rych was my go-to guy for almost everything that had to do with radio and radio personnel for my ckco-history.com website. He will be sadly missed by all those who knew him. The once-a-month CKCO/CKKW/CFCA Old Fart Lunches will never be the same again.

RIP rych 

RadioActive wrote:

scrand wrote:

 So if you can share any information about the following people I'd be most appreciative. 

Gord Butler (radio announcer); Paul Kudla (technician - died March 2015); Jack McLean (TV sales); Ron Prince (news); Lon Ritzo aka Duke Roberts (radio announcer - seems there was more than one with that alias); Bill Whiting (promotions manager)

If it's the same guy who was on CHUM, I believe "Duke Roberts" also jocked under the name Gary Duke. 

Good luck with your search!

Not the same "Duke Roberts" - the one I'm looking for had a whole sordid pass with links between Saskatchewan and the Dakotas. - thank though
 

If this group can't help me I might have actually reached the end of me rope.

I'm a retired employee of CKCO-TV in Kitchener and own and run the website ckco-history.com. On the site I have a page of all those (that I know of) who have worked in television or radio at 864 King St. W, Kitchener and have passed away.

The In-Memory page has so many people listed (almost 300) and a small number (6) who I've never been able to find obituary information about despite extensive searching. Some of these people have had a career in broadcasting. So if you can share any information about the following people I'd be most appreciative. 

Gord Butler (radio announcer); Paul Kudla (technician - died March 2015); Jack McLean (TV sales); Ron Prince (news); Lon Ritzo aka Duke Roberts (radio announcer - seems there was more than one with that alias); Bill Whiting (promotions manager)

As someone who has been a baseball fan for 60 years (Tigers) and never been a Jays fan it has always driven me up the wall listening to the Jays and Buck Martinez who couldn't start a sentence without first saying "Yeah". I used to say that if you played a drinking game where you had to take a drink of alcohol every time Buck said Yeah you'd never make it past the second inning. Well now I can finally listen to a ballgame game again.

Is there a reporter more annoying than CFTO's Beth McDonnell.....her whining roller-coaster voice just sends me up the wall. 

I listen to one of the stations listed all the time - WXYG "The Goat" Album Rock....not to be confused with Classic Rock....so not just hits like some stations. Give it a listen

Not the full version and for some reason in 3 parts but you get the idea

Part 1 - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CejsPBbl1RE
Part 2 - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iaCk8O73gY4
Part 3 - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7xmu5sR8zy8

We learned today of the passing of former CKCO-TV and CHCH-TV announcer / reporter Ed Doyle on January 22, 2026. Ed worked at CKCO-TV from 1963 to 1969 and CHCH-TV from 1983 to 1993. As you can read in the article, Ed was a man of many talents and jobs in his 90 years.
https://ckco-history.com/in-memory/ed-doyle/
 

Kitchener gets mentioned on the new Steve Carell series "Rooster"......it's wrong information but still always nice to hear Kitchener get mentioned.



 

There is a work around for posting news stories that I've used without any problems.

https://r.pebmac.ca/

Still looking - can't believe they are so hard to find

My biased opinion - Twist and Shout should be higher than 14th.....and it's a joke that "Blinded by the Light" is 28th.....#1 in Canada and the USA and so many times better than Springsteen's original. "House of the Rising Sun" at #72 - who made this list and what were they smoking at the time? There's probably more like this but I gave up looking at this stupid list.

As long as I don't have to listen to Buck Martinez then anything is better....so yea I'm watching the Fox coverage. Captain Obvious is a master of telling you what you just saw but the fact that he can't start a sentence without saying "Yea" first drives me crazy...a drinking game where you have to just take a swallow of your beer when he says "Yea" every time would have you drunk by the third inning and passed out by the 5th. I know Jays fans love him but if you are an otherwise fan of baseball (not a blue kool-aid drinking fan) he teaches you almost nothing that you might not already know. Smoltz can be very dry and low key at times but he can give you insights that I never hear from Buck.

Following CFCA-FM's Fred Merritt's passing in August, the 864 King Street West gang in Kitchener has been hit by another 4 more retired employees who have gone to that big TV Studio in the sky. After Fred on August 24th, Willa McLean passed away on September 4th.....Willa was the wife of deceased Radio and Television personality Bob McLean. She co-produced "McLean and Company" on CKCO-TV. On September 14th, Su McKillop passed away. Su had been the Television Traffic Supervisor for a number of years before moving on to work at CTV in Toronto. We were all shocked to hear of the sudden ailment and death of Production Editor Joe Ulmer at just 70 years of age. There were few edited shows that came out of the Production Edit Suite that Joe did not play some part in editing. Just two days ago CKCO-TV News lost one of it's finest - Gary McLaren. (Webpage is being worked on with many pictures and videos to add on). Gary did it all over the years. In the 1950's he worked the newsroom, co-hosted a show called Gadabout, and was the host of Canadian Bandstand after Wally Crouter - Wally quit because it was interfering with his golf game. Besides reporting, Gary would go on to be the Assignment Editor, New Director and then the host of a very popular morning program - Sunday AM. Gary was 92 years old at the time of his passing.

This now makes 11 former employees of 864 King Street West in Kitchener who have died in 2025.....and there's still 3 months left.