With ‘McKeachie-isms … you by no means know’: A pricey, maddening pal to Sportstalk

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In Nice Good Night — A Memoir: My 30 Wild and Turbulent Years of Sportstalk, host Dan Russell recounts the highs and lows of internet hosting a call-in radio sports activities program in Vancouver for 3 many years. Right here is an excerpt:

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Have you ever ever had a very pricey pal who encompasses all of the traits you’ll hope for — sincere, loyal, caring, reliable, good listener, enjoyable — but can nonetheless drive you bonkers?

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Meet John McKeachie.

Like tens of 1000’s of others, I grew up listening to McKeachie thorough late-evening and weekend sportscasts on CKNW after which religiously watched his late-night highlights on BCTV.

But it was him who reached out to me throughout Sportstalk’s first yr on CJOR. We stored in contact after that, and it wasn’t lengthy earlier than our acquaintanceship turned a decades-long friendship. I beloved his appreciation of the printed enterprise, however what actually jumped out to me was his large coronary heart. He genuinely cared about folks, about me and in regards to the welfare of Sportstalk.

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McKeach, although, was as impatient as he was persistent.

Once we began eating collectively after our respective shifts, he was at all times anxious to substantiate our rendezvous by calling at 12:07 a.m., one minute after he and Robert Malcom mentioned goodnight on BCTV, eight minutes after the Sportstalk Orchestra ended our present. The issue at our finish was that we had been nonetheless in debrief mode, assessing what did and didn’t go proper throughout our present, cleansing up our papers and, most significantly, planning the following day.

McKeach didn’t care.

Additionally, although I’m certain he was simply attempting to be pleasant, John additionally had a daily behavior of calling me mid-morning, typically for no obvious motive, and beginning with the dumbest query you may ask somebody who simply woke as much as reply the cellphone.

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“Are you up?”

“I f—ing am now,” could be my traditional groggy response, typically for actual, often for impact.

I believed the best solution to put a cease to this may be to ask if he might please wait till 12:20 a.m. and p.m. earlier than calling. My 12:20 rule. Really easy to recollect. So exhausting, as I might discover out, to stick to.

Is cellphone illness situation — a.ok.a. PDC — even a factor? As a result of if ever anybody had it, it was McKeach. Initially, when it comes to any cellphone ringing, he and I had been polar opposites. I’m content material to let a name go to voicemail figuring out the individual will depart a message if it was essential, whereas John might journey and break a leg diving to reply it reside. He informed me it was not unusual at BCTV for him to reply a name from a viewer simply earlier than he was speculated to be on the set, speak to the purpose of virtually being late and be fiddling together with his microphone and jacket with the pink gentle already on. This continuously occurred and was a part of his on-air attraction.

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“Why do you reply each name?” I used to ask him.

“Since you by no means know,” he would say.

“You by no means know what?” I’d invariably reply.

Not not like those that accumulate uncommon stamps, cash, hockey playing cards, and many others., McKeachie collected cellphone numbers. I by no means met anybody prouder of the listing that he saved and continuously up to date on his BCTV pc. He printed a brand new copy each few weeks and at all times stored it in a bulging again pocket. As a result of an awesome contact listing is gold in our enterprise, this meant John actually was sitting on a gold mine.

Remotes had been often rewarding however at all times hectic. House base was my area, with a each day routine that consisted of hours-long present prep and writing in the course of the day, the present itself, and post-game eats with McKeach and my crew at Martini’s on Broadway. We often went to Martini’s 4 occasions every week, although John boasted his report was 16 straight days, together with weekends. Their meals was nice, their employees respectfully accommodating, and so they had been open till 2 a.m., typically a lot later for us.

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We largely shot the breeze in regards to the day in sports activities and shared laughs about different issues. The one time we’d cringe could be when somebody well-known died, which invariably would go like this: A little bit reflection in regards to the individual, maybe a couple of five-second pause after which McKeach cheekily asking, “Did you’ve him in your pool?”

Martini’s is the place we memorized the “McKeachie-isms,” his go-to listing of phrases. For instance:

• Any story he may inform typically was a “good news-bad information situation.”

• The “car-accident syndrome” is how he described having to attend too lengthy to study one thing essential as a result of “the not figuring out is the toughest half.”

• McKeach was by no means out till the wee hours, it was at all times till “100 o’clock within the morning.” Nor was he out for drinks — at all times “cocktails” mentioned with fervour.

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• The over/underneath on using “vis-à-vis” might simply be positioned every night time at 5.5, and taking the over was at all times the protected guess.

• In the event you shared notably nice information with him, maybe a brand new contract or an awesome score guide, it was by no means “congratulations” however, no matter month, “Completely satisfied New 12 months.”

• Annually as Christmas approached, McKeach proudly proclaimed, “I by no means begin shopping for presents till the twenty fourth as a result of that manner you may spend solely sooner or later procuring.”

Throughout my bachelor years, I spent virtually each Christmas Eve at his South Vancouver residence the place, in addition to consuming festive drinks, I used to be requested by John and his spouse Sandi to put in writing particular person Santa notes for his or her three younger daughters. All the time the final to go away, I recall going into the chilly night time round 2 a.m. and heading again to my Kitsilano residence the place I might begin wrapping presents for my family go to the following day. In spite of everything, if you happen to wait till Dec. 24 to start out wrapping, essentially the most time you may spend on it’s sooner or later.

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It’s true, McKeach was infectious and I beloved him.

However solely after 12:20 — a.m. or p.m.

Learn extra excerpts from Nice Good Night — A Memoir: My 30 Wild and Turbulent Years of Sportstalk:

• Excerpt 1: ‘Sportstalk, go forward’: Beginning a Vancouver radio speak present juggernaut
• Excerpt: 2: ‘Thanks for having me on, Dan’: Brian Burke as Sportstalk’s finest visitor ever
• Excerpt 3: With ‘McKeachie-isms … you by no means know’: A pricey, maddening pal to Sportstalk
• Excerpt 4: ‘Critique so stinging, so biting, so sensible’: ‘The Pauser’ known as some photographs on air, and off, at Sportstalk
• Excerpt 5: ‘We linked’: Recalling Sportstalk’s night time in ’94 riven by Rangers and riots

For extra data, go to danrussellsportstalk.com.

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