Long-time CTV camera operator retires

“It was my responsibility to go on air and do the baby report because my mom was the head of maternity at the hospital. So, yeah, I read the baby birth announcements,” he laughed.

Barnett went on to graduate from Fanshawe College with a diploma in broadcast journalism. He had job interviews lined up across Western Canada, but he never got past Prince Albert.

“CKBI television, as it was called then, called me to come in for an interview. I left on a Friday morning at 5 a.m. and got here by Sunday. I went for an interview on Monday and started working on Tuesday,” he said.

Barnett, in the blue shirt, was just 19 years old when he began his career with CKBI television in 1975. (submitted photo/Gord Barnett)

That was April 28, 1975 when Barnett was just 19 years old and although he had plenty of opportunities for career moves over the years, he never left P.A.

“We liked P.A. I had gotten involved in the community. I was on slow pitch teams, hockey and curling. I had a lot of good friends here and in the summers with the lakes, I thought people will drive for hours and plan vacations to come up this way and I live here,” he said.

Barnett worked under the management of the late E.A Rawlinson, Jim Scarrow and broadcast legend Jack Cennon early in his career.

“I didn’t see him [Cennon] a lot because he was focused on his morning radio show, but he was totally approachable. He also spoke his mind. If you messed up, you heard about it and it probably wasn’t politically correct,” Barnett laughed.

Jim Scarrow hired Barnett and said he was an exceptional employee.

“There was never a day he wasn’t excited to come to work. He would certainly be the longest serving media person of the last four decades and one that really touched not only the media but all of the people that he would encounter on the job. Anything that required visual representation, Gord was there,” Scarrow said.

Barnett’s retirement comes just a few months short of his 45th anniversary with CTV News. (submitted photo/Gord Barnett)

Barnett’s first four years in the industry were spent in the control room where he made sure shows, movies and commercials aired at the appropriate time. Local clients recorded commercials on what Barnett called ‘slide voiceovers’ which were reel-to-reel recordings of a voice for the commercial and pictures on slides. He used a telecine system which was made up of projectors and mirrors.

“You would have the script [for the commercial] beside you while you were operating and while the audio was rolling, there would be a mark on the paper that told you when to change the slides. So, we’d literally pull the one slide out and put the next one in,” he said.

Over the years, Barnett has seen dramatic changes in the way the industry works. When he first started, they recorded film to videotape and the cameras had separate decks which meant lugging around more than 50 lbs of equipment. He weathered the technological changes from Beta tapes to DV tapes and eventually the use of memory cards. He also guided more than 130 reporters who came through the newsroom. The impact he made on them is evident in the hundreds of comments on Barnett’s Facebook post announcing his retirement.

One of them read, “You have had such a profound impact on the industry, but what can’t be measured is the impact you’ve had on so many young journalists…hearing the way you guided reporters, helped them get comfortable and settled and then help them move on (literally help some move) is so admirable.”

Barnett, seen here with former CTV chief news anchor Lloyd Robertson, has mentored more than 130 journalists throughout his career. (submitted photo/Gord Barnett)

Among his career highlights, Barnett recalls producing more than 100 episodes of a television series in the mid ‘80s called ‘Number One West’ – a country and western music show with Brian Sklar that also featured stars from as far away as Nashville. He and a sports reporter were embedded with the Prince Albert Raiders on a western road swing for a series called ‘Behind the Bench.’ He has volunteered as a producer or camera operator for Telemiracle at least 35 times. Among his favorite shoots were those for a documentary series that featured the ‘Seven Wonders of Saskatchewan.’ He travelled with a CTV crew and a group of Indigenous veterans to Holland, and he covered the 90^th anniversary of Vimy Ridge in France. Despite the thrill of those experiences, Barnett said the best stories to tell were the ones from home.

“In a world of universal television, where you can get whatever information you want, you still want to be connected to your community. You shouldn’t know more about what’s going on in Toronto, Washington and Europe than you know what’s going on in your own town,” he said. “There’s some great stuff happening here, and I think it helps with community pride when you hear about these stories in your community.”

Barnett’s retirement comes just a few months short of his 45^th anniversary – an accomplishment not many can boast about. He plans to fully embrace life after CTV, and other than a few freelance opportunities here and there, he said the only gigs he’ll really pine for are the ones he can get babysitting his grandchildren.

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Teena.monteleone@jpbg.ca

On Twitter: @TeenaMonteleone

by Teena Monteleone

Long-time CTV camera operator retires

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