sowny.net | The Southern Ontario/WNY Radio-TV Forum


You are not logged in. Would you like to login or register?

March 21, 2017 3:17 pm  #1


Betty Kennedy R.I.P.

 
Long time broadcaster and journalist Betty Kennedy has passed away.

Best known for her radio career on CFRB and her decades long run on Front Page Challenge.

Ms. Kennedy was 91...
 


  
 

March 21, 2017 3:40 pm  #2


Re: Betty Kennedy R.I.P.

 

March 21, 2017 4:46 pm  #3


Re: Betty Kennedy R.I.P.

Used to associate in a high school 'crew' which included Betty's son Sean...or was it Shawn?  Likely Sean.  At that stage in life that spelling 'stuff' didn't matter.  Early 70's minutia.  Prior to that...She was big on 'RB and on Front Page Challenge.  He was big with the 'girls'.  S'OK.  It all worked out.  Well it did for me.

91?  Well done Betty.  Hope our stone cold industry didn't leave you too far adrift on that imposed ice flow.  Betty had an impact on people's day-to-day lives...and on their week-to-week lives.  She would have been an ongoing part of people's actual lives.  Yet?

Thanks Bell.  Thanks Rogers.  Thanks to all of you other smaller yet still inconsequential media holding companies.  You just don't GET it.  But then NONE of you executive 'decision makers' ever mattered one freakin' iota to people...now did you?

Cheers to the memory of Betty Kenedy.  I didn't really get 'it' back then.  She was Sean's Mom.  My Mom, though, DID get it.

Last edited by Old Codger (March 21, 2017 4:46 pm)

 

March 21, 2017 4:57 pm  #4


Re: Betty Kennedy R.I.P.

I've been monitoring RB off and on and from what I've heard - and I admit I haven't been listening non-stop - they've only mentioned this in their newscasts. It would appear they don't want to put out the younger demo they're always chasing who've never heard of her, so why pay any attention to one of the first and most important female broadcasters in Canada? 

I notice they finally put an obit on their site. But in my mind, it only adds insult to injury. It appears to be a short and pre-prepared morgue piece - from the Canadian Press. 

 

March 21, 2017 5:05 pm  #5


Re: Betty Kennedy R.I.P.

Old Codger wrote:

Used to associate in a high school 'crew' which included Betty's son Sean...or was it Shawn?  Likely Sean.  At that stage in life that spelling 'stuff' didn't matter.

For the record, the Star's obit says his name was spelled "Shawn."

My apologies to old SOWNY Board member The Stickler, wherever he is, for treading on his turf. 

 

March 22, 2017 8:08 am  #6


Re: Betty Kennedy R.I.P.

Wally Crouter, Earl Warren, Bill Deegan, Ray Sonin, Gordon Sinclair, Bob Hesketh, Bill Stephenson, Betty Kennedy and so many more, all gone now. CFRB was a great full-service station, the likes of which we'll never see again.

http://rockradioscrapbook.ca/star-jun5-65.pdf


"Life without echo is really no life at all." - Dan Ingram
 

March 22, 2017 1:59 pm  #7


Re: Betty Kennedy R.I.P.

I used to watch FPC just to see the raw sexual tension between Kennedy and Fred Davis.


(But seriously, she seems to have had a good and long life. We should all be so lucky.)

 

March 22, 2017 8:59 pm  #8


Re: Betty Kennedy R.I.P.

RadioActive wrote:

I've been monitoring RB off and on and from what I've heard - and I admit I haven't been listening non-stop - they've only mentioned this in their newscasts. It would appear they don't want to put out the younger demo they're always chasing who've never heard of her, so why pay any attention to one of the first and most important female broadcasters in Canada? 

I notice they finally put an obit on their site. But in my mind, it only adds insult to injury. It appears to be a short and pre-prepared morgue piece - from the Canadian Press. 

This morning John Moore did a piece reminiscing about meeting her not long after taking over the morning show and wondered if Betty had been thinking "What's this guy doing at Wally Crouter's mic?" He also made a passing mention about how the station has changed since those days in order to not be thought of as your parents or grandparents radio station. In my opinion, Moore is a class act - he's planted in the present day but does not hesitate to publicly acknowledge  the greats who came before him.

 

March 23, 2017 8:01 am  #9


Re: Betty Kennedy R.I.P.

kevjo wrote:

RadioActive wrote:

I've been monitoring RB off and on and from what I've heard - and I admit I haven't been listening non-stop - they've only mentioned this in their newscasts. It would appear they don't want to put out the younger demo they're always chasing who've never heard of her, so why pay any attention to one of the first and most important female broadcasters in Canada? 

I notice they finally put an obit on their site. But in my mind, it only adds insult to injury. It appears to be a short and pre-prepared morgue piece - from the Canadian Press. 

This morning John Moore did a piece reminiscing about meeting her not long after taking over the morning show and wondered if Betty had been thinking "What's this guy doing at Wally Crouter's mic?" He also made a passing mention about how the station has changed since those days in order to not be thought of as your parents or grandparents radio station. In my opinion, Moore is a class act - he's planted in the present day but does not hesitate to publicly acknowledge  the greats who came before him.

I wish CFRB had done an on-air reunion. It's too late now, but can you imagine if many of those broadcast legends had gathered behind the mic one last time on 1010? It would have been perfect for Ted Woloshyn's show, in fact I suggested it to him a couple of years ago. Radio stations seem to think people forget about the broadcasters of the past, but they don't, in fact they are very much remembered.


"Life without echo is really no life at all." - Dan Ingram
 

March 23, 2017 8:12 am  #10


Re: Betty Kennedy R.I.P.

Oddly enough, it sounds like the kind of thing AM 740 might have tried. Another poster here recently pointed out that CFRB turned 90 not long ago without a word about the milestone on air. Too many stations ignore their own storied history because they don't want to appear 'old' to a younger demo. You only get an anniversary like that once. It's a shame they chose to ignore it.

 

March 23, 2017 9:31 am  #11


Re: Betty Kennedy R.I.P.

verger wrote:

I used to watch FPC just to see the raw sexual tension between Kennedy and Fred Davis  

Like a candle in the wind . . . 
 

 

March 23, 2017 10:13 am  #12


Re: Betty Kennedy R.I.P.

RadioActive wrote:

Oddly enough, it sounds like the kind of thing AM 740 might have tried. Another poster here recently pointed out that CFRB turned 90 not long ago without a word about the milestone on air. Too many stations ignore their own storied history because they don't want to appear 'old' to a younger demo. You only get an anniversary like that once. It's a shame they chose to ignore it.

Never thought of that, but I think its a great idea. I remember WCBS-FM used to do on-air reunions with jocks from many of the vintage stations (though mostly from WABC) and they were quite popular. I still think a weekly radio show about radio, like Craig Smith did with the SOWNY Show, could get quite a following. You could bring in guests every week, play snippets of airchecks, take calls from listeners. Hmm...
 


"Life without echo is really no life at all." - Dan Ingram