Dave Wright

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This article is about the Canadian broadcaster. For other uses, see Dave Wright (disambiguation).

Dave Wright, (born May 18, 1928 in Toronto, Ontario) is a retired Canadian broadcaster.

Wright started his broadcasting career in 1950 at CHNO in Sudbury, Ontario but soon moved to CKBB in Barrie as sportscaster and play by play announcer for the Barrie Flyers of the Ontario Hockey Association Junior A league. Wright moved to television in 1954 when he joined CHCH-TV in Hamilton.

In 1956 Wright freelanced with CBC Television’s public affairs programs Canadian Magazine and See it Now, as well as the Dominion Network's This is Canada. From 1958 to 1972, as a program consultant, Wright managed radio stations in Kitchener, Cornwall, Toronto and Montreal.

He returned to announcing in 1972 as sports director for CHUM radio in Toronto. In 1976, CHUM management moved him to Halifax, Nova Scotia to host a two hour morning talk show called the Hotline on CJCH, and also produced and host a daily thirty minute television news magazine, Dave Wright’s Notebook for ATV. In 1982, that program evolved into the hour long Live at Five news magazine. Wright insisted there be no anchor desk, so he could walk around the ATV newsroom introducing reports and debriefing reporters at their desks. This casual, conversational approach, unique in television at the time, made Live at Five the highest rated television news program in Eastern Canada. Wright also produced and hosted a weekly half hour interview program, The Wright Way, as well as a number of award winning documentaries.

In 1986, American television talent head-hunters, while on a fishing trip to New Brunswick, saw Wright’s unique approach to delivering the news and he was approached by several US stations. Although fifty-eight years old at the time, Wright signed a two year contract with WNEV, the CBS affiliate in Boston, Massachusetts, to co-anchor the 6 p.m. and 11 p.m. newscasts. In 1987 Wright suffered a heart attack and underwent quadruple bypass surgery. He arranged to have his ordeal video taped and later produced and hosted the documentary From the Heart, which later earned an Emmy Award nomination.

On his return, the station attempted to copy the ATV Live at Five format with Wright as co-host. During this time, with his Canadian passport offering easier access, he was sent to Iran to produce and host a documentary on the Iran-Iraq war then later to Egypt to produce and host a documentary on ancient Egypt as a lead in to the Ramesses the great exhibit at the Boston Museum. Although Live at Five was doing well in the ratings, Wright was frustrated by producer rivalry within the newsroom, so at the end of his contract he decided to retire and return to Toronto.

The day after his furniture arrived from Boston, CHUM management called and asked Wright to return to ATV, this time as anchor of the ATV Evening News at Six, albeit, and understandably, with a significantly lessened studio workload, due to his heart troubles. He enjoyed originating his newscast at the scene of a major stories, not only regionally, but also internationally - Berlin during the collapse of the Berlin Wall and from various locations during the first Gulf War.

In 1994, at the age of 66, Wright, suffering from depression, announced his retirement and with his wife Audrey, who he married in 1952, returned to rejoin the family in Barrie, Ontario. Wright’s later recovery from depression led him to establish a website and Blog that promotes positive thinking and the importance of creating a creative challenge to take you into and through retirement.

[edit] Honours

  • National Heart Association Man of the Year, 1987 (Boston)
  • CanPro Award for Best Documentary: The People’s Pope, 1985
  • Toastmasters International Communicator of the Year, 1985
  • Canadian Association of Broadcasters Gold Ribbon Award: Ethiopia: The Maritime Connection, 1984. Toured Ethiopia reporting on the devastating famine. Documentary and series of newscast reports resulted in "adoption" of Ethiopian village by the governments and people of the four Atlantic Provinces. More than half a million dollars was raised to help revitalise the particularly hard hit village of Degahbur.