He’s been our source for what’s happening at home and around the world for the past four decades.
Thursday, September 1, will the mark of an era in television history and for news television excellence as the man who has been voted 11 times by readers of TV Guide as Canada’s most trusted newscaster will deliver his final CTV newscast at 11 pm. At the same time he becomes the longest-serving network news anchor in TV history surpassing U.S. heavyweights like Walter Cronkite, Tom Brokaw, Dan Rather, and Peter Jennings. Meet Lloyd Robertson, who, in a little less than a month, will close off his mike at 11:30 p.m. for the last time.
We caught up with Lloyd in a phone conversation from his home near Toronto getting ready to make the commute to the CTV studios in downtown Toronto.
Lloyd started in radio way back in 1952 in his native Stratford at the big sum of 40 dollars a week.
“I was interested in broadcasting early on and had no idea why,” he tells us. “I used to listen to my radio with my father when I was 5 years old and the reports coming in from the war with Edward R. Murrow. I remember asking him how the sound would get in the box, and he would tell me about radio waves, and wires in the box.
It became a fascination of mine. I was doing announcements on the PA system at Shakespeare Public School in Stratford about things going on at the school that day, and I would also do the announcements for the public skating at the school during the winter and roll the records, those waltz records they used to play for the skate around, and it just kept going,” he tells us.
THE CJCS STRATFORD YEARS
When Lloyd was in Grade 12 he started hanging out at the local radio station, which was on top of a beer parlor, but he would get kicked out as he was there a bit too often. The manager told him to come back when he was older as Lloyd was only around 14 or 15 then. In the meantime, wanting to bring in extra income at home, he took on various jobs in a grocery store and as a shoe salesman.
Despite being discouraged by his guidance counselor to look at radio as a career option, he was set up for an interview with the manager, and was luckily offered a Saturday gig, working the board and recording commercials for the announcers. Shortly after, at the end of Grade 12, three announcers quit over some minor dispute.
Opportunity came knocking. The manager came up to Lloyd and said: “So, you want a shot at this, kid? You seem to be really interested.” Lloyd replied with a resounding yes.
“You’re going to do the morning show, the noon run, the birthday club announcements at 5 p.m., and if you’re good, you’ll do the 6:30 p.m. news in the evening.”
So a young Lloyd Robertson agreed and for $40 a week, started in radio 6 days a week, eventually getting that 6:30 p.m. newscast, which really got him interested in hard news, as political talk was on all the time at the dinner table, which allowed Lloyd to kind of gravitate towards news.
TIME TO MOVE ON
Just about two years later and with all his buddies going off to university, he thought it was time to leave Stratford. So Lloyd sent around tapes hoping to get into the southwestern Ontario powerhouse CFPL in London, but they told him he wasn’t quite ready yet. So he started working at the newer Guelph station CJOY. Lloyd was promised the job of assistant news director, covering such things as local council meetings.
THE TV YEARS COME CALLING
Then one day a friend of his told him that he had the pipes and should audition for the CBC.
Lloyd continues, “He challenged me, so I got on the bus to Toronto, and went to the CBC, took the audition, and although I didn’t think that I did well, I was still offered a summer relief job in Windsor, gave it a shot since I was young and wanted to move around. So that was the beginning of my CBC years which lasted for 12 years from 1954 to 1976, when I moved across to CTV.”
After a few years in Windsor, he was offered a job at CBC Winnipeg after passing an audition, again replacing someone, and Lloyd thought he was in heaven going from $2,000 a year to $3,400. Then it was on to Ottawa and CBOT and the attraction of Parliament Hill and covering the likes of John Diefenbaker and Lester B. Pearson. He would cover the first Olympic Games that were broadcast via satellite in 1964 from Tokyo, and, of course the big Trudeau majority victory in 1968.
THE NETWORK NEWS ANCHOR FROM CBC TO CTV
Lloyd, at CBC would also host CBC Weekend towards the end of the ‘60s, and in 1970 became the anchor for CBC’s late night news show, The National. He would stay on until 1976, the year he was also in Montreal covering the ’76 Summer Olympics. But Lloyd Robertson wanted to do more than just announce.
“I think my work at the Olympics got the attention of CTV and CTV put in a call to me, and the Vice-President of News, Don Cameron, said: “Come over here, you could do everything here, you can write, go out in the field, continue to anchor the specials, we’ll make it worth your while financially, give you a long contract.” He took it to CBC, but they couldn’t match it with all their union and jurisdictional problems, and so I made the switch.”
It was a knock-your-socks-off contract. The announcement came shortly after the Olympics in 1976 and it was a shocker for many and made national news in itself. Lloyd Robertson would leave The National and become co-anchor with Harvey Kirck for the next 8 years. With the retirement of Harvey Kirck, Lloyd became the senior news anchor, and the rest is history. His first big story at CTV was a baptism by fire as he covered the PQ victory in the Quebec election in November of 1976.
Lloyd Robertson, married to his wife Nancy for many years and the proud father of four daughters, went on to an illustrious career at CTV, earning almost every honor possible. He has been a three-time Gemini winner as best host or interviewer, twice voted by TV Times readers as favorite news anchor, and was honored in 1993 with the prestigious President’s Award from the Radio-TV News Directors Association of Canada.
His proudest moments most likely came in 1998 when he became an Officer of the Order of Canada, and later on he was the first journalist inducted into Canada’s Walk of Fame in 2007.
Thursday, September 1, will the mark of an era in television history and for news television excellence as the man who has been voted 11 times by readers of TV Guide as Canada’s most trusted newscaster will deliver his final CTV newscast at 11 pm -
HIGHLIGHTS AND LOWLIGHTS
Certainly during such a long career has had its share of highlights and lowlights, in terms of people interviewed.
Lloyd remembers, “Lester Pearson was my favorite because he came in and asked about the rotten management at CBC and of course I was very nervous because he was the first Prime Minister I was interviewing and it was at Expo in ’67. I think my worst was Tommy Edwards, who had a big hit in the ‘50s. When I asked him how he liked Winnipeg, Edwards said: “Well, I came to Winnipeg to see you Lloyd.” He was coming onto me on air, so I just wrapped up the interview. I didn’t know how to handle that type of approach on television,” he says laughing, “so I just sent it back to the weatherman.”
The saddest story was certainly 9/11. All those people dead… that awful morning, we were looking into the mouth of hell when I sat in that chair, we didn’t know what was happening, and we knew there was one plane going down in Pennsylvania. There was a rumor going around about another, there were rumors all over the place, trying to instill the information so quickly, and then the emotional fallout afterwards. I was on the air for 14 hours and completely drained after that kind of day. I remembered thinking afterwards, what a terrible day it was, the worst one in my broadcasting career and I was around for Kennedy and that was bad, but this was worse.”
His favorite was on July 1st 1967 in Ottawa, being able to say “Happy Birthday, Canada!” when the fireworks went off behind the Peace Tower and doing all the programming that day. He recalled how happy everybody was, how energetic all the celebrations were and what a joyous time it was.
LIKES AND HOBBIES
When we asked Lloyd about his off-air hobbies or passions, we may have given him a little wake-up call.
“That’s a problem for me as I don’t have that many,” he said. “I’m not a good golfer. I read a lot of history and politics avidly. I do exercise as I have a regular program that I’m on a couple of times a week, so I’m going to have to find some things to do, so this could be an issue for me as I begin to slow down,” said Lloyd with a chuckle.
Lloyd admits to being somewhat of a jazz and classical music fan. “My favorite musician at the moment is Diana Krall. In fact, I will be able to interview her for one of my final shows.”
After Sept. 1, Lloyd will continue to be a CTV News employee, and his millions of fans will still be able to catch him hosting W5 shows, but he’ll be retiring from the nightly newscast.
After 35 years, he’s become a trusted friend, a familiar face, the person we’ve relied on to tell us “and that’s the kind of day it’s been.” And that’s the kind of career it’s been, Lloyd. A great one. You’ll be missed.
