'Voice of London' retires after 48 years broadcasting in the city

For more than two decades, Gary Ennett's booming voice brought Londoners the news they needed to start their day. Now, the longtime newsman is hanging up his headphones and turning his attention to his family.

Ennett, who started as a student at CFPL Radio in 1975, found his vocation working the airwaves and reporting on current events in London and area. It was the same year Environment Canada switched to using Celsius, and anyone familiar with Ennett's work over the years knows he loves a good weather story!

"When I was a young boy, my dad would always demand silence from the family when the news came on the radio or TV.  He regarded news as extremely important and worthy of respect. I understood his perspective and agreed with it," said Ennett, who attended Lucas Secondary School and auditioned for a job as a local high school TV sportscaster in Grade 10. 

"And as I grew up, I thought it would be exciting to be the person delivering the news that listeners valued so much. And it has been." 

Ennett went on to be news director at CFPL in 1985, leading a team of reporters and making the tough calls about what got covered and what didn't. A written profile from 1989 notes his "dedication to getting it first, getting it fast and getting it right" — and that hasn't changed since. 

He helped start CBC's London bureau about a decade later. 

"Gary and I met in 1998, having a blast creating from scratch CBC Radio's first foothold bureau in the Forest City," said journalist Dave Seglins, who worked in the London station alongside Ennett.

"We did it our way, thumb wrestling over stories, swapping between reporting roles and new anchoring as part of Ontario Morning. Gary taught me so much about the city, given his years at CFPL." . 

A number of stories that had significant impact and would take years to resolve unfolded in the years Ennett was working at the CBC bureau, including the Walkerton water crisis and the inquiry into the death of Dudley George, shot by an OPP officer in Ipperwash in 1995. 

It was the Walkerton crisis that brought Ennett together with longtime colleague Kerry McKee, who backfilled while Seglins went to Walkerton to cover the story. 

"Gary could talk," McKee, now retired, laughed. "He was a great instructor. But we were like workplace siblings. We did everything differently. Every command for the computer, everything, we do it differently. But that's healthy in a workplace. We challenged each other. I learned to push his buttons, he drove me crazy, I drove him crazy, and we had each others' backs. 

The two worked together out of a trailer on Piccadilly Street until 2017, when CBC launched a full-fledged station at 251 Dundas Street. 

"I had set up an introductory call with Gary before I even arrived in London," said Bernard Graham, who relocated from Calgary to become CBC London's first executive producer. "Just a minute into that phone call I was thinking, 'Wow, what a voice; Powerful, deep baritone quality. I was wondering during the call if I should make a confession." 

Gary was a wonderful colleague at CBC, Graham said. "As a journalist, he is committed to facts and accuracy. His knowledge of southwestern Ontario is unsurpassed."