Walling: Broadcasting has lost a legend
by Alex J. Walling
posted at TSN.ca
12/18/2007
Who in the world is that? That, was my impression the first time I heard that voice on the radio. Heck, this guy sounded better than any Canadian I had heard in the world of sports and he was coming from my AM radio dial in Canada.
It was in the mid 60's and the station was CJQC in Quebec City. This guy coming out of my tiny transistor radio was polished, had a very strong, almost American-like delivery and was very, very good. I had not ever heard someone like that.
That majestic if not dramatic voice belonged to Don Chevrier who passed away Tuesday at age 69.
Kids today who want to be hockey players look at Sidney Crosby. A teenager back in my day who wanted to have a life in sports broadcasting looked up to and listened to Chevrier.
I was that teenager. But I wasn't alone. I have no doubt that any person wanting or hoping to get into sports journalism looked up to Chevrier in those days and why not? He was that good and made it seem so effortless.
To me, he was the Canadian version of Al Michaels but with a much better voice. In fact, he may have had one of the best voices in the media business. It was like possessing a Nolan Ryan fastball. His voice was so good he could have made it as a voice-over announcer. And if he worked at it, he could have done movie trailers.
To have a God-given voice is one thing but it use it wisely and effectively is another. He was a craftsman with it, from the soft delivery in golf and curling to the booming delivery in doing the CFL and Blue Jays baseball.
TSN's Brian Williams called him the 'best play-by-play guy' ever. Many in our field would 'second that emotion'.
My first three radio stations were in Quebec City, Woodstock and North Bay, Ontario.
While all of the above were small market, private radio stations, we had to carry CBC programming as part of the broadcasting license. That meant we were privy to the CBC feeds and could listen to them 'off air'. That also meant once in a while hearing Chevrier doing a sports comment. I listened at every opportunity.
While American Howard Cosell has his good (and bad) points, Chevrier may have been the best I've seen. The analogy I could use is that he was the Larry Walker of the sports business. Just as Walker could hit, drive in runs, hit for power and had a great arm and won gold gloves, Chevrier could do it all.
He had pacing, tons of knowledge, was well prepared and put that together to deliver a product that was as professional as any in the history of Canadian or North American radio.
I met him just once, in late January 1974, where he was the Master of Ceremonies at a major sports dinner in Halifax. I spent around 15 minutes with him and found him pleasing and willing to answer questions from a young broadcaster.
I found out that he started in his hometown of Edmonton at the age of 17.
''You started at a major market?'' I remember asking him.
''I was thinking of university but ended up at CJCA in Edmonton and liked it,'' is what he told me.
He also said he didn't make a lot of money, something like $200 a month!
When I pointed out he was so young and started at a major market, he downplayed that, stating Edmonton was not a major market like Toronto and Montreal. But he loved the Eskimos and the CFL.
I wish I had known him better. But a good friend of mine, Doug Saunders did and got to know him very well.
Saunders spent nearly 20 years with the CBC and says Chevrier made an impression on him. In fact Saunders took over Chevrier's boxing beat for CBC.
''I joined the CBC in 1973 and I was barely 20 years old,'' Saunders told TSN.ca. ''He was someone I looked up to and when I met him the first time he made me feel at ease.''
Saunders covered his first Olympics at the 1976 Montreal games and was assigned the minor sports of water polo and fencing.
''He wished me well,'' Saunders continued. ''I had met him just once or twice and not for a long time. Yet, he remembered the meetings and what we talked about. He was a genuine, sincere person and treated me like he did Ted Reynolds, Tom McKee, Don Whitman and others who had been around for much more time than I.''
Saunders calls Chevrier a total broadcaster.
''He could interview anyone from the Prime Minister to a mechanic and he would be prepared,'' Saunders added. ''In addition to his great voice, he had a great intellect and was a great human being. You mattered when he spoke to you.''
Most good sports broadcasters can do many sports but you can tell which ones they like or moreso the ones that they don't have much insight into. The fact is, many can read names and do basic play-calling but insight is something you can't fake. In listening to Chevrier, he was simply good at just about everything.
''It takes talent, being smart and incredibility well prepared,'' says CBC's Bruce Rainnie who got to meet Chevrier at the last Olympics when 'Chevy' was doing the curling for NBC.
''Like so many others I grew up listening to him and admiring his work and I had a chance to tell him that in Torino,'' says Rainnie. ''I admired his diversification. He could do it all.''
And he did. From the minor sports such as table tennis to badminton to some of the greatest boxing fights in history, Olympic moments, and those Blue Jay games. He was the man behind the mic when Doug Ault hit those two homers on Opening Day in 1977.
In the late 50's and early 60's, there was a TV show called Paladin, Gun for Hire. Don Chevrier had a 'voice for hire' and so many networks took him up on it.
I doubt, in this age of specialization that we will ever see another sports broadcaster with such range, talent and ability. They don't make them that way. In fact, they never did. There was but one Don Chevrier.
For TSN.ca I'm Alex J. Walling
Alex J can be reached via email at: ajw@eastlink.ca
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That is very sad news Don was a big help to me as I was starting out in this business and both he and Tony Kubek made the extra effort to help out a young sportscaster back in 1985 when the Jays won the AL East for the 1st time ever. 
