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March 19, 2023 7:36 am  #1


Legendary Kitchener TV Personality Passes

I rarely watched CKCO from Toronto, but even I remember Johnnie Walters. He was your "man on the street" interviewer that brought a lot of humour to a one-TV station town. 

He first found major fame on the radio at then-rock station WHK Cleveland, where he worked for more than a decade, including the British invasion years. And he had a chance to be the MC for what quickly became a huge American TV show, but chose to come home instead. 

"Johnnie had career prospects in the U.S. and had been considered to host “The Newlywed Game” television show, said daughter Aubrey. But the couple decided to come back home to Ontario, closer to family, and moved to Waterloo, where he joined CKCO-TV."  

The Waterloo Record reports the TV personality passed away on Feb. 26th. He was 90. 

Funny, quirky broadcaster was local TV personality

 

March 19, 2023 8:54 am  #2


Re: Legendary Kitchener TV Personality Passes

I remember the horoscope show, I watched it whenever I was home from school. Very trippy for small town local TV.

 

March 19, 2023 9:19 am  #3


Re: Legendary Kitchener TV Personality Passes

"Who was the last King of Italy?"



 

 

March 19, 2023 10:27 am  #4


Re: Legendary Kitchener TV Personality Passes

Johnnie Walters was one of those people who was exactly the same off and on the air.  He was hilarious and put a high value on having fun.  He came across as everyone's pal, mischievous, smart but unpretentious.  Everyone loved him.

It's worth a visit to the CKCO-History site on Youtube. You can spend a lot of time looking at video, pictures and reading stories on this sometimes overlooked but pioneer operation.  This was one busy local television station that regularly produced pilots with the goal of landing the show up on the network.  Sometimes their productions did.

Here is a run of shows, specials, pilots and more produced by CKCO, many have video with them.
http://ckco-history.com/productions/   

Last edited by paterson1 (March 19, 2023 10:28 am)

 

March 19, 2023 10:56 am  #5


Re: Legendary Kitchener TV Personality Passes

The station is celebrating 69 years on the year this month.

From March 1954:


 

     Thread Starter
 

March 19, 2023 11:22 am  #6


Re: Legendary Kitchener TV Personality Passes

I don't know if anyone else cares about this stuff, but I'm always fascinated by the history of a TV or radio station. And here's something I never knew. CKCO might have wound up on Channel 6 if the original application had been approved. This was in 1953, so it didn't take long before they tried again, this time successfully. But not, as it turns out on Channel 45!



One last thing - apparently CKCO was the original call letter set for an Ottawa radio station. It changed in 1949 to the I.D. 60s listeners would well recall - CKOY.

     Thread Starter
 

March 19, 2023 11:37 am  #7


Re: Legendary Kitchener TV Personality Passes

Here is an opening for Trivia and Company.  This one is interesting since it shows some of the inner offices of CKCO.  Also many of the stations staff were part of the opening skit and it is downright silly, camel and all.
Ambitious for a local independently owned TV station..https://www.google.com/search?q=johnnie+walters+youtube&rlz=1C1GGRV_enCA751CA751&ei=VCoXZKiLKe3B7gKk_5Mg&start=10&sa=N&ved=2ahUKEwioharNp-j9AhXtoFsKHaT_BAQQ8NMDegQIBhAW&biw=1366&bih=657&dpr=1#fpstate=ive&vld=cid:334bef97,vid:7jELN8VXSLk

 

March 19, 2023 1:58 pm  #8


Re: Legendary Kitchener TV Personality Passes

Johnnie Walters also hosted a short-lived revival of Trivia Company, but based out of CFPL London and using Downtown London as its base.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=07f0QO8F1Y4

 

March 19, 2023 4:57 pm  #9


Re: Legendary Kitchener TV Personality Passes

In the much smaller TV universe of the 70s and even the 80s, channel surfers in Toronto were much more likely to watch something on CKCO, CKVR or CHEX than today so I think a number of Toronto viewers from that era would remember Johnnie Walters.

 

March 19, 2023 7:29 pm  #10


Re: Legendary Kitchener TV Personality Passes

The problem in those days (and some of them were pre-cable) was being able to receive CKCO at all if you lived in Toronto. I only saw it when we got a rotor on the roof, and I had to turn it to the west to bring in a semi-fuzzy pic. But it was good enough to watch and that's where I first saw Johnnie Walters. 

The same went for CKVR, which again only came in with the rotor facing all the way north from my parents' home in North York. 

Most of the time, the antenna was facing south to get Buffalo. But at least that gave us some extra choices back then. 

     Thread Starter
 

March 20, 2023 9:18 am  #11


Re: Legendary Kitchener TV Personality Passes

Johnnie Walters was a unique broadcaster with an infectious laugh. He could turn the smallest thing into a full show and the Trivia company program was one of my favourites. CKCO was on a decent cable channel position in Toronto in the 80's and 90's... in the 20's I believe grouped with Barrie and Peterborough. 

 

March 20, 2023 10:45 am  #12


Re: Legendary Kitchener TV Personality Passes

MJ Vancouver wrote:

Johnnie Walters also hosted a short-lived revival of Trivia Company, but based out of CFPL London and using Downtown London as its base.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=07f0QO8F1Y4

According to wiki the revival of Trivia Company was from 1992-94 with the show running on CFPL and CFTO.  At the same time he was hosting a mid morning weekday program on CKCO called Morning Magazine which ran from 1987 to 1994.

 In 1959 Walters was on air working at CKEY in Toronto when he was heard by the president of radio station WHK AM in Cleveland.  He was offered a job and was an announcer at the station from 1959 to 1965.  During this time he hosted a TV pop music show on ABC Cleveland affiliate WEWS.

In 1965 he moved to Cincinnati and hosted a show on WLW TV with Vivian Della Chiesa which was syndicated.  The program lasted until 1968 when it was cancelled and replaced by the Phil Donahue Show.

From 1969 to 1973 Johnnie hosted Dialing for Dollars and The Big Money Movie on KTVI in St. Louis.  In the book SCTV: Behind the Scenes, Harold Ramis said it was this version of Dialing for Dollars which was the inspiration for the take offs and spoofs of the show on SCTV. 

In 1974 Walters moved back to Canada and worked at CKCO hosting many shows and events until 1994. He retired at 61, partially to take care of his ailing mother.  Walters was married to his wife Jackie for 63 years, she passed away in 2021. 

In Trivia Company one highlight of the show was when someone on the street solved trivia question.  Of course Johnnie made a big deal about this and the "winner" was presented with a Certificate of Genius.  The winner then had to read the certificate out loud on the street for the surrounded crowd to hear the proclamation that they (the winner) was in fact a genius and certainly not a jerk.  A cash prize was also involved. 

 

March 20, 2023 10:44 pm  #13


Re: Legendary Kitchener TV Personality Passes

I wondered so often what happened to him.  I was a huge fan of his shows when I was a kid.  Loved his presentation style.  #RIP.  He was what Rob Cormier always aspired to be .   Unfortunately never came close.  (There's one for the history books..)



 


Madness takes its toll.  Please have exact change.
 
 

March 21, 2023 10:32 am  #14


Re: Legendary Kitchener TV Personality Passes

Never heard of Rob Cormier or his show.  Looking at Youtube it appears his show was on community cable.  Very ambitious for a cable company like Rogers, Maclean Hunter or Cogeco to produce a show like this. Where was it produced and in what city?  Was it ever picked up by any OTA channels ig?

Rob's bits look to be a lot more structured than what I remember Johnnie doing.   Mr. Walters bits were usually live or live to tape, so he tended to ad lib most of the time and was always talking to the crew.  I believe his shows on CKCO mid morning were live for the most part.