RadioActive wrote:

I’m more sorry than I can say to relate the news that Clint Nickerson passed away over the weekend.
 
Clint spent over three decades in Toronto radio and TV, most of them at CFTR (twice!) a year at a pre-sports CJCL, where he was P.D., and more time than I can count as a producer at City TV in Toronto.
 
Clint, a lifelong smoker, had been diagnosed with lung cancer just three weeks ago, after apparently starting to cough up blood. He was rushed to the hospital in Victoria, B.C., where he’s been living for many years, but they couldn’t save him. He and his wife, Alisa, had just marked their anniversary a few days earlier.    
 
The funeral is apparently going to be private, but at some point there will be a celebration of his life. It was a life very well lived and he had a profound influence on many careers, including mine. I hadn’t talked to Clint in a while but we kept in touch and it was always great to hear that terrific deep radio voice. I will forever regret I won’t be able to hear it anymore.
 
He was a wonderful man and was way too young to go. He was only 66. 

Clint was also a newscaster at Broadcast News for a time in the early '80s. R.I.P.
 

Here's a rarity I found in my archives - I believe it's the very first piece Clint ever did for the nationally syndicated documentary show "Sunday "Sunday" way back in 1980. He went backstage at the Jerry Lewis Labour Day Telethon in Las Vegas, a story that includes interviews with Wolfman Jack, David Hartman and Ed McMahon. I think it was one of his favourites. And yes that is the legendary Don Parrish doing the tag at the end. 

Behind The Scenes At The Jerry Lewis Labour Day Telethon

Last edited by RadioActive (June 5, 2017 5:55 pm)

What a brilliant piece of work.  I wonder if Lesley Webster was producing it at that point?  Sunday Sunday and CFRB Sunday for that matter were must listens for me, as both a news junkie and a radio production one.

Damn that takes me right back to the days of sitting at the back of the room watching these folks put this stuff together, cutting tape and getting 24 tracks out of a 4 track recorder .

RadioActive wrote:

Here's a rarity I found in my archives - I believe it's the very first piece Clint ever did for the nationally syndicated documentary show "Sunday "Sunday" way back in 1980. He went backstage at the Jerry Lewis Labour Day Telethon in Las Vegas, a story that includes interviews with Wolfman Jack, David Hartman and Ed McMahon. I think it was one of his favourites. And yes that is the legendary Don Parrish doing the tag at the end. 

Behind The Scenes At The Jerry Lewis Labour Day Telethon

On behalf of Clint and Robert, thanks Iain!.......Clint Nickerson and Robert Holiday early seventies

Last edited by Citypulse News 15 (June 6, 2017 8:38 pm)

I just heard the news of Clint's passing today and I thought I'd add my own from the very very early years, long before he moved east.

Clint and I both started out at CJVI in Victoria at about the same time. This was back in the day when you all you needed to work in the business was desire and the willingness to work for next to nothing.

Yes, Clint had that annoying deep voice even back then and not being blessed as he was I should have rightly hated him, but it just wasn't possible. Instead, Clint became a best friend, roommate and my best man when I married.

I think the only time Clint and I ever disagreed was on the topic of just which one knew more about the music of the day. We'd spend hours in the record library playing the fewest bars possible of 45s and challenging the other to not only name that tune, but name the writer and the label. I don't think we ever fully concluded who reigned supreme, so I suppose it'll have to be a draw now. Still, it's an enduring memory all these years later.

God, it seems impossible that we were ever so young. We both hoped to be legendary DJs and instead both ended up in news, having followed separate paths to arrive at the same place.

I saw Clint off and on over the years and although we lived thousands of miles apart, I always considered him a good friend I could rely on. Just knowing he was out there was always a great comfort.

When a friend and co-worker of mine moved east with hopes of breaking into TV, I told her to give Clint a call and mention my name. Even though he was some big time TV guy, I knew Clint would help her in anyway he could to get the lay of the land. No, Clint didn't hire her, but behind the scenes he helped get her started in a TV career that lasted just shy of 20 years. 

Even though I left broadcasting behind me many years ago, some nights I still dream about it. Usually, I'm just starting a newscast when I discover I have no copy in front of me and I desperately try to ad lib the news. Maybe next time I have that dream Clint will be there with the copy in hand to rescue me and because I'd love to see him just one more time.

I knew Clint well back in my CFTR production days. He was kind and considerate, loved to help people, very smart and had a great sense of humor! Regretfully, I lost contact after leaving radio in the 80s. Love to have a cold one with him one more time. What a loss. I guess the good really do die young.

There is a terrific article (and a great pic) about Clint, mentioning some things I didn't know about him, published in the Victoria Times Colonist newspaper.(They say he was 65, his wife insists he was 66.)  

Definitely worth a read for friends and fans of the man who was something of a stickler for accuracy, so much so that he occasionally referred to himself in my presence as "Nit Pickerson."

Big wit and a big heart.

Golf-loving broadcaster helped launch The New VI in Victoria