Ted Blackman (February 17, 1942 – October 2, 2002) was 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 ...

media personality in the

Montreal, Quebec Montreal ( ; officially Montréal, ) is the second-most populous city in Canada and most populous city in the Canadian province of Quebec. Founded in 1642 as '' Ville-Marie'', or "City of Mary", it is named after Mount Royal, the triple-pea ...

area. Blackman's career started as a

disc jockey A disc jockey, more commonly abbreviated as DJ, is a person who plays recorded music for an audience. Types of DJs include Radio personality, radio DJs (who host programs on music radio stations), club DJs (who work at a nightclub or music f ...

at high school and teen club dances in the 1950s. After high school, he sold his records and equipment to one of his friends,

Donald Tarlton Donald K. Tarlton, CM (born 12 May 1943) is a Canadian record producer and promoter. He promoted many concerts and Canadian musicians under the name Donald K. Donald. Early life and education Tarlton graduated from Rosemere High School in the ...

(aka Donald K Donald), who later became Montreal's premier promoter and

rock and roll Rock and roll (often written as rock & roll, rock 'n' roll, or rock 'n roll) is a Genre (music), genre of popular music that evolved in the United States during the late 1940s and early 1950s. It Origins of rock and roll, originated from Africa ...

impresario. Blackman began his career in journalism in

Toronto, Ontario 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 ...

with

United Press International United Press International (UPI) is an American international news agency whose newswires, photo, news film, and audio services provided news material to thousands of newspapers, magazines, radio and television stations for most of the 20th ...

in 1961, covering three

Toronto Maple Leafs The Toronto Maple Leafs (officially the Toronto Maple Leaf Hockey Club and often referred to as the Leafs) are a professional ice hockey team based in Toronto. They compete in the National Hockey League (NHL) as a member of the Atlantic Div ...

championships as well as several

Grey Cup The Grey Cup (french: Coupe Grey) is both the championship game of the Canadian Football League (CFL) and the trophy awarded to the victorious team playing in the namesake championship of professional Canadian football. The game is contested be ...

s. In the mid-1960s he moved back home as a sports reporter for the ''

Montreal Gazette The ''Montreal Gazette'', formerly titled ''The Gazette'', is the only English-language daily newspaper published in Montreal, Quebec, Canada. Three other daily English-language newspapers shuttered at various times during the second half of th ...

'', where he covered a variety of events prior to becoming the chief writer for the expansion

Montreal Expos The Montreal Expos (french: link=no, Les Expos de Montréal) were a Canadian professional baseball team based in Montreal, Quebec. The Expos were the first Major League Baseball (MLB) franchise located outside the United States. They played in t ...

baseball club. During this time he was widely credited with creating nicknames such as "''Le Grande Orange''" for outfielder

Rusty Staub Daniel Joseph "Rusty" Staub (April 1, 1944 – March 29, 2018) was an American professional baseball player and television color commentator. He played in Major League Baseball for 23 seasons as a right fielder, designated hitter, and first basem ...

and the bleachers at

Jarry Park Stadium Jarry Park Stadium (french: Stade Parc Jarry ) is a tennis stadium in Montreal, Quebec, Canada. It was formerly a baseball stadium, home to the Montreal Expos (now Washington Nationals), from 1969 through 1976. The Expos were Major League Baseb ...

as "''Jonesville''" in honour of long ball hitter

Mack Jones Mack may refer to: People *Mack (given name) *Mack (surname) *Reinhold Mack, German record producer and sound engineer, often credited as simply "Mack" *Richard Machowicz (1965–2017), host of ''FutureWeapons'' and ''Deadliest Warrior'', known as ...

. In 1971 Blackman began his dual role in the Montreal media working for

CJAD CJAD (800 AM) is a commercial radio station operating in Montreal, Quebec, Canada. The station has an English language news/talk radio format and identifies itself on-air as ''CJAD 800''. Owned and operated by Bell Media, it has a daytime power ...

800 AM radio. He worked in various roles in Montreal radio over the next thirty years in sports and programming, primarily at CJAD. He also had stints as a morning man at rival CFCF from 1979 to 1981, and The Team at its Montreal Team 990 (an all sports station). He also penned a daily news column for the ''Montreal Gazette''. In October 1984, the ''Montreal Gazette'' suspended Blackman from his columnist position for having taken a job with radio station CJAD. The case was brought to labour arbitration.The Montreal Gazette – Google News Archive Search
/ref> Blackman died in hospital on October 2, 2002 from complications of a

liver transplant Liver transplantation or hepatic transplantation is the replacement of a Liver disease, diseased liver with the healthy liver from another person (allograft). Liver transplantation is a treatment option for Cirrhosis, end-stage liver disease and ...

References

External links

CBC obituary
1942 births 2002 deaths Anglophone Quebec people Canadian columnists Canadian Football League announcers Canadian radio hosts Canadian sportswriters Montreal Gazette people Writers from Montreal Liver transplant recipients Jewish Canadian journalists {{Canada-radio-bio-stub