Ray Peters
I was eight when
I got into radio at CJOR. I worked with guys like Alan Young, Fletcher Markle and Dick Diespecker. I was
a child actor, singer and musician. My brother Wally was program director and I
just followed him. I earned $8 a week and don't laugh, that was big money in
the '30s."
It is a paradox
of broadcasting that the most powerful men are the least known. An overnight
disc jockey, doing a rip-and-read newscast at
So it has been
with Peters, but he has had his finger in your eye for almost 30 years, since
those 30 desperate months when he took hold of a collapsing television station,
tourniqueted its bleeding
money loss, and turned it into the dazzling financial and ratings success that
BCTV is today.
PETERS STUNNED
the broadcast and the general business community yesterday when he announced
his immediate retirement as president and chief executive officer of Western
International Communications Ltd.
The impact of
the announcement was so powerful that some just couldn't believe Peters wasn't
pushed.
A one-time
broadcast rival, communications consultant Don Hamilton, said yesterday:
"I heard the announcement on television. I almost fell off the sofa. I
just can't see Ray walking away on his own volition. He built that company. He
is that company, in the eyes of the CRTC and the financial community."
Peters, whose
most public venture into the spotlight was his chairmanship of a committee to
restructure the bankrupt Vancouver Symphony Orchestra, was amused and disturbed
by rumors of a WIC power play. He said yesterday: "I shocked a lot of people.
But it was a natural decision and it was my decision. I have always wanted to
retire early and this isn't early enough.
IN 1961, Peters
was asked to join Vancouver-based Vantel
Broadcasting, headed by Art Jones, which owned two television stations, CHAN in
In less than
three years, Peters turned the operation around and one of the biggest factors
was his gamble that a nightly one-hour newscast would pull viewers and
advertisers. BCTV's News Hour today has the largest
evening news audience of any market in
(When Peters moved
downtown 11 years ago to run WIC, revenues were $27 million a year. Today, as
he leaves, total revenues are $230 million.)
The remarkable
success of the News Hour was threefold: Peters provided the one-hour format;
former executive news director Cameron Bell created the hard, aggressive edge
to the reporting and anchorman Tony Parsons provides the believable delivery.
That may be the
highest praise Peters could get. Six months ago, BCTV management summarily
sacked
Denny Boyd
Vancouver Sun 1989
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Order of |
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Full
Name |
Honour Received |
City
and Prov. or Terr. |
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Peters, John Raymond |
C.M. |
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Honour |
Appointment
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Investiture
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C.M.
(Member) |
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Peters,
J. Ray
It
was his work as a performer, musician and writer that led Ray Peters into a
long and varied career in broadcasting in 1934. Following stints as a record
company promotion manager and program producer, Ray became the first commercial
manager of CHCH TV Hamilton when it went on the air in 1954. In 1963, he moved
to