HARVEY KIRCK. Born in Uno Park, Ontario, Canada, 14 October 1928. Married: 1) Maggie, 1947 (divorced); 2) Renate, 1962 (divorced); 3) Brenda, 1983. Began career as radio announcer, program host, news reader, 1948-60; television announcer and news reader, 1960-63; news anchor for the Canadian Television Network, 1963-84.

TELEVISION

1963-84 CTV News

PUBLICATION

Kirck, Harvey. Nobody Calls Me Mr. Kirck, with Wade Rowland. Don Mills, Canada: Collins, 1985.

FURTHER READING

Kiefl, Barry, and Stan Staple, "An Annotated Bibliography of CBC Research Reports Dealing with Radio and Television News, 1956-1988." In, Lochead, Richard, editor. Beyond the Printed Word: The Evolution of Canada's Broadcast News Heritage. Kingston, Canada: Quarry, 1991.

Nash, Knowlton. Prime Time at Ten: Behind-the-Camera Battles of Canadian TV Journalism. Toronto, Canada: McClelland & Stewart, 1987.

Trueman, Peter. Smoke & Mirrors: The Inside Story of Television News in Canada. Toronto, Canada: McClelland & Stewart, 1980.

 

See also Candian Programming in English

 

 

   

Harvey Kirck, news anchor for the privately-owned Canadian Television Network (CTV) from 1963 to 1984, has been called Canada's version of Walter Cronkite. In his autobiography he even noted how his retirement after 20 years was planned to ensure that he broke Cronkite's record. In fact Kirck never exercised a similar power over the news or over the public mind, but he did become a celebrity, a recognized "Face and Voice of the News" in English Canada.

Beginning in 1948, Kirck served a long apprenticeship in private radio as an announcer who hosted programs, narrated commercials, wrote, delivered, and occasionally reported the news. In 1960 he became a news anchor for a television station where, he claimed later, he learned the importance of being a performer: "You have to develop a bullet-proof persona, and send him out to face the damnable, merciless camera." Three years later, he joined the CTV news service, then stationed in Ottawa, as one of four men (another was Peter Jennings) who served in two pairs of co-anchors on the model of NBC's The Huntley-Brinkley Report. The fledgling network, only two years old, was determined to challenge the dominance of the established The National (then CBC Television News) offered by the Canadian Broadcast Corporation (CBC). The peculiar arrangement of alternating pairs of co-anchors soon devolved into a more normal structure and Kirck took over the responsibility as chief anchor as well as news editor.

After a change in the ownership structure of the network, CTV News was moved in 1966 to Toronto, the media hub of English Canada. It was a mixed blessing for Kirck: he lost his position as news editor to concentrate on the task of presenting the news (though he also continued to participate in the writing of the newscast). Even though CTV's resources were slight--much of the material came from American sources or the private affiliates--it hoped to produce a bright and lively newscast at 11:00 P.M. with a distinctly American flavor that would contrast with the supposedly stodgy, and British, approach of the CBC. From 1971 to 1972 CTV News had drawn roughly even with CBC's National at 950,000 viewers a night in the common area covered by both networks (CTV did not then cover the country). A 1972 CBC survey discovered that CTV News scored higher as "more complete, lively, aggressive, fresh, friendly, interesting and in-touch".

That success owed something to Kirck's persona. He was a tall, eventually heavy-set man with a craggy and weathered face that signaled experience. His voice was deep and resonant, authoritative rather than casual. He might seem a bit gruff but he was eminently believable: a survey carried out in 1977 found that people had confidence that he fully understood what he presented.

But that persona was not enough to overcome the deficiencies in the quality of CTV News. During the next few years, The National secured an apparently unshakable lead over its rival, except in the metropolitan centers where CTV News moved ahead. In 1976 management scored a coup by hiring away from the CBC its news anchor, Lloyd Robertson, as well as a top news producer, Tim Kotcheff. Robertson and Kirck became co-anchors which allowed each more freedom to go on special assignment. The relationship between the two men, by all published accounts, remained good, perhaps because Kirck's salary was also increased (at Robertson's request) to the new level. The result established the fact that news anchors, as in the United States, were now celebrities who could command hefty salaries.

In fact the duo made an odd couple: Robertson was smaller, younger, and handsome, with a perfect diction, whilst Kirck was taller and bulkier, older, increasingly rugged, boasting what Trueman refers to as a "tough, truck-driver delivery". There appeared to be no obvious reason for the pairing. The CTV coup did little to improve the fortunes of its flagship newscast, perhaps bringing another 100,000 viewers. In his autobiography Kirck himself wondered what might have been the result if the network had invested funds in the newsroom and its facilities rather than big name salaries. In 1982 the competitive situation changed dramatically when CBC moved The National back to 10:00 P.M. as part of a new hour of news and public affairs. Shortly afterwards, Kirck retired from the nightly newscast, though he continued to appear on CTV for occasional broadcasts.

-Paul Rutherford