Journalist ‘had such a distinctive voice’
Consummate professional had cheery manner
Peter Rakobowchuk, a journalist whose high energy delivery was instantly recognizable to decades of listeners, has died.
More widely known by his radio moniker, Peter Ray — a supervisor early on told him it sounded smoother — the irrepressible Rakobowchuk had been undergoing chemotherapy for liver cancer. He was 71.
“He had such a distinctive voice that no name was required,” said Rose Kingdon, broadcast director at The Canadian Press.
In fact, guests at his wedding to Pat Enborg three decades ago clamoured for him to do his famous sign-off when he stood to respond to the roasts.
“Do the sign- off, do the sign- off,” they chanted. To much applause, Rakobowchuk boomed: “Peter Ray, Montreal.”
Born Oct. 27, 1948, in Verdun, Que., Rakobowchuk began his career as a radio DJ. In 1979, he joined CP’S Broadcast News in Toronto. He transferred to the Ottawa bureau 18 months later, spending four years there before moving to Montreal, where, apart from a six-year stint covering the legislature in Quebec City, he remained.
A fearless reporter, Rakobowchuk covered assignments with unbridled enthusiasm. He was there when the Queen signed the Constitution. He was at the Oka crisis. He covered referendums, protests, political leadership races and elections, sometimes racing to events in the “War Wagon,” a 1978 Chevy Malibu, the first car he owned.
“He loved every minute of it,” Enborg said Wednesday.
In the early 1990s, Rakobowchuk slipped into a phone booth to file a report on a protest when he began having difficulty. Tear gas, he explained apologetically, as he got his report across between coughing bouts.
“To say he was enthusiastic is a bit of an understatement,” said Nelson Wyatt, a longtime colleague and friend.
During one protest, Rakobowchuk came across looters in a store and jumped in to shoot video. When voices behind him yelled “Move!,” he responded to the officers poking him in the back with their batons: “In a minute!”
Rakobowchuk is survived by Enborg, a son and two daughters.