Saturday, December 11, 2010

Mark Dailey dies of cancer

Mark Dailey dies of cancer ; The Voice has been silenced.Veteran broadcaster Mark Dailey wasn’t merely the voice of Toronto’s Citytv. He became the voice of the city itself. After more than 30 years as an ebullient and authoritative nightly presence, the beloved 57-year-old anchor, reporter and announcer lost his battle with recurring cancer on Monday.

“He had such an extraordinary presence, and of course that remarkable voice,” former Citytv colleague Anne Mroczkowski remembered. “There was music in that voice,” said Mroczkowski, now a co-anchor at Global News Hour. “There was such a kindness about him, such a sweetness. I learned a lot from Mark. He had a very interesting way of looking at the world.”

CBC National news anchor Peter Mansbridge agreed: “Mark had one of the most distinctive voices and styles in Canadian broadcasting. As a journalist he was first-rate, believing that no one should be tied to the studio all the time — that stories happen on the street, not in the newsroom.

“And that's where viewers found him, that amazing voice and his gutsy ability to gather detail together, telling us exactly what happened.”

CTV National News anchor Lloyd Robertson added that Dailey “was a warm and caring broadcaster whose awesome vocal versatility helped give Citytv its strong and cheeky presence.”

A Torontonian by choice, Dailey was born in Youngstown, Ohio, where he studied law enforcement at university and briefly served as a state trooper.

He switched from crime-fighting to crime reporting, and came to Toronto in 1974. In 1979, Dailey joined the fledgling two-year-old CityPulse news team, which was anchored then, as now, by Gord Martineau.

Martineau said he’ll remember, and miss most, Dailey’s laughs. “The guy was hilarious. He had a very dark sense of humour. We leaned on him a lot for comic relief. He had a great perspective on things. “He is legendary in this newsroom for that. I wish I had a nickel for every time the guy cracked a joke to relieve the stress. He had this innate knowledge of how to do that. He always had a snappy comeback.”Read More....

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