I thought as a broadcaster, the last thing you want to do is say goodbye to

your viewers. And he agreed. (Kevin Frankish)

A GOODBYE FROM BOB MCINTYRE -- 30 SECONDS TO BLACK
As told to Kevin Frankish
After half a century in broadcasting we have lost a pioneer.
Bob McIntyre passed quietly today at Royal Victoria Regional Health Centre. It
followed a six-round fight with cancer.
For 23 days he had a chance to say good bye to all those who loved him. In the
end, as it should be, he left this world holding the hand of his beautiful Darlene.
He was like a father to me during my time at CKVR TV, and in the years that
followed.
Bob McIntyre taught me the true meaning of what it means to be a true success in
this business we call broadcasting.
In the duration of a newscast, one of our most precious times is those final few
seconds before we 'go to black'. It is in those last 30 seconds that we can
sometimes leave the script, truly wrap up the day's events and say what is really on
our mind.
It is my honour to bring you this final broadcast of Bob McIntyre.
He loved his viewers so very much, I know this for fact.
Bob granted me the privilege of doing one more interview with him just yesterday.
So Bob ... 30 seconds to black. Cue Bob
Kevin: Fifty years ago your voice was first heard on Radio. How did that
happen?
Bob: I was so dumb that I didn't know what it was going to take to get where I
wanted to go, but at the same time, the rush, the delight to be on the radio was so
wonderful. (Bob thanks John Radford, then manager of CFJR Radio in Brockville
for taking a chance on him.) I walked in off the street with no background in
broadcasting ... and he let me go on the air. Who the heck would be allowed to do
that today.
K: Were you any good?
B: Not particularly.
K: You came to CKVR when?
B: I had been working for Foster Hewitt in Toronto at the number-two rock station
in the country. (CKFH Radio, now The Fan 590.) I had been working my dogs off
until I bailed out of there. That was September 1972. I was to be the first anchor

for the television department, which was splitting away from radio station CKBB
(Now B101). I thought I was going to be in Barrie six months and back to
Toronto ... but I stayed and it was the best darned thing I ever did! The best! We
didnt have any money. Darlene, in a time of dress shirts, would actually dye my
shirts so I could look up-to-date on television and she made my ties.
K: Tell me about your viewers.
B: I have had the most wonderful viewers over the course of time. They have liked
Bob McIntyre for what he has done with the weather. Over the course of time
every one of them has stopped me in the grocery store and said hello. Weather was
an opening to talk ... to be part of who I am.
K: I want to hear Bob Mcintyres lessons in life, advice for succeeding.
B: I had read a Star Week article many years ago about Bob Hope. (His
philosophy) ... love me and I will love you back, and I have used that before I have
gone on air every day.
K: Explain that.
B: I want to be loved, I truly do. You cannot buy love or respect. You can only be
loved and you present yourself in a position to receive it.
K: They say behind every good man ... there is a good woman. In your case
that is Darlene.
B: After 73 years on this planet ... without Darlene McIntyre, I wouldn't have
gotten anywhere. Without Darlene everything would have been a Hail Mary and I
would never have gotten where. Darlene was able to keep me in a straight line.
K: Well Bob, the show is almost over. Thirty seconds to black, the camera is
on you and everyone who ever watched you has tuned in.
B: All I have to say is ladies and gentlemen, for the past 50 years you have made
myself and my wife a part of your life. We have had a lot of fun and may all your
days be sunny!
Fade to black ...