Dave Gerry retires from CTV Vancouver

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Dave Gerry

 

His statement on facebook

 

Done

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I’m done. So done. Done like a dinner. Finito Mussolini. Done! For someone who’s been threatening to retire for years, it’s about damn time!

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I always said I would quit when the job ceased to be fun and then contradicted myself for too long when the enjoyment lagged below full measure.

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This is no rap against my last employer. CTV Vancouver handed me an expressive outlet on my own terms. The folks there made it so easy for me to do what I do. Except that, despite appearances, it’s never really been all that easy….and now I feel I’ve hit a qualitative wall of my own construction.

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Let’s be clear, just for all those ‘grassy knollers’ out there. I was not asked, pressured, harangued, nudged, noodged nor shown any semblance of a door.

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It’s just me.

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Nevertheless, it’s hard to stop when people tell you to keep going. It’s flattering. And since the business of broadcasting is substantially about ego, it’s a very soothing and persuasive argument.
But I have always held that one should always be their own worst critic. No one has been tougher on themselves than me. That’s how you do good work. That’s how you maintain a bar. If you’ve become a cliché, well, you have no one but yourself to blame.

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I started all of this by doing ten years of ‘hard’ News…something for which I had nary a glimmer of fire in the belly. So I set out to craft a career in human interest story telling…along with a fair measure of comedic idiocy. You have to make a job like that. No one is going to hand it to you. So I did. I thought it would absolute heaven to be unshackled from the protocols and demands of the daily News grind. I wanted to call my own shots.

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You have to be so careful what you wish for.

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When it was good it was absolutely terrific! Boy, have I had some fun. But when it failed, because when you take risks you invite failure, it was pretty grim. It was a creative hell of my own making. I burned out a few times over those decades. But I had a responsibility to my employer, my family and my bank account. So I managed to grind it out in those concept-lean troughs…when it felt like I was hitting a runway with no landing gear and no layer of cushioning foam.

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I don’t need to do that anymore.

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There was a sweet spot in that 40 year run when there was money in television for travel and production and I was in the right place at the right time with the right skills set. I knew it probably wouldn’t get any better than that. I really did. (Hell, they paid me to go sailing!) I tried to make the most of it.

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Now I can be satisfied.

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I’m going to be funny for my grandchildren now. I’m going to put in endless hours of making strange faces and silly sounds, singing songs, reading stories and being goofy all over again. And some day, if those kids ever take a look at some of what I did all those years ago they can say ,”Oh, that’s where it all came from!”.

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That’ll work just fine for me.

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Dave

8 COMMENTS

  1. Old Pal, welcome to the every day is Saturday Club. May I be the first to buy you lunch? A career well done, my friend! Put your feet up….
    w.

  2. What a perfect description of the ups, downs, perks and pressures of a great long career by such a hard working, wildly talented and honest guy.
    Congratulations Dave you were an inspiration to those of us that tried to take some chances enjoyed it when it worked and learned from it the many times it didn’t.
    We never met but I’ve been a long time fan and I just became a bigger one.

  3. Dave:
    When you and Simi Sara did The Breakfast Show, there were times when you reduced Simi to a quivering mass and your comments would have a similar effect on me. My favourite is when you said that Katie Couric appeared to be somewhat bloated when she did a special news program and when Simi inquired why you would say that, you explained that it was probably attributable to her “being on the cusp of menopause”. I enjoyed the show you did on the BC Rail trip from Vancouver to Prince George. When in Toronto, I would see your show now and then but the people in The Centre of the Universe had a problem appreciating your unique brand of humour and unorthodox style.

  4. A long road since the time you and I worked together at CJOE in London Dave…were you there long enough to have a coffee at the Grill Room in the Hotel London? What a great career you’ve had since, and I wish you a very happy retirement…

  5. No matter what Dwayne said about those folks in TO , who evidently don’t get your sense of humor. I confirm they do, based on our great years in the GTA where we caught your wonderful schtick.
    Enjoy retirement!
    P.S. I’m the courier who yelled “Hey Gerry” while you & your crew were at the travel agent in the RBC Tower recently…

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