L. Ian MacDonald

October 7, 2002

Ted Blackman, who goes to his final rest today, was a complete Montrealer in journalism and broadcasting. Real Montrealers, Ted once wrote, walk on the north side of Ste. Catherine street. Well, of course. The sunny side of the street. And this real Montrealer once famously painted a green line down the middle of it before the St. Patrick’s Day parade. City hall got the message.

In the news business, many people move on to other markets, but Ted was made for this one. In both print and radio, he hired a lot of people who later achieved national prominence. One of the reasons he needed satellite television with hundreds of channels was to watch all the talented people who got their first break from him in local radio. His column wouldn’t have read quite the same in any paper other than this one. It is equally difficult to imagine him doing radio commentaries in Toronto on the Leafs, Blue Jays and Argonauts. His teams were the Canadiens, the Expos and Alouettes; he gave them his lifelong allegiance, and knew everything that was going on with them.

A couple of years ago, he called to say that Maurice Richard had only hours to live.

“How do you know that?” he was asked.

“Because I just talked to Jean Béliveau at the hospital,” he said.

Ted had great news judgment, and an unerring sense of the city. He knew the Rocket died only once, that it was a uniquely important Montreal occasion, and correctly predicted that 100,000 people would come to pay their respects at the Molson Centre. How do you cover a funeral on radio? Ted did it brilliantly, by getting everybody on the air.

He knew everyone. Only Ted could have given Scotty Bowman’s cell phone number to Brian Mulroney so that the former prime minister could call and congratulate him on winning his ninth Stanley Cup.

All the people Ted knew had one thing in common – he had met them along the way in Montreal. He was a tireless ambassador for Montreal, and never gave up on the city, even in its most troubled times, notably the exodus after the first election of the Parti Québécois in 1976 and the anguish following the 1995 referendum.

He knew the city from first light to closing time. There was no doubt that Ted should have taken better care of himself, and as it was once said of the Rolling Stones, if he’d known he was going to live this long, he would have. His hard living was not conducive to longevity. But like his friend Nick Auf der Maur, he lived the life he chose, and lived it fully.

And the way he looked at life after his liver transplant, he had another seven years. But rather than ease back with the comfortable hours of doing sports in the afternoon-drive show at CJAD, he returned to the punishing schedule of doing a morning show with Mitch Melnick at Team 990. Perhaps it was his competitive nature, one more career challenge he couldn’t resist.

Three things made Ted, in his prime, a superlative journalist. One, his huge network of contacts. Two, his ability to get the story behind the story. Three, his instinctive sense of the big picture, whether it was sports or politics.

And because he started out as a wire-service reporter, he got the story out fast. His Gazette coverage of the 1972 Team Canada series from Moscow was breathtaking. He was writing to deadline, from eight times zones ahead, from the user-unfriendly Soviet system. But he got it all, including the post-game quotes.

Two other points about Ted. One was his loyalty to his friends, at all times and in all circumstances. The other was his love of women. He was married three times, to three very accomplished women, and had the gift of being on very good terms with all of them. In his own way, he was a strong feminist.

And underneath the gruff exterior, he was not called Teddy Bear for nothing. His close friend George Balcan remembers the end of his farewell broadcast from Mount Royal, and looking over at Ted, and seeing him in tears.

There might be some tears for Ted today at his memorial service. There will certainly be a crowd at Erskine and American United Church. On the north side of Sherbrooke street. The side real Montrealers walk on. Ted would have liked that.

L. Ian MacDonald is Editor of Policy Magazine.