| Lloyd Robertson | |
|---|---|
Lloyd Robertson (left) and Brian Williams |
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| Born | January 19, 1934 Stratford, Ontario, Canada |
| Occupation | News anchor |
| Other names | Canada's Most Trusted News Anchor "[1]" |
| Spouse(s) | Nancy Robertson (1956 - present) |
| Children | 4 children |
| Nationality | Canadian |
| Years active | 1952 – present |
Lloyd Robertson, OC (born January 19, 1934) is the currently the co-host of CTV's weekly magazine series, W5. Robertson previously served as the chief anchor and senior editor of CTV's national evening newscast, CTV News with Lloyd Robertson, until September, 2011, when he retired from the CTV National News team.
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Robertson has covered many major events throughout his career, including the 1967 opening of Expo 67 in Montreal, the 1969 Moon landing (along with Percy Saltzman), many Olympic Games, Terry Fox's Marathon of Hope, the patriation of the Canadian Constitution, both the 1980 Quebec referendum and the 1995 Quebec referendum on separation from Canada, many federal elections, the death of Diana, Princess of Wales, the terrorist attacks of 9/11, and the power outage crisis on both sides of the border.
On the scene, he has covered the construction of the Berlin Wall, the deaths of four Canadian prime ministers, the elections of nearly half of Canada's prime ministers, state funerals, and royal, papal, and U.S. presidential visits. His name was also the basis for the satirical news anchor character Floyd Robertson, portrayed by Joe Flaherty on the Canadian TV comedy series SCTV.
Robertson started his broadcasting career in 1952 at CJCS radio in his hometown of Stratford, and moved to CJOY in Guelph in 1953.
Robertson went to television in 1954 when he joined CBC, spending four years in Winnipeg (CBWT) and two years in Ottawa (CBOT), before hosting CBC Weekend in the late 1960s, and later anchor of The National from 1970 to 1976, before joining CTV in October that year. One of the reasons he left CBC was his frustration at union regulations which confined news anchors to the role of announcer - prohibiting them from writing their own scripts or participating in editorial decisions concerning the news broadcast.[1] He also stood to gain financially from the move, as CTV was within the private sector and could offer him a higher wage (while the CBC is a crown corporation).
From 1976 to 1984, Robertson co-anchored the CTV National News with Harvey Kirck. When Kirck retired from the anchor desk in 1984, Robertson became the senior news anchor for CTV. Since 2004, Robertson has also served as one of the hosts of CTV's current affairs program W5, alternating with CTV's lead weekend anchor Sandie Rinaldo.[2]
Robertson's signature sign-off of each news broadcast is, "And that's the kind of day it's been."
Robertson has outlasted Kirck, the late Walter Cronkite, Dan Rather, Bob Schieffer, Tom Brokaw, and the late Peter Jennings to become the longest-serving network news anchor in television history; he is also one of the longest-serving news anchors on English-language North American television (network or local) along with KTRK-TV (Houston)'s Dave Ward, WNBC (New York)'s Chuck Scarborough and KING-TV (Seattle)'s Jean Enersen. He has been in the broadcasting business for over 60 years.
In February 2010, Robertson denied rumours of his impending retirement as a "work of fiction" during an appearance on Vancouver talk radio station CKNW.[3] However, on the CTV National News broadcast of July 8, 2010, Robertson officially announced he would be leaving the anchor chair September 1, 2011. He has stated that he will continue on in various capacities at the network and in public life [4] including being host of W5.[5]