CHFI o@ca.on.york_county.toronto.globe_and_mail 2005-06-04 published
COMPEAU,
W.
Michael
Program
Director
Emeritus of Classical
CFMX 96.3 FM, died on
the morning of Friday, May 20th, 2005, from complications due
to lung cancer. He was 65 years old. Michael's radio broadcasting
career spanned over 30 years, from his early years at
CHFI and
Canadian Broadcasting Corporation to his final endeavour as much
loved and respected Program Director and on-air host of
CFMX
96.3 FM from the mid 80's and into the 90's. Michael was very
proud that he helped bring
CFMX from its infancy to maturity
by programming a people's classic music repertoire for all to
enjoy. Michael will be dearly missed by his loved ones; family,
Friends and colleagues. His wish was for no formal funeral or
memorial service; just to be quietly layed to rest in his place
of birth - Gananoque, Ontario.
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CHFI o@ca.on.york_county.toronto.globe_and_mail 2005-12-19 published
Pat CURRAN,
Traffic
Reporter (1939-2005)
Until helicopters cut her out of a job, the Canadian Automobile
Association traffic reporter did her daily best to make sure
everyone in Toronto got home safely
By Danny GALLAGHER,
Special to The Globe and Mail, Monday, December
19, 2005, Page S11
Toronto -- Pat
CURRAN was the Voice of the Canadian Automobile
Association in Toronto and an authority on school-safety patrols
and road and vehicle safety. Every day, she did her best to try
and make sure people got home safely.
From 1962 to 1977, Pat
CURRAN broadcast radio reports on most
Metro Toronto stations. The motor league had its own studio --
with direct lines to most of the city's big radio stations --
where she put on her headset and went to work smoothing the way
for Toronto commuters.
According to the Canadian Automobile Association, Ms.
CURRAN
was only the second traffic reporter in the city and the only
woman to hold such a post, prompting a Toronto Telegram reporter
to write: "Pat
CURRAN, the dulcet, if not downright sexy voice
you hear giving the morning traffic reports on such stations
as CKFH,
CHIC and
CHFI."
Ms. CURRAN gave her reports during rush hour in the early morning
and then in late afternoon -- both for about two hours at a time.
Her information came from the Canadian Automobile Association's
own patrol vehicles, the police, from emergency call boxes on
the Gardiner Expressway and the Don Valley Parkway and from tow-truck
drivers and the like.
Pat CURRAN was a graduate of the radio-and-television-arts course
at Toronto's Ryerson Polytechnic Institute who ached to be an
announcer. One week before graduating, she sent an application
to the Canadian Automobile Association and was hired almost immediately.
Making use of what her mother Norma
CURRAN called a "very nice,
modulated voice," she also enjoyed two five-minute spots per
week on radio shows by Canadian Broadcasting Corporation broadcaster
Elwood GLOVER.
"I was in Toronto, the major market, and doing what I wanted,"
Pat CURRAN told her company publication Canadian Automobile Association
Today in 1995, the year she retired. "The part I enjoyed doing
most were the traffic reports. Women were frowned upon in radio,
so I think I broke the ground for the coming crowd."
In 1977, radio stations began using reporters aloft in helicopters
and that signalled the end of her traffic reports. Her role became
redundant.
"The Canadian Automobile Association's service was no longer
required when the helicopter era began," Norma
CURRAN said. "The
radio stations were feeding Pat's information to the helicopter
reporters. Pat was doing all the work and the helicopter reporters
weren't doing much and the Canadian Automobile Association felt
that wasn't right. The Canadian Automobile Association did these
traffic reports as a public service and decided it was time to
end it. The radio station at the Canadian Automobile Association
was taken out immediately."
But it wasn't the end of Ms.
CURRAN's tenure with the Canadian
Automobile Association. She became manager of consumer and public
information for its consumer and technical services division.
When media outlets wanted an opinion on traffic and other travel
issues, Ms.
CURRAN was the Canadian Automobile Association person
most often quoted.
Her specialty, however, was school patrols and vehicle and road
safety. She worked closely with Transport Canada to promote the
proper use of child-restraint systems and she implemented a wide
variety of safety programs for drivers and pedestrians. She campaigned
incessantly for seat-belt legislation and promoted the concept
of government-approved standards for seat belts in automobiles
manufactured in North America.
From 1969 until 1995, Ms.
CURRAN co-ordinated the Canadian Automobile
Association's training camp for school safety patrol officers
and pioneered the introduction of guards at street crossings
near schools.
"Pat originated all the safety patrols and crossing guards at
schools in conjunction with the police and the boards of education,"
said Sam CASS, for 39 years Toronto's commissioner of roads and
traffic. "She threw her weight around considerably. She persuaded
the provincial government to include traffic safety in their
policies on highways and roads.
"Way back then, traffic safety wasn't considered that important
by the police. To some police officers, traffic duty was a punishment.
But now it's a major part of policing."
Mr. CASS said Ms.
CURRAN even convinced the Ministry of Transportation
to widen the shoulders on the sides of Ontario roads and to move
poles and posts even farther back so that drivers would be less
likely to run into them. She also served on the Toronto Metro
Safety Council, the Canadian Association of Road Safety Professionals
and the Better Roads Coalition.
It would be safe to say that Pat
CURRAN was obsessed with safety.
After her death, Norman
CURRAN discovered the trunk of her daughter's
car held enough winter emergency equipment to supply an alpine
ski patrol. "I couldn't believe the stuff that was in there,"
Norma CURRAN said. "If she was in trouble in bad weather, she
was prepared. She practised what she preached."
Pat CURRAN was born March 29, 1939, in Hamilton, Ontario She
died of leukemia in Toronto on July 19, 2005. She leaves her
mother Norma. She never married and was predeceased by her father,
William, and brother, Robert.
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