CBC's Russ Germain passes

[jon]

RUSS GERMAIN, 62
NEWS ANNOUNCER KNOWN FOR ATTENTION TO PRONUNCIATION

KATE TAYLOR
The Globe & Mail
February 4, 2009

It was when CBC Radio host Russ Germain helped out on a show called the Kids Network News in the early 1980s that he dubbed himself the "announcer-saurus." The host of the World at Six and later World Report had a deep, smooth voice, an authoritative delivery and an insistence on correct pronunciation that made him a mentor to both fledgling broadcasters and the grown-ups.

"You could count on him, come hell or high water. To have someone like that in a newsroom is so reassuring," said Judy Maddren, current host of The World Report and his colleague for many years.

A graduate of the University of Manitoba, Mr. Germain began his career in private radio in Winnipeg and Edmonton before joining the CBC in 1974 as an evening news reader in Saskatoon.

He went on to a variety of hosting jobs, from a local drive-home show in Toronto to the national program Ideas, but is best remembered as the voice of the news. He delivered The World at Six from 1983 to 1990 and again from 1996 to 2002. In between, he co-hosted The World Report in the morning.

He was known by his colleagues as a consummate professional who never let breaking news or an incipient cough disrupt a program for the listeners.

"You could throw anything at him, and you would never get any idea that something was going on behind the scenes," said retired CBC broadcaster Barbara Smith - in the studio, he had a powerful sense of humour that listeners seldom heard on air. She recalls that she and Mr. Germain represented a new generation when they began working at the CBC in the 1970s as the public broadcaster moved away from the stentorian and British-influenced voices of its past.

Mr. Germain was known for his attention to grammar and pronunciation on air, and served as the CBC's broadcast language adviser until his retirement in 2002, deciding whether firemen should be called firefighters or how to pronounce harassment. But Ms. Maddren, who now holds that job, rejected the notion that he was a stickler.

"Russ Germain's voice was smooth, and warm, and deep and trustworthy, and that was the man," she said.

Russ Germain was born in 1946 in New Liskeard, Ont. He died Feb. 2, 2009, in Toronto. He was 62, and had waged a long battle against lung cancer, which was diagnosed soon after his retirement. He is survived by wife Wendy Stratten and daughter Katherine.

[jon]

Anyone remember Russ at CJCA?

The Edmonton Broadcasters Club is looking for confirmation that Russ was there. Or where he was in "private radio in Edmonton" as the story states.

[Mike Cleaver]

Jon: The only one I can think of who might be able to provide the answer to this is former CJCA Chief Engineer Gord Skutle.
The Edmonton Broadcasters site still lists him but I'm not sure if he's still with us.
He'd been at CJCA since the late '50's.

[jon]

Mike Grant worked with Russ at CJCA in 1973-74, before Russ moved to CBC Saskatoon.

He says that Russ hosted Afternoon Drive and did a fair bit of voice work on commercials.