Daryl McIntyre is heading out.
Edmonton’s local, longtime broadcaster with that undeniably recognizable voice we all know and have known over the last 40 years is turning out the lights in the studio and heading into retirement (mostly I should say…maybe dimming the lights would be a more appropriate statement). It’s been 4 decades of delivering the news into Edmonton living rooms as an anchor on CFRN and more recently after switching gears in the last few years, as an on-air personality for CHED mornings. Luckily, I was able to convince Daryl to meet me for a coffee and give him the July and August 2024 seat as the latest Edmontonian featured on The Streets Initiative before he leaves town. For this dubious honor, all he had to do was subject himself to what I would consider to be the hardest hitting interview of his life, although after speaking with others, they all agree it was probably the most amateur interview of his life. One person, who I won’t name, even wondered if my 10 year old son helped brainstorm the questions. In any case, with my Mocha Frappuccino, the cup beading with condensation in front of me, and the scent of roasting coffee beans in the air, a Starbucks in Southwest Edmonton set the scene. With Alannis Morrisette in the background telling us how ironic life is, I sat down with Daryl and fired away.
TL Thanks for taking the time out of your day, I guess I’ll just start with you telling me a bit about where it all began. Where did you grow up?
DM Well that’s a slightly complicated question…it’s half and half. I grew up partially in Edmonton and partially on a farm north of Vermilion. My mother remarried when I was in grade 4 or 5, that’s when I moved to Vermilion. Early on in Edmonton I lived in Riverdale and Terrace Heights.
TL Is the farm where you started playing Polo? I noticed on your website you’ve got a bit of experience there.
DM Well, actually my wife always had horses and after we got married I ended up getting one. We got introduced to a friend who owned a tack shop and he had a small polo club here in Edmonton and he said to come try it out and we got hooked on it.
TL Polo clubs in Edmonton? I didn’t know they had those here…
DM Not many people do…there was a field in West Edmonton and we played there until it got sold… after that the club here pretty much died. After that we travelled around to play. Keep in mind people have preconceived notions of polo. We played beer and potato chips polo, not champagne and caviar polo. Friends of ours refer to it as farm polo, we did all our own work with our horses and made sure we had an acreage so we could take care of them. We played in some pretty good tournaments but it certainly wasn’t Prince Charles polo!
TL Well everybody needs something to blow off a bit of steam from work stress from time to time, why not a little polo? That brings me to my next question. 40 years is considered to be a long and successful career, what inspired you to pursue broadcasting in the first place?
DM Well there were a couple things. First, when I was in grade 5, I had a school field trip to CKSA in Lloydminster and when I lived in Vermilion we saw the local TV station there which looked really cool. I grew up in the 70’s and we watched TV…that’s were the world was, so there was always a fascination with that. A girl a grade ahead of me went into radio and television arts at NAIT and I had no idea this kind of thing existed. I thought “hmm, maybe I can do that too”. Sometimes just realizing that something exists just opens up your world and shows a bit more to life than what you’re used to.
TL Who were your influences?
DM I had two people I looked at. One was Harvey Kirk and he used to anchor the CTV National news in the late 70’s. Lloyd Robertson joined him and they co anchored together for a few years. Harvey was 6’3” and 280lbs and was this big gregarious guy. Lloyd was a smaller, handsome guy. He had the perfect hair and Harvey did not so I always loved to watch the two of them. Them and Peter Jennings, who was Canadian and made it big in the US. Entirely different guys and I tried to find elements of them and meld them together.
TL So when CFRN offered you the co-anchor position on Eyewitness News back in 1989, was that fairly intimidating for you? Not many 25 year-olds get that sort of an opportunity.
DM No, not too many, it was pretty cool. In 1986 I started working the weekends and reporting at CFRN which then went from weekends to late night. Anytime Bob Chelmick was off I would fill in with Daphne Kuehn. Same with Holly Doan, anytime Daphne was off she would fill in. We always had those backup roles so I don’t know about being that intimidated, maybe I was a bit cocky, I was just like yeah, this is what I’m going to do now.
TL 2004 Hollywood blockbuster movie, Anchorman starring Will Ferrell and Christina Applegate was highly praised by critics and moviegoers and lauded for its realism and in depth look at the inner workings of the North American newsroom. As an anchorman yourself, how realistic was this documentary? This question is 100% tongue in cheek by the way…
DM No, not realistic. It’s got elements of Satire over reality. It’s funny with the elements that are real and how they take it to a much more ridiculous level.
TL So no Gangs of New York style brawls between CFRN and ITV at any time then?
DM No, definitely not. Actually, the funny thing is since we were all in the same industry we would always run into each other at an event or whatever and we were friends. In a lot of cases we worked with many of the same people in the past and had similar experiences so it ends up being really a shared community.
TL You’ve received a few awards and recognitions over the years but in particular I read that you received the Edward R Murrow Award for journalism for the story “Whatever happened to Val”. How did you feel receiving that kind of recognition?
DM That was journalism in a way but it was more story telling and still very gratifying. I was always very proud of being able to write and communicate both facts and emotion. Valerie ended up getting a brain tumor, it was non cancerous but still caused a few problems, so it was about her journey from being on TV and one of the most recognized people in the city to suddenly disappearing from the public view and just explaining what happened to her.
TL Yeah broadcasters seem to be a pretty tight community I’ll bet, the industry must be a tough nut to crack.
DM Yeah it can be, although a lot of people don’t want to be in it any more just because it’s different now. I got to live through what I consider to be the golden years of television, the 70’s, 80’s, 90’s, and first decade of the 2000’s. It was pretty good stuff until things started to change, now the numbers aren’t there and people don’t watch in the same way. It’s just different. You can still watch the news but now you’re streaming it. How many people actually go, “Oh it’s 6:00, time for the news!”. Some still do but now its like people look at the headlines and then go check it on the internet. That’s why it was fun to do radio because it’s the most interactive local media you can get. You’re on the air for 3 ½ hours every morning interacting with your local community.
TL You ended up returning to radio in 2021 when you joined the CHED team for mornings, tell me how that experience was.
DM It wasn’t so much a return to radio as it was a reintroduction to radio. At the start of my career I worked at a couple of combination stations. CKSA in Lloydminster where I did radio news as well as TV and also in Prince George where I was there primarily for TV. So I was thrilled to join CHED and it was a fantastic way to be able to wrap up my career. I knew I wasn’t going to be there for a long period of time, I was already 57, but I was happy and thrilled for the opportunity. It was the station I grew up with like so many people in the city so it was a good opportunity…it was fun!
TL So they just asked you to come on?
DL No. After Danielle Smith left and Jesperson was gone I applied for that segment. What ended up happening is that they decided Shaye Ganam was better suited for that spot in the late mornings and I agree, Shaye’s killing it.
TL Yeah, Shaye definitely has no problem calling it as he sees it…
DM Yeah he’s doing a great job and I ended up being a better fit doing mornings and I think I was happier doing that, especially the last little while when I got to work with J’Lyn and Stacey, both who I’d known for a lot of years. It was all great…except for the 3:20 am wake up calls, I think that’s what partially killed me. I was never an early bird anyway.
TL I noticed on your website, http://www.darylmcintyre.com, you’re offering all kinds of hosting and auctioneering services, so it looks like you’re not totally packing it in.
DM Yeah its mainly voice work and emcee-ing, that sort of thing.
TL Any speaking engagements?
DM Not so much, I’d need to wrap my head around that. If you have a speaking engagement then you have to have a message and I just don’t know what my message would be. I could talk in generalities about my life, but that’s boring. If you don’t have a reason for being up there talking to your audience then you’re just blathering and telling stories. I think you need to have a reason other than just having done something for a long time.
TL When you look back, what were the most memorable stories, good or bad, that stick out?
DM In the news business, when something bad happens is when you mobilize to cover it, so a lot of them tend to wrap around important events like the tornado in ’87 or the forest fires in Slave Lake or Fort McMurray. The killings of the Mounties or the friendly fire incident in Afghanistan and you sort of have to rally around that stuff and cover it. They aren’t part of the norm and you really have to bust your hump and get it done. The memorable ones tend to be the big stories and unfortunately, they tend to be disaster stories. But there are also the fun things like what we are doing right now with the Oilers in the Stanley Cup final. One of the most fun things I ever did was cover the Oilers in ’06 in North Carolina. I covered the team from the news point of view and Adam Cook, our sports guy, covered them from the sports point of view. That was ridiculous fun. But even elections, I love doing elections, they’re a big deal.
TL So speaking of another big deal, you chose local animal rescue Infinite Woofs, as the charity for The Streets Initiatives donations to go to for the next two months. Was there a particular reason you chose this organization?
DM Ok so we had two Great Danes, Shadow and Duke. Shadow’s heart gave out on him and we lost him. Duke was very sad so we had to find a new companion for him. We looked and looked and finally had this dog come out from Infinite Woofs and the two of them just clicked right away. Twiggy had been a street dog and had a problem with her pancreas. Although she could eat, she couldn’t digest anything. After the vets figured it out, she was good and healthy again. Infinite Woofs was awesome and did an amazing job at getting her adopted out. I’d love for others to have a great story like Twiggy did. I also think it’s great to narrow in on a charity that most people don’t think of, it’s pretty cool.
TL Great stuff Daryl, thanks for meeting with me and helping out. I can’t wait to start raising some cash for Infinite Woofs. As for yourself, good luck and even though you’re leaving town I don’t think Edmonton has seen the last of you!
DM Thanks Tim, keep up the good work!
**For any donations to this awesome crew of workers and volunteers at Infinite Woofs, just follow the link here: http://www.thestreetsinitiative.org/edmontonians-love-donating/
Thanks very much Edmonton!
