‘One word, huge!’: Londoners reflect on life of broadcaster and community champion Bill Brady

CTV’s Sean Irvine speaks with friends and contemporaries of iconic London media personality Bill Brady, who died Sunday evening at the age of 93.

The community is mourning the loss of longtime broadcaster, business leader, and humanitarian Bill Brady.

Brady passed Sunday at the age of 93.

In his lifetime, Brady followed a path through all areas of the media business.

His impact is summed up concisely by longtime CFPL radio morning personality Peter Garland, who succeeded him.

“One word: ‘Huge!’ Everyone knew Bill Brady. He was extremely famous in town,” he said.

Brady, a native of Windsor, stopped in a few places before making London his permanent home in the 1960s.

CKSL Radio was his first stop, but he made a name for himself at CFPL. It was here that he began to moonlight on CFPL-TV, now CTV News London.

“I was asked if I would be interested in doing a game show?” Brady recalled during an interview with CTV News London in 2023. “They told me I’d make $52 a show, and I thought, ‘What kind of car I was going to buy?’”

Bill connected with audiences in both radio and television. His voice and face became a source of comfort. He was known to stay on air for hours during snowstorms and to wait to tape TV shows just so studio audiences had time to arrive.

“And they would come from places like Dutton and Owen Sound, a long way away. They’d come from church groups, service clubs, women’s clubs, and they’d sit in the bleachers, and they’d be our studio audience,” he said.

Over time, Bill became a community champion.

As a broadcaster, he raised funds through Bunny Bundle, a decades-long effort to support the Thames Valley Children’s Centre.

Even after he stepped down from his daily radio show to become a broadcasting executive, Bill continued to give to multiple charity boards and events.

Organ transplant campaigns and diabetes research were his passions.

CTV’s Nick Paparella calls Bill a community trailblazer and mentor.

“You see the connection he had with the audience. And you see how he was engaged with the fundraising event and with that organization,” he said. “And that was Bill. Bill was a true community leader.”

Steve Garrison, another longtime morning personality in London radio, concedes he “grew up wanting to be Bill Brady”. Later, he heeded his mentor’s advice to put London first.

“Bill was always available to do MC work,” he said. “He’d be out to 12 midnight and then be up prepping his show at 3 [a.m.] or 4 a.m.”

Brady’s commitment to serving London led to him receiving the Order of Canada in 1991 and the Sovereign Medal for Volunteer Service in 2021.

Ultimately, he will be remembered as a broadcaster in the golden age of London radio and TV.

“Bill was just a giant in that category as far as personality was concerned,” Garland said.