John O'Mara; CBC announcer who saved The Fisheries Broadcast
Hyfler/Rosner
CBC Newfoundland director stepped in to save a fisheries
staple
Hired for his voice, he excelled as a broadcaster, manager,
historian and volunteer
J.M. SULLIVAN
Special to The Globe and Mail
October 5, 2007
ST. JOHN'S -- John O'Mara's silken, distinguished voice made
him a natural as a radio announcer. His dapper fashion
sense - he was never without a suit and tie - gave him the
look of an executive. And his zeal for Newfoundland history
made him a remarkable amateur historian.
However, he is perhaps best remembered in his home province
for his refusal to comply with a national CBC directive that
would likely have sacrificed The Fisheries Broadcast, which
debuted as The Fishermen's Broadcast in 1951 and remains a
weekday staple on the airwaves in Newfoundland and Labrador,
one of the longest-running radio programs in North America.
Mr. O'Mara was born in St. John's to Leo Allen O'Mara, a
pharmacist with the landmark O'Mara-Martin drugstore at
Rawlins Cross, and Francis Genevieve Channing, whose father
was also a pharmacist.
His only sibling, a brother, followed the family's
pharmaceutical footsteps. But Mr. O'Mara, infused with the
religious training of the Christian Brothers-run St.
Bonaventure's College, thought he had a vocation and spent
three years studying philosophy and theology at the
University of Ottawa. However, he decided in 1964 that he
did not have the calling, and ended his studies.
Back in St. John's, he was casting about for work when a
family friend mentioned that CBC Radio was auditioning for
announcers. Mr. O'Mara had a lovely voice; he was hired
after one interview and spent two years at CBY in Corner
Brook on Newfoundland's west coast. Shifting back to St.
John's, he hosted a variety of news, current affairs, drama
and quiz-show slots while anchoring elections, leadership
conventions and royal visits. In 1979, he was promoted to
regional manager for CBC in Newfoundland. After a brief
management stint in Quebec, he became director of radio in
1984, his position when he clashed with the central
bureaucracy.
The national network was trying to take back regional
afternoon shows, and they were proposing a 12½-minute news
broadcast at 5 p.m. Eastern time (5:30 pm in Newfoundland
and Labrador). This would cut The Fisheries Broadcast in
half, probably killing it. A similar show in Prince Edward
Island had been bounced from the afternoon to 6 a.m. and
perished.
"The threat had always been there, and still is there
today," said Jim Wellman, who co-hosted The Broadcast, as it
is locally known, for several years with Ann Budgell, after
which he founded and edited The Navigator, a
fisheries-related periodical. "But this time, it looked like
they were really going to do it."
Mr. Wellman and Ms. Budgell were determined to save the
show. The Broadcast mixes features and news coverage with
marine weather forecasts and the "List of Lights" - warnings
of malfunctioning buoys along the province's coast. It's
fair to call the program a Newfoundland cultural icon.
"It's the envy of every fisherman outside of Newfoundland,"
Mr. Wellman said. "They ask - why can't we have something
like that?"
The co-hosts presented their case to Mr. O'Mara, and he took
up their cause.
"He said he would fight for us," Mr. Wellman said. "He
essentially told the network - he never told me this,
because he was not the type to come back to you and say,
'Gee, look what I did!' but I heard this from someone else -
he told them, 'You can do what you like at 5:30 p.m., but at
5:30 p.m. in St. John's we are flipping that switch and
cutting that feed and opening up our own microphones and
doing The Fisheries Broadcast. It was risky. He was a young
guy, presumably looking to climb the corporate ladder, and
this might not bode well on a résumé."
The Broadcast survived and still thrives, an essential asset
to the provincial fisheries industry.
Mr. O'Mara remained as director of radio until he retired in
1993. But if anything he became busier than before, with
dozens of volunteer commitments. He was one of the most
prominent volunteers in the province, with projects
including: The Royal St. John's Regatta Committee (the only
group of civilians in North America to set a civic holiday),
where he served on the executive and instituted the Museum
Committee; Heritage Canada; Friends of Beaumont-Hamel; the
Museum and Historical Committee of the Basilica Cathedral of
St. John the Baptist, where he also helped start a museum.
He also had a considerable reputation as a Newfoundland
historian and wrote and edited many articles on medical
history, as well as giving lectures on Newfoundland
architecture and insignia, and curating an exhibit on the
150th anniversary of the basilica for the provincial museum
at The Rooms. "He had an abiding interest in Newfoundland
history, and whether it was the basilica or the Royal
Newfoundland Regiment, he went into it boots and all,"
friend John Perlin said.
"His passion was history and research," said his wife, Diane
O'Mara. (Married in 1974, they met when Mr. O'Mara played
Captain von Trapp in a Kinsman Fall Musical Production of
The Sound of Music at the St. John's Arts and Culture
Centre. Ms. O'Mara, then a teenager, headed the coat check.)
For 30 years, Mr. O' Mara delved into medical doctors and
developments in Newfoundland from 1497 to 1900, and his wife
and friends intend to see the project through to
publication.
Devout and somewhat conservative, he was also a stickler for
details and meticulous in his dress. "He was never not fully
armed, or half-hearted," Mr. Wellman said. "You could trust
him, too."
Mr. O'Mara was quite fit and he and his wife enjoyed
travelling, most recently touring Alaskan glaciers, a
long-held dream. Cancer was a sudden shock; he died just 21
days after his diagnosis.
JOHN O'MARA
John Francis O'Mara was born
in St. John's on Dec. 2, 1943.
He died of invasive cancer in
St. John's on Aug. 26, 2007.
He was 63. He leaves his wife
Diane (Howell).
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