Beloved radio icon ready to hang up mike
Local radio will continue after Glenn Pelletier retires on his 61st birthday but it will be less frenetic, less unpredictable and, probably, a lot less fun
The first time I wrote about Glenn Pelletier, in 1992, he was nervously pacing the dressing room floor of a Guelph nightclub before a gig with his Rolling Stones tribute band, Sticky Fingers, trying to stifle insurgent bandmates who called him “Megamouth” and demanding to know what I was writing.
“Are you going to make me look like some kind of a weirdo?” he demanded, wrestling the notebook out of my hands.
“If I come off looking like a prima donna here, I’LL KILL YOU!”
Even then, he was a character — passionate, over-the-top, hilarious — as I imagine he must have been at age nine when his mother spotted him on the couch, legs crossed, reading the newspaper cover to cover with a serious look on his face.
“I used to pretend I was reading the news on television while sitting on the toilet, picking out a tile on the bathroom wall and pretending it was the camera,” recalls the personable 570 News anchor, who retires Aug. 13 after 40 years behind the mike.
“All that was missing was the pipe.”
Pelletier — a former standup comic who, had things gone a different way, might have become the next Jim Carrey — has never been the standard issue radio personality.
Whether walking down Kitchener’s King Street with a book called “Emotional Intelligence” the size of a biblical tablet, or being ribbed by a pre-scandal Bill Cosby for not wearing socks, the 60-year-old radio vet has always been the hipster at the back of the class, a fidgety nonconformist whose prickly intelligence and jittery self-awareness make him as amusing as he is outrageous.
“I trust him on air, yet I never really know what he’s going to throw at me,” notes Lisa Drew, his morning news co-host of 15 years, who burst into tears when he announced his retirement.
“It just flows out of him. I’m holding my breath to see where he’s taking me, and it always lands. He’s naturally funny, curious and sooo authentic.”
“There’s this frenetic energy about him,” agrees friend/colleague Dave Hiltz. “I suspect mostly real, but maybe he embraces it and makes it comedic. It’s contagious.”
He’s Walter Cronkite with a pinch of Macaulay Culkin and a side order of Holden Caulfield, a restless maverick whose irreverent spirit lends ballast to the sobering news junkie who studies Buddhism and talks about finding inner peace before screaming the lyrics to “Start Me Up” in some seedy nightclub.
“You see the sparks, this energy — he’s got chemistry!” points out friend/colleague Dave Schnider, who worked with Pelletier on his very first shift at 570 CHYM in 1981.
“You never knew what he was gonna do. He was never predictable.”
When he retires on his 61st birthday — 40 years from the day he started — he’ll leave not as an ailing geezer staggering to oblivion, but as a beloved community icon whose wit, style and itchy vagabond spirit have left their mark.
Radio will continue, post-Pelch, but it will be less frenetic, less unpredictable and, probably, a lot less fun.
First things first: why did you grab my notebook in 1992 and threaten to kill me?
The lead singer in a part-time Rolling Stones tribute band is treading a fine line. There’s only one Mick Jagger and only one Rolling Stones. I simply wanted you to know I felt that way during that interview, lest I come off like “that f—in’ guy who thinks he’s Mick Jagger.”
Forty years in radio! What’s been the biggest change?
When I started in the business, there were more ashtrays than women. You could smoke anywhere, including while you were reading the news. You could see the ash from cigarettes falling into the equipment. Sunshine Girls adorned the newsroom walls.
Is it appropriate for a 60-yearold man to wear a backwards baseball cap? Think of your dignity, man.
I hate the word “appropriate.” My grandfather would have been put out by it. Then again, he made my mother put a bar of soap in her mouth for referring to “the damn dog.”
Given your scathing wit and flair for showmanship, would you not have been better suited to life as, say, a sarcastic butler, maître d or circus barker?
Well, from what I understand, butlers have to be crisply attired and wear a suit every day, so no to that. A maître d needs a good sense of direction, so that’s out. I got lost at The Highlands in Cambridge trying to lead the band from the dressing room to the stage — it was like a scene out of “This Is Spinal Tap.” Circus barker is the least likely. I had to ride on an elephant to introduce the Shriner’s Circus on behalf of the radio station. We both just wanted to be free.
You had many career pit stops before settling in as 570’s news anchor: deejay, TV reporter, Blue Jays broadcaster. What did your mom say when you told her you were quitting your on-air job at CTV Kitchener to hit the road with a Rolling Stones tribute act?
It was Christmas morning 1982 and I eased into it this way: “Mom, I’m thinking of exploring a new opportunity.” She said, “Oh, really? CTV National? Global? CBC?” There was a big pause and I said, “Errrrr, no. It’s kind of a performance art thing.”
And?
She tilted her a head on an angle like a confused dog.
What were common phrases that popped up on every Pelletier report card in grade school?
“Glenn is a conscientious student, but he tends to daydream in class.”
“Glenn likes to entertain his classmates, but should not forget to focus on his work.”
I notice there’s always a “but.”
I was extremely energetic.
In 2012, I saw you walking down Kitchener’s King Street with a book called “Emotional Intelligence.” Why would a guy who moonlights as Mick Jagger care about emotional intelligence?
You thought I only read stuff like “No One Here Gets Out Alive” or “Famous World War Two Tank Battles!” It was about trusting your intuition, your own deep perception and awareness of people and events. Holden Caulfield would have loved it.
I get the “Catcher in the Rye” reference, but see you more as Clark Kent: mild mannered news anchor by day, unruly Mick Jagger clone by night.
That is a surprisingly good characterization. Think of it as a continuum or spectrum. Any time there’s an audience and you’re using a microphone there’s an element of performance.
That said, one setting is intimate and conversational, the other intense and physical.
In classic Pelletier radio ruses, you impersonated both Pierre Trudeau and Julian Lennon, convincing listeners you were the real deal.
The Trudeau caper happened in 1982 when I was working at 1090 CKKW. It went TOO well. The Liberal MP at the time called the Prime Minister’s Office to find out what the hell was going on. We got a call from the PMO asking us to clarify that it was a joke.
You were the Orson Welles of Kitchener.
The Lennon thing happened on 570 CHYM on April Fool’s Day 1985. Julian was in Toronto to do some shows and had a couple huge hits on the radio. I sang a little bit of one of his tunes and answered some questions from George Michaels. After the interview, the lobby was filled with girls from St. Mary’s High School!
In another star-making moment, you introduced a prescandal Bill Cosby to the audience at Centre in the Square, after which he made a disparaging remark about the fact you weren’t wearing socks.
It wasn’t disparaging. He was playing with me. Cosby and I — pre-scandal, repeat, pre-scandal
— sat in a small dressing room together for about 20 minutes, waiting for the cue to go on stage.
First impressions?
He was manspreading on a couch, watching Raptors basketball and munching on McDonald’s french fries. I walked in and he said ‘Heyyyy man, want a fry?’ At the time, I wasn’t wearing socks. He noticed it, obviously, and after I introduced him and walked offstage, he called me back to the microphone and pointed it out to the audience. He asked me to pull up my pant leg to prove it.
Why weren’t you wearing socks?
I’m very minimalist.
Preparing for retirement, you moved to Horning’s Mills, a rural area near Shelburne, where you plan to fish, read and engage in longwinded discussions about seed supplies at the general store. How much was inspired by a childhood love for TV sitcom “Green Acres?”
Not much. The eight-year-old in me found Eva Gabor appealing in some way, but not as appealing as Dave Keon. My partner Sarah and I love the rural lifestyle.
After years of waking up at 2 a.m. to host your morning show, your goal in retirement is to sleep until 6. Why
not go for broke and make it 7?
I read somewhere that the ideal sleep routine is a 10 p.m. bed time and 6 a.m. wake time. That sounds luxurious. I picture that movie with Cary Grant where he comes to the breakfast table in an expensive bathrobe, pours a coffee from a gorgeous silver service and slowly peruses the morning newspaper.
You’re not doing that already?
Right now, I chug an instant coffee in my car at 2:30 a.m., cloaked in darkness. And while I’m on the subject . . . breakfast? Remind me what that is again?
Glenn Pelletier will co-host The 570 Morning News with Lisa Drew, 5 to 9 a.m., until Aug. 13. Catch him at 570news.com. His current Stones tribute band, Beggar’s Banquet, will continue playing gigs, probably forever.