Veteran CBC anchor dead at 48
TORONTO (CP) – Veteran CBC news anchor Lorne Saxberg died Saturday in a snorkelling accident while on vacation in Phuket, Thailand, CBC News reported on its website.
“We’re shocked and very, very sad that this has happened,” CBC spokeswoman Ruth-Ellen Soles said Sunday.
“He was part of our family of journalists and reporters and newsreaders.”
Saxberg had a 27-year career with the country’s public broadcaster and was a widely recognized news anchor on both television and radio.
The 48-year-old broadcaster was one of the original anchors when CBC’s all-news channel Newsworld was launched in 1989, CBC News reported.
He was recently awarded an Edward R. Murrow Award for a documentary he wrote and hosted on the 60th anniversary of the Hiroshima nuclear bomb, CBC reported.
Saxberg grew up in Thunder Bay, Ont., and graduated from Confederation College’s broadcasting program before joining CBC Radio as an announcer in his hometown.
He later moved to Toronto where he joined the roster of anchors at Newsworld.
Saxberg took a leave from CBC two years ago to work as an announcer and trainer with NHK Japan in Tokyo.
“He was the consummate pro and an exceptional journalist,” said Ken Becker, a Newsworld producer who worked with Saxberg for many years.
“When he was in the anchor chair, you knew you could throw Lorne any story – from the outbreak of war to the birth of a panda at the zoo – and he’d deliver it to the viewer with exactly the right tone.”
“He brought to every story a vast knowledge on nearly every subject, a reporter’s curiosity and an appreciation of fine writing.”
Despite Saxberg’s international success as a broadcast-journalist, he never strayed far from his northwestern Ontario roots.
Along with his family, Saxberg bought and restored a dormant 130-year-old mining shop near his hometown to create the Silver Islet General Store and Tea Room, where he served as harbourmaster and returned every summer to work at the store.
“I know he was looking forward to coming home this summer,” said Shane Judge, a radio reporter with CBC Thunder Bay who worked with Saxberg years ago. “He just loved it on the North Shore. He made sure he came here every year.”
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