by the-real-deal » Wed Feb 13, 2019 10:29 pm
Like many others, I had heard about the news of Mike Cleaver's demise very recently with sadness. He was a relatively young man at just age 72, but judging from the Get together photos, it appeared that his health was going into the dumpster for quite some time ?
I am not a "hotshot" broadcaster or even a friend of Mr. Cleaver's. I am merely a long time radio journalist and worker in the field looking into the fishbowl of this business merely as an outsider or bystander.
Perhaps Mike Cleaver should be nominated to the Okanagan Broadcasting Hall of Fame (if there was one ?). To my knowledge, there is not.
(others on that list should include: the late Kim Callaway (whom I once worked with), Pat Kennedy, formerly of CHBC Television, and former Mayor Walter Gray).
As everyone knows, MIke began his career in Kelowna (at CKOV) as a very young man, a mere teenager.
He is clearly one of the best and most talented broadcasters and writers to ever appear on Kelowna radio, either then, or now.
The other observation was: He did everything well !
He repaired, installed, and fixed radio studio equipment and was one hell of a sound engineer. You can count on one hand, how many newspeople in this country can write and deliver a five minute newscast and also, wire a broadcast studio in the same breath !
Very FEW can do that.
So, how will Mike Cleaver be remembered and what will be his legacy ?
For the record, I never had the chance to meet Mike Cleaver and I only spoke on the phone with him, once.
Mike was apparently a "gay" gentleman and journalist, and, to my recollection, he did not hide his lifestyle, or pushed his "gay lifestyle" on any of us, which drew respect from everybody who happens to be more straight or from more conservative values.
I was introduced to radio news back in 1982 by a well-known journalist, David Brindle, then of FM96 Calgary, and later CBC Newsworld, apparently, one of the first broadcasters in Canada to openly admit that he was gay, and then, admit that he had aids. As I got to know David better, I learned that It took courage for David to admit to a gay lifestyle, and not everyone initially accepted it ? Today, more people (I think?) accept it and it is less taboo, but as we learned from the not so recent gay Toronto murders and indictments, not everyone, including cops, like those people ? (I am not "gay," by the way, but I am just pointing out how minorities have evolved in this society).
Mike was respected (at least to many, but not, to all of you?) in that on this Radiowest site, (where he wrote for many years) he always spoke his mind about controversial subjects, including the thorny issue of how the broadcast education system attempts to prepare our young news journalists and, how illiterate the new generation tends to be and how that illiteracy stands in the way of their journalistic success. Their butchering of the English language, for example.
Only superstar caliber journalists like Mike (a former broadcasting instructor) can call out the new generation "X" (or is it "Y") for what they really are !
The other legacy of Mike Cleaver will be his own detailed documentation of the working conditions of radio stations where he worked, and the detailed studio and wiring setup of most of those radio stations that he worked at, some of which were legendary Canadian stations. This was rare, brilliant writing, in my view.
Another great newsman has passed on and, the clock keeps clicking for the rest of us, isn't it true ! LOL My condolences to the Cleaver family at this time.