Wednesday, September 20th

MY 60 YEARS IN JOURNALISM

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Darrel’s broadcasting career began at CFAM Radio in Altona, Manitoba, in 1962. In 1973 he accepted an offer to join CFCN-TV Calgary as its senior news anchor.  He signed a 5 year contract, but never left! From 1973 to 1987 Darrel anchored the CFCN-TV 6:00 and 11:30 P.M. local newscasts.  From 1987 to 2010 he co-anchored the 6:00 P.M. news, first with Michelle Hogan for two years and then with Barb Higgins for twenty-one years.

Darrel had trained as a teacher at Saskatchewan Teachers College and put that training to good use as a Broadcast Journalism instructor at SAIT for eleven years and Mount Royal College for fifteen years. He has worked with dozens of his former students over the years and is proud of their achievements.

From 2010 to 2013 he co-anchored the weekend 6:00 P.M. news and began a weekly feature entitled “Inspired Albertans”. On December 29th, 2013 he anchored his final newscast but continues to enjoy the Inspired feature but still does a weekly show on YES TV.

Awards and Honours:

• CanPro Gold Award for the documentary From A Child’s Hand (1995)
• Numerous team awards from the Radio Television News Directors Association
• Honorary Bachelor of Communications – Journalism Degree from Mount Royal College (2003)
• Volunteer Calgary Heart of Calgary Award (2004)
• RTNDA Lifetime Achievement Award (2006)
• Honorary Bachelor of Applied Technology Degree from SAIT Polytechnic (2009)
• Western Association of Broadcasters Hall of Fame Award (2013)
• City of Calgary Award for Community Activism (2013)

Career Highlights:

• Coverage of Quebec’s October Crisis of 1970
• Coverage of Calgary’s 1981 bid to host the 1988 Olympic Winter Games, the 1984 Los Angeles Olympics, the 1988 Calgary Olympics, several federal and provincial political leadership conventions and dozens of elections
• Darrel’s most memorable assignment was travelling with shoe boxes from Calgary children to kids in the war-ravaged countries of Bosnia and Croatia in 1995