Jack Roe was told years ago by a mentor that being a radio broadcaster is not unlike being “a hand in a bucket of water. Once the hand is removed, there’s nothing left but the water, but while you’re there, you’re making an impact.”
On Friday morning (May 19), Roe’s hand was removed from the metaphorical bucket of water, with CBC Radio bringing to an abrupt end his 35-year run as the Peterborough correspondent for Ontario Morning.
With the sudden departure of its Kingston correspondent JC Kenny as well, the radio program now has no regional news correspondents in the fold.
“It’s kind of hard hanging up the spurs,” admitted Roe shortly after doing his last Ontario Morning report.
“I had to try and put it out of my mind. I’ve had a few people contact me since the report — family members and a couple of friends — just to say they were sad to see it go and to congratulate me on keeping Peterborough in profile across the province for the past three-and-a-half decades. It’s kind of hard to think it’s been that long, but there it is.”
According to Roe, this marks the second time during his lengthy run that CBC Radio severed its relationship with regional correspondents, noting when he started filing Peterborough reports, there were six in the fold.
“They made the decision to cut back all of the correspondents. We all got a phone call one day and they said ‘That’s it.’ I thought ‘Oh man, they’re going to regret that.’ About 18 months later, they started to bring the correspondents back slowly. It ended up with just the two of us (himself and the Kingston correspondent).
“Yes, I worry that the flavour of the show is going to change and people who are avid CBC Radio listeners aren’t going to feel as well represented. CBC may be able to figure out a method of doing that. I hope they do.
“I know, as a journalist, as someone who continues to work in that field, you need to have local contacts; those local voices telling the listening audience what’s going on. To have somebody based in the community who knows and understands people, and understands the vagaries of a particular community and also the heartbeat of the community, is invaluable.”
While he remains a weekend anchor with 680 News in Toronto, Roe readily admits he will miss bringing Peterborough news and information to CBC listeners across southern Ontario.
“You don’t just pack it away. This isn’t just a job to me. It turned out to be much, much more than that. It has been a wonderful opportunity to be the voice of the city. I’m proud to have been able to do that. I’m blessed to have had the opportunity.”
Reflecting back, when asked the unfair question of what one story he reported on stands out still, Roe quickly mentions the July 2004 Peterborough flood and its aftermath — “That story went on for quite awhile” — but then recalls others, noting “The Parkway has been both the bane of my existence and fodder for stories time and time again.
“There were a lot of fun stories to tell too, The fact that I was able to go out on the Peterborough Musicians’ Benevolent Association story today was lovely. Those are the stories I like to tell the most; the ones that have people involved in them. They’re the stories that come to life. The stories that involved people and the process of telling the personality of Peterborough were the most fun.
“The one story that keeps coming back is the daylight robbery of the IGA store in East City. It was literally a Keystone Kops story … a great story to spin out. Fortunately no one was hurt in the whole thing and they got all the money back. They did get all three guys, one of whom had swam across the river and was attacked by a nest of muskrats.”
Having spend a lifetime in radio — a Trent University grad, he worked at Trent Radio before co-hosting a CKPT Radio open line show with Al Porteous for 13 years — Roe notes he has long been on the front lines of the changing face of radio news. As such, he’s well positioned to express concern about the future of the medium as a local news source.
“To take away that local voice, to take away the opportunity for people to be heard and reflected, is a travesty and it’s happening all over the place. I think CBC may have to rethink the fact that they seem to have gone more global, more national, more provincial, rather than saying we need to talk more about Kingston or Peterborough or wherever.”
Still, when one door closes, another inevitably opens. At age 64, Roe says he still has much to offer beyond his continuing 680 News gig, noting writing is an area he’d like to pursue and, perhaps, more community theatre work. The last production he was involved in was The Mouse House staged by the Peterborough Theatre Guild.
“I love acting. Part of the reason I got involved in it was to finally be able to see an audience. I spend my whole time behind a microphone and it’s kind of a weird thing. You don’t know who’s there or how many there are. Not so with acting.”
Terming the end of his time with Ontario Morning “bittersweet … I don’t have socks that old”, Roe is grateful to have had the opportunity to broadcast Peterborough news to an Ontario-wide audience for as long as he did.
“It was a great run. I’m happy to have been able to do it as long as I was able to. Now I’m going to keep my ear to the ground and we’ll see what comes up next.”
