John Hanson is a veteran news videographer and reporter at CTV Edmonton. He penned this thoughtful story shortly after Daryl McIntyre’s departure from CTV this past Friday.

John’s words sum up the thoughts of many who have had the good fortune to work with Daryl over the years. It’s an inside view of the teamwork and mutual respect that is a hallmark of good television news gathering.  I hope you enjoy this fitting tribute to a man who has been a daily fixture in the lives of literally hundreds of thousands of North Central Albertans. 

“…Daryl would often joke that he had to “dry himself off behind the ears” before coming in for work in those days..”

by John Hanson

It’s been 24 hours, at this writing, since I left the goodbye soiree for CTV’s long-tenured anchorman, Daryl McIntyre. It was a fine party, hosted in the Edmonton studio’s atrium, with many colleagues and friends on hand to raise a glass to our departing chum.

I and others made the melancholy observation that we will never see a “CFRN family” gathering like that at the station again. Too much water under the bridge. Too few geezers left from those early days, when it was known as Sunwapta Broadcasting, to warrant a party like this in the future.

Recent weeks have had me thinking about the times I worked with Daryl, and the era we both began our tenure at Mr. Rice’s Broadcast House on Stony Plain Road.

I entered the old wagon wheel bedecked building on a student practicum from NAIT, late August of 1986. Daryl arrived in the newsroom as a reporter, late October of the same year.

I’m not exactly sure when I secured the casual gig shooting news later that fall, but it was by the good graces of my old friend Diet Velsink, interim photo supervisor at the time, who called me up wondering if I wanted a few shifts. That chance to earn my first pay cheque in TV news would turn into a full time job two years later, and continue to this day.

I was certainly the youngest photog in the newsroom at that time, and Daryl may well have been the youngest reporter. He’s about a year older than me, but coming to CFRN with some small market news experience left him seeming more capable than any peers I knew from recent NAIT classes.

Daryl would often joke that he had to “dry himself off behind the ears” before coming in for work in those days. Though it never seemed to me he was on as steep a learning curve as I was.

Much has been said recently about his calm, decisive demeanour and solid on-air presence. From my earliest assignments with him, I found that to be his way of doing business. These were his factory settings. He may have gained experience in the years hence, but his intrinsic skills and capabilities were there from the start.

We worked together often in those years. At Edmonton’s old city hall, in the Mayor Decore years, and on many general assignment stories.

The first big story we worked on together was the devastating 1987 tornado.

As a part-time news shooter, I had to use my own car for most assignments, believe it or not. A two-tone blue 1978 Oldsmobile Cutlass Supreme, with pillowy velour seats. Quite the news cruiser. With my news camera seat-belted in the rear, I filled the trunk with a tripod, light kit, 3/4 inch tapes and lots of batteries.

Dispatched to unknown carnage to the east, we decided that day, instead of my posh ride, we should take Daryl’s black Toyota 4×4 pickup, in case ditches needed to be traversed or roads were otherwise impassable.

Other more senior crews were sent off to the Evergreen trailer park and other north Edmonton neighbourhoods, while Daryl and I went to Sherwood Park and the industrial areas of the county.

We met up with RCMP at the detachment, who were agreeable to showing us around some of the devastated areas. Semis and other massive pieces of metal, scattered and flattened as far as you could see. I recall an aluminum fishing boat wrapped around a telephone pole, appearing like a piece of tin foil folded around a pencil. The catastrophic events of that day were an extraordinary thing to witness.

I think we must have driven our story back for CFRN’s 11th Hour newscast, as tape feeding options in those years were nonexistent.

After moving to the 6pm anchor desk, following Bob Chelmick’s departure to CBC, working in the field with Daryl became less predictable. Special features and big events were the times he got out of the studio. Usually when the poo hit the turbine, you knew it would be time to work with Daryl again. Fires in Slave Lake and Ft. McMurray, are recent examples.

Having him on scene, you always knew the shoot would go as smooth as glass, no matter what curve balls came our way. His abilities raised the bar on every assignment. Daryl made everyone better by example and by your self motivation to keep pace with him as a professional, and not just because we were scared of his piercing glare. Good lord, he could cut glass with that look!

At one point, I shot a feature with Daryl inviting then mayor Bill Smith out to the McIntyre acreage to ride horses for a little informal polo fun. It may have been early in Smith’s tenure, and this was a casual, disarming venue to chat with the mayor. The details are lost to the sands of time, in my mind. What sticks, is the passion Daryl had for his horses and that rural environment.

I also recall Daryl was quick to point out that the polo he enjoyed was not the champagne and caviar variety one thinks of with that regal sport. He and his polo friends were very much of the beer and potato salad crowd.

For the love of the game, not any pretentious motives, I think its fair to say. Quite similar to the way he approached the anchor desk.

I recall a comment he made some years ago, when someone asked if he had any advice for young people wanting to follow his career path. He said, if you’re only getting into the job because you want to be on TV, that’s the wrong reason.

I always thought Daryl was into the job for the love of the game.

For the love of telling a good story.

For good journalism.

His comments yesterday that he began his career with hope to one day be remembered as “a helluva newsman”, bear this out.

He was in it for the right reasons, and he did the job exceptionally well for over three decades.

Now, I’ll quit going on like I’m writing his eulogy. Because, in the the immortal words of The Pythons, he’s not dead yet.

I certainly hope I have occasion to work with Daryl again. Unsure in what circumstance that will ever happen, but I value the time we had, and the era we worked in broadcasting.

For the love of the game.

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