Dini Petty (born January 15, 1945) is a

Canadian Canadians (french: Canadiens) are people identified with the country of Canada. This connection may be residential, legal, historical or cultural. For most Canadians, many (or all) of these connections exist and are collectively the source of ...

television and radio host. At 22, wearing a trademark pink

jumpsuit A jumpsuit is a one-piece garment with sleeves and legs and typically without integral coverings for feet, hands or head. The original jump suit is the functional one-piece garment used by parachuters. The original skydivers' jumpsuits wer ...

and working for

Toronto Toronto ( ; or ) is the capital city of the Canadian province of Ontario. With a recorded population of 2,794,356 in 2021, it is the most populous city in Canada and the fourth most populous city in North America. The city is the ancho ...

radio station CKEY, she became the first female traffic reporter to pilot her own

helicopter A helicopter is a type of rotorcraft in which lift and thrust are supplied by horizontally spinning rotors. This allows the helicopter to take off and land vertically, to hover, and to fly forward, backward and laterally. These attributes ...

. She clocked 5,000 hours as pilot-in-command of a Hughes 300. Later, at

Citytv Toronto CITY-DT (channel 57) is a television station in Toronto, Toronto, Ontario, Canada, serving as the Flagship (broadcasting), flagship station of the Citytv network. It is owned-and-operated station, owned and operated by network parent Rogers Sp ...

, she worked as a writer, reporter and co-anchor, with

Gord Martineau Gord Martineau (born September 23, 1947) is a Canadian television journalist. In April 2007, he received a lifetime achievement award from the RTNDA for 40 years in broadcasting. Martineau worked briefly in radio in Halifax, Nova Scotia and Mo ...

, of evening newscast City''Pulse'''' at 6''. There also she hosted an afternoon program, ''Sweet City Woman''. Later, on Citytv's daily

talk show A talk show (or chat show in British English) is a television programming or radio programming genre structured around the act of spontaneous conversation.Bernard M. Timberg, Robert J. Erler'' (2010Television Talk: A History of the TV Talk Show ...

CityLine ''CityLine'' is a Canadian talk show and lifestyle television program hosted by Tracy Moore produced for the Citytv network at Toronto flagship station CITY-DT. Each show has a theme that changes daily. These include "Around the House", "Fami ...

'', Petty established herself as one of Canada's foremost television talk show hosts. Cronenberg, David; Irwin, Mark (Spring/Winter 2004). ''David Cronenberg/Mark Irwin Commentary'' 'Videdrome'' DVD; Audio Track 2

Criterion Collection The Criterion Collection, Inc. (or simply Criterion) is an American home-video distribution company that focuses on licensing, restoring and distributing "important classic and contemporary films." Criterion serves film and media scholars, cinep ...

. Los Angeles, California; Toronto, Ontario, Canada. She left her evening news anchor position to concentrate on ''CityLine''. From May 1987 to 1989, Petty also anchored Citytv's short-lived 5:30 p.m. news and current affairs program ''CityWide''. In 1989, Petty moved to

CFTO CFTO-DT (channel 9) is a television station in Toronto, Ontario, Canada, serving as the flagship station of the CTV Television Network. It is owned and operated by network parent Bell Media alongside Barrie-based CTV 2 outlet CKVR-DT, channel 3 ...

and the

Baton Broadcasting System :''This is about the defunct television system owned by Baton Broadcasting. For the history of Baton Broadcasting itself, see Bell Media.'' The Baton Broadcast System ( ), also known as BBS, was a Canadian system of television stations located in ...

. Her hour-long general interest talk show, ''

The Dini Petty Show ''The Dini Petty Show'' was a Canadian daytime television talk show, which aired on stations affiliated with the Baton Broadcasting System from 1989 to 1999. It originated from the BBS flagship station, Toronto's CFTO-TV. Hosted by Dini Petty, ...

'', aired until 1999. In the 2000s, Petty hosted ''Weekends with Dini Petty'', a syndicated weekly radio program focused on health and wellness for

baby boomer Baby boomers, often shortened to boomers, are the Western demographic cohort following the Silent Generation and preceding Generation X. The generation is often defined as people born from 1946 to 1964, during the mid-20th century baby boom. T ...

Sheila Copps Sheila Maureen Copps (born November 27, 1952) is a former Canadian politician who also served as the sixth deputy prime minister of Canada from November 4, 1993, to April 30, 1996, and June 19, 1996, to June 11, 1997. Her father, Victor Copps, ...

succeeded her as host of ''Weekends''. In August and September 2010, Petty returned to guest-host several episodes of ''Cityline'' while host, Tracy Moore, was on maternity leave. In 2016, Petty relaunched a product called Luuup Litter Box, partially through using a

Kickstarter Kickstarter is an American public benefit corporation based in Brooklyn, New York, that maintains a global crowdfunding platform focused on creativity. The company's stated mission is to "help bring creative projects to life". As of July 2021, ...

platform.

Personal life

In 1980, a documentary camera followed her

pregnancy Pregnancy is the time during which one or more offspring develops ( gestates) inside a woman's uterus (womb). A multiple pregnancy involves more than one offspring, such as with twins. Pregnancy usually occurs by sexual intercourse, but ca ...

and the

birth Birth is the act or process of bearing or bringing forth offspring, also referred to in technical contexts as parturition. In mammals, the process is initiated by hormones which cause the muscular walls of the uterus to contract, expelling the f ...

of her son Nicholas. She also has a daughter, Samantha.

Publications

Petty has written a

children's book Children's literature or juvenile literature includes stories, books, magazines, and poems that are created for children. Modern children's literature is classified in two different ways: genre or the intended age of the reader. Children's ...

, ''The Queen, the Bear, and the Bumblebee'', published in 2000. Joanne Findon (professor of English literature at Trent University, Ontario) described the book as "a charming fable about the value of being yourself and recognizing your own strengths."

Publishers Weekly ''Publishers Weekly'' (''PW'') is an American weekly trade news magazine targeted at publishers, librarians, booksellers, and literary agents. Published continuously since 1872, it has carried the tagline, "The International News Magazine of B ...

was less flattering: "Despite a bumblebee protagonist, there's little to buzz about in this didactic picture book." In 2014, the book was staged at a theatre at the

Banff Centre Banff Centre for Arts and Creativity, formerly known as The Banff Centre (and previously The Banff Centre for Continuing Education), located in Banff, Alberta, was established in 1933 as the Banff School of Drama. It was granted full autonomy as ...

References

External links

*
Clara Thomas Archives and Special Collections, York University
- Archival assets from the ''Dini Petty'' fonds.
dinipetty.com
{{DEFAULTSORT:Petty, Dini 1945 births Living people Canadian television talk show hosts Canadian radio personalities Canadian children's writers Canadian aviators Writers from Toronto People from Kingston upon Thames Canadian women television personalities CTV Television Network people Citytv people