Listeners shocked as N.B.'s Mr. Bingo resigns on live radio
CBC
For 15 years, Gaston Doiron has been known as Mr. Bingo.
Every Tuesday night, residents up and down the Acadian Peninsula have gathered their Bingo cards, tuned in to CKRO-FM in the northeastern New Brunswick of Pokemouche, and listened as Doiron calls out the numbers.
His warm voice and jovial manner have charmed hundreds of people and kept them company throughout the pandemic, and he says they've done the same for him.
"Fifty-two weeks a year, I'm there," Doiron said. "I rarely missed one night."
Beginning at 6:30 p.m. sharp, Doiron calls the Bingo numbers and listeners call in when they've won. Or when they have a question. Or a complaint.
Lately, Doiron said, the complaints have been creeping up.
"I don't think COVID helped things," he said. "People were so frustrated that at one point, [some] were even complaining about the music" played between each number he called.
Finally, last Tuesday, Doiron had had enough.
In a dramatic, live and on-air finale that no one, not even Doiron himself, saw coming, Mr. Bingo scolded the complainers and quit his hosting gig.
"Maybe I had a bad day, I don't know," he said.
"I just snapped, directly on the air."
Doiron didn't know when he headed in to CKRO-FM on May 3 to host his Bingo gig that it would be his last night.
But the warning bells soon began going off.
"It started with Game 2," he said.