Obituary: Former CBC anchor Kathy Keefler remembered as

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Kathy Keefler, the CBC reporter who broke into Montreal’s boy’s club of male news anchors on television in the 1980s, has died.

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Keefler began hosting the dinner-time newscast for CBC in Montreal in the early 1980s as part of a three-person crew, becoming the city’s first female English television host. The broadcast was gradually changed to a point where Keefler remained the sole host of Newswatch until 1987, when she was replaced by Dennis Trudeau.

Keefler died Friday of complications from a stroke, according to CBC Montreal, who described her as the first female presenter on the television station. She was 88 years old.

He worked at CBC from 1967 to 1993 and began his career on radio before moving on to television on a show called Consumer Scope.

“She had a great sense of humor and was a firm believer in herself. But she certainly didn’t take herself too seriously, ”said Dave Bronstetter, a retired CBC broadcaster who hosted CBC Radio One’s Daybreak from 1995 to 2006. Bronstetter was also part of the experiment to have three presenters broadcast the news along with George. Finstad. “She was just one of those people who went out and did it, always, at full throttle. I never saw her think ‘this is going to be a difficult hill to climb’.

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“He was proud to be part of the team.”

Bronstetter left the newscast to work on the radio, and after a while the CBC decided that even two people presenting the news was too much.

“Kathy was given the job and, I think, deservedly. At the time, she was the best of the three at it, ”he said.

Bronstetter said that while the CBC / Radio-Canada building in eastern Montreal towers over all the others nearby, he and Keefler worked together in its cramped basement.

“It was a fun environment. I mean there was a lot of stuff going on, from referendums to all kinds of political stories. It was a great time to be a journalist, ”Bronstetter said as he recalled how chaotic the three-person anchor system had become. He referred to it as “This Hour Has Seven Announcers,” a reference to the highly respected CBC news magazine This Hour Has Seven Days that debuted in 1964.

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“We knew that this ragged ruin, like a committee-wielding elephant in a dark room, was just not going to work. There were too many components and there were not enough resources. We had good reporters, that was not the problem. The problem was in production when it aired. It was just a trashed production.

“It seemed like a bigger production than (the movie) Ben Hur, but with no money. However, we still have fun. All I know is that Kathy was a lot of fun to be with. She was very, very funny and a great co-worker. “

Bronstetter said that with all the chaos that the three-person anchor system brought, things could have gotten ugly behind the scenes, but they never did.

It was probably because of Kathy. She already had something like 20 years of experience and was a true professional, “he said.

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Retired Montreal Gazette columnist Mike Boone covered radio and television in the city and wrote several columns about Keefler while she was a presenter.

“I thought she was a true professional. She was in a kind of difficult situation because (the CBC in Montreal), as has always been the case, was behind (CTV), or what was then called Pulse, wrong, “said Boone. “They kept trying to do things to catch up and nothing seemed to work.

“I wrote negative columns about them because they were doing so badly and their efforts to catch up seemed ridiculous to me. But I felt bad for the people who worked there. They were all professionals and Kathy definitely fell into that category. “

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