OFF THE CLUFF
CBC Radio voice retires
For years, CBC broadcaster Rick Cluff has left his home at 4 a.m., for the pre-dawn drive from West Vancouver, along the Upper Levels Highway, across the Lions Gate Bridge, with a stop at Tim Hortons on Alberni Street for a breakfast sandwich and Timbits for the crew.
Cluff ’s drive on Monday morning was perhaps more thoughtful than usual: After 41 years with the CBC, 20 of those spent as the host of The Early Edition, Vancouver’s longtime, early morning broadcaster announced his retirement.
“I wanted to do it now, when there is still time for me to give something back to the community,” Cluff, 67, said.
He had a quadruple bypass last summer. “That’s the kind of surgery that gives one pause and gets you thinking about your own mortality.”
Cluff cut his teeth in college radio in Ontario, before getting his break as a reporter with the CBC in 1976. A year later, he moved over to sports, where he thrived on the drama of the unknown that drives every live event.
When he was offered the Vancouver morning show, Cluff said he laughed in his producer’s face. “Eastern sportscaster does western news. I will last a day-and-a-half before they kick my ass out of there.”
Twenty years later, Cluff has become the voice of B.C., gently waking listeners with thoughtful commentary, and a voice that’s easy to hear a smile in.
“I’ve spent 20 years talking to people, the world comes to me, how great is that?” he said.
Producer Shiral Tobin, who has worked with Cluff since 2002, said Cluff is “the kindest, most considerate colleague anyone could hope to have — the guy who remembers your birthday, who calls you at home when you are on maternity leave.”
Tobin said Cluff was no different on-air: friendly, approachable and extraordinarily generous to others. He won awards for coverage of the Robert Dziekanski Tasering death, and covered other difficult stories like the Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women Inquiry, the fentanyl crisis and the Downtown Eastside.
Cluff said his favourite stories weren’t the interviews with celebrities or prime ministers, but the stories of everyday people — with one notable exception. Cluff was in Prague when the decision that Vancouver had been chosen to host the 2010 Winter Olympics was made.
“I remember sitting right outside the hall where the IOC made the decision, and I had around the table within minutes John Furlong, Jack Poole, Gordon Campbell and Jean Chretien.”
Cluff said, “Then to see it all unfold, and standing in the crush of people singing O Canada at the corner of Burrard and Robson. That was magical.”
Colleague Gloria Macarenko, who joined the CBC Radio team three years ago after two decades in front of the camera, said Cluff welcomed her with open arms. “He was so positive and encouraging and welcoming,” said Macarenko. “Waking up to Rick’s voice is like settling into an easy chair. He’s always approachable, always warm, a confident guy and a humble guy at the same time. He cares.”
Cluff said he’s not disappearing: he plans to continue working on the social issues that matter to him, the opioid crisis, housing and homelessness, and the DTES.
Nor does he have any plans to move back east.
“I can’t have a day without mountains and ocean,” said Cluff. “When I drive home every day and I go through Eagle Ridge, make the turn on the Sea to Sky Highway and all of a sudden you see Howe Sound, and you see Squamish and you say, ‘And that’s why I live in British Columbia.’ ”