yeah, they told me to stop coming to work. Essentially, that's a paraphrase, of course. But that was the essence of the... It is jarring, because you got such a proper farewell. Well, I think that came first, actually. That's a paraphrase, of course, but that was the essence of the... It is jarring, because you've got such a problem. Well, I think that came first, actually. I think her announcement

on her own came first. Yes. She said, I've been told that my services aren't regarded. Right. And she was gone. And that was that. And I was very, very sad about that. And people have mentioned this in a number of news stories I've read. And that was that. And I was very, very sad about that. And people have mentioned this

in a number of news stories I've read. Robertson was 77 years old and he was giving a goodbye at his own show for an hour. Lisa LaPlante gets nothing. Very sad and very wrong. And I think

one Bell executive did apologize, saying that we realized that we hadn't given Lisa her gongs, as it were, that she had done such good work for us, etc. But it never transpired that way. So it was a bad scene all around. Now, I know you watch a lot of news. How do you think the new guy's doing? Omar Sakadina. How is he doing hosting the national news on CTV? Well, for someone who had come into that slot

under the worst possible circumstances, I think he's doing very well. But it's had to have been difficult for him. I know Omar. He's a wonderful guy. And he's very studious. He wants to do the job well. I wish him success, but I'm sorry that he had to come in

under the circumstances he was left with. Now, I noticed, because I watch CTV News, and I see that you got to report on your own car crash. Do you mind telling me, were you going to say goodbye to Steve Anthony? Where were you off to that day? Yeah, I'd been asked to go down and say goodbye to Steve Anthony, who would be CP24 morning host for a while.

And so I said, sure. So it was about 6.45 in the morning. I'm in the middle lane of the parkway, and I'm about to move to the right to make the exit off on Richmond and head toward CB24. And

as I'm in the middle lane, all of a sudden, crack. And I go into a spin. I went left. I hit the medium. I bounced back, turned right around, bounced back, hit a truck, paddle truck, knocked it over. It was actually a cube van, and they're top heavy to begin with. Knocked it over, and then I came to a stop. This all happened so fast. It's literally seconds.

Your life is hanging in the balance. I came to a stop. When I had to cue that, I thought, okay, is that all there is? Are we done? We were. Then it was about a I'm in one piece. Can I get out?

I opened the door. The door opened, I got out and right away one of the people who was following me came rushing forward and said are you okay? And I said well all I know is my parts are all still in one piece and I'm standing up

so I guess I'm okay. That's how that happened and then CP24, because I was heading to cp24 right uh they covered the accident they said that we're going to send um uh our reporter out there our traffic reporter out there right away uh to talk to you and uh so he came out and he said to me uh okay lloyd uh that's where you got hit right in that left back fender. That's where, when I was a cop, we'd hit the bad guys when we wanted to knock them out of control.

So that's where she hits you, the other driver, and knocks you right out of control. You lost total control of the car. I said, exactly. So he said, so show it to us. So I walked from one end of the car to the other. And people were surprised because they thought I'd be in shock after the accident. And I may have been at that time, but I don't know. But anyway, I did the stand up

and he said, thanks very much. And that was that. And it was running all day on CB24. And it was picked up by CTV National News and CBC. And as it happens on CBC Radio, they're finding a little thing with it too. That was Cam Woolley who was passing the mic to me. Cam Woolley, that's right. FOTM Cam Woolley. That's retired, wonderful guy, yeah.

Yeah, on his way, his last shift. He did his last shift and then he popped over here and did his exit interview before he headed north. Speaking of FOTMs and speaking of chum city personalities of yesteryear like Steve Anthony, did you know David Onley? Very well. Very well.

And I was working on the Apollo moonshots in the late 60s, early 70s. And we had this message from this very young man who said, I'm interested in space, and I have some rockets, model plane rockets, which I'd like to show you if you're interested. So, of course, on those shows, you're filling a lot of time every day

because you're waiting for the vehicle to go up and land or whatever or go into orbit because Apollo had several different versions. And then came the space shuttle. So we talked about it, and we decided to bring him in and let him show his models on it. And I believe, although I'm not certain, that that was his first TV appearance. And he struck me as being

so intelligent, so warm, so curious about everything. And it wasn't long after that he showed up on the city TV. Well, a few years after, because he'd been to university at any time, graduated well, a few years after, because he'd been to university at the same time, graduated, took a political science course,

and ended up working for a city. And then, of course, well, looks like a governor. And David had a mission, and we all know what that was. He wanted to make life more accessible for people with disabilities. And did he ever do that well? And he accomplished it. And he was a warm, humane, smart, giving person and very approachable.

He'll be missed. Absolutely. David Onley was a sweetheart. And Lloyd, you're a sweetheart because I took so much of your time. So I'm just going to finish by asking you because I got a great question from the cleaning guy. That's what he calls himself. He wants to know, are you buddies with, and I believe this to be true, but are you

buddies with fellow FOTM Peter Mansbridge? Oh, sure. We hooked up for lunch a couple of times, both during the time we did the news and afterwards. And Peter is living in my hometown right now. Stratford. Cynthia, yeah, his wife Cynthia was a member of the, is still, I believe, a member

of the company at the Stratford Festival. So they moved there and he commutes. The last time I saw him was at a funeral for a colleague and it was in January, I of last year and he had driven in from Stratford and he said boy he said it really snows up there and I said yup it's snowboat country and then last week he was down in Florida and I got a message from him on my birthday

saying I hear you're 89 today. I'm about to tee off here with an usual friend of ours, the mayor of Stratford in Florida. So I wished him well. Yeah, sure, we're back and forth a bit. Well, here's a small world story. I believe Cynthia and Peter's

son works with Scott Moore. I mentioned he was working with Drake. I believe they're working together in that project. Oh, really? That's what Cynthia tells me. I met him when he was about 10 years old in the Chateau Laurier Hotel in Ottawa. Cynthia introduced him to me,

and he seemed like a nice, pleasant young man at the time. I know he went on to other things, university and so on. Do you still volunteer with Farm Radio International? Yes, I just finished a meeting with them this morning about Farm Radio Day, which will come up on February 14th this year. And that goes back to my CBC days

of George Atkins, who I was his announcer on the farm broadcast on CBC back in the 70s and 60s. And George kind of bonded with me because we're both from southern Ontario, southwestern Ontario. George was a farm boy. And I lived on the edge of Stratford, the city of Stratford, right next to the farms of the farm country, so I knew a lot of farm kids. So George said to me, well, if you were that close to the country, I consider you a farm boy.

So we bonded, and he talked to me about his efforts at the time, which was to start the Developing Countries Radio Network. his efforts at the time, which was to start the Developing Countries Radio Network. He went over as part of the United Nations project to help farmers in underdeveloped countries, specifically in Africa. And George was a big, gregarious, warm guy, and he really wanted to get down on the ground with farmers and help them. So he talked about irrigation methods and all sorts of other things. And before he passed, he said,

would you take over the letter that I do every year, the fundraising letter for Farm Radio International? So I said, George, I would be honored to do that. So I've been doing that ever since. And he passed many years ago, but he also, um, um, left such a legacy, uh, because he has been, you know, one of those people who made his mark in a very real way on the farm community, not just in Canada, but around the world.

So I am honored to be a part of that. And, uh, uh, we're giving out the job And I'm giving up the George Atkins Award again on February 14th. And I'll be interviewing the winner, who is a young woman from Africa, from Malawi, who does farm broadcasting over there. Well, Lloyd, I'm honored that you took the time to talk to me. I found this fascinating and I truly appreciate this. Thank you very much, Mike. Great to be on your list, finally.

Thanks very much. And that's the kind of day it's been. You can follow me on Twitter. I'm at Toronto Mike. Our friends at Great Lakes Brewery are at Great Lakes Beer.

Palma Pasta is at Palma Pasta. Recycle My Electronics are at EPRA underscore Canada. Ridley Funeral Home are at Ridley FH. Canna Cabana are at Canna Cabana

underscore. And Sammy Cone Real Estate is at Sammy Cone cone that's k-o-h-n see you all next week Read Andrew Miller and wander around And drink some Guinness from a tin Cause my UI check has just come in Ah, where you been? Because everything is kind of rosy and green Yeah, the wind is cold, but the snow wants me to dance

And your smile is fine, and it's just like mine And it won't go away Because everything is rosy and green Well, you've been under my skin for more than eight years It's been eight years of laughter and eight years of tears And I don't know what the future can hold or do For me and you But I'm a much better man for having known you

Oh, you know that's true because Everything is coming up Rosy and green Yeah, the wind is cold But the smell of snow Won't stay today And your smile is fine And it's just like mine

And it won't go away Cause everything is rosy and green Well, I've been told that there's a sucker born every day But I wonder who Yeah, I wonder who Maybe the one who doesn't realize I wonder who, yeah, I wonder who Maybe the one who just realized There's a thousand shades of grey

Cause I know that's true, yes I do I know it's true, yeah I know it's true How about you? Oh, they're picking up trash and then putting down ropes And then brokering stocks, the class struggle explodes And I'll play this guitar just the best that I can Maybe I'm not and maybe I am

But who gives a damn? Because everything is coming up rosy and gray. Yeah, the wind is cold, but the smell of snow warms me today. And your smile is fine and it's just like mine and it won't go away. Because everything is rosy and gray Well I've kissed you in France and I've kissed you in Spain And I've kissed you in places I better not name And I've seen the sun go down on Chaclacour

But I like it much better going down on you Yeah, you know that's true Because everything is coming up Rosy and green Yeah, the wind is cold But the smell of snow warms us today And your smile is fine And it's just like mine Yeah, the wind is cold, but the smell of snow warms us today. And your smile is fine, and it's just like mine, and it won't go away. Cause everything is rosy now, everything is rosy, yeah.

Everything is rosy and gray, yeah. in grace