Terry Delaney (1933 - 1993)
Terry Delaney came to the Yukon with his parents when he was fifteen. The family moved from Edmonton when Terry’s father got a job with White Pass & Yukon Route. At that time, Edmonton had a population of about 103,000 and Whitehorse had about 3,000 people. Terry worked on the riverboats for three summers and got as far as Fort Yukon on the Yukon River in Alaska. He quit school when he was about eighteen and worked at odd jobs.1)
After the Second World War, Terry was a driver with the Army’s Service Corp. in Whitehorse and made a delivery to the CFWH radio station. The volunteer station was started by American military in 1944 and kept operating after the Canadian military assumed ownership and control over American assets associated with war-related projects in the Yukon. A Canadian Air Force corporal was on the air, but had to leave to attend pay parade when Delaney arrived. Delaney took over for what was promised to be a few minutes and ended up being two hours. A terrified Delaney kept the station on the air and was hooked by broadcasting.2)
In 1958, Delaney was driving ambulance at night for the Army and then spending three or four hours as a radio announcer. That year he got a job with CBC’s Northern Service when they took over the community radio station. He was making $370 a month, good pay in those days.3) Terry Delaney, Tom Horny, Earl Stephanson, and Joe Craig were the first CBC employees in the north. Delaney became the voice of sports in the Yukon and in 1962 was calling hockey games. The first CBC station was in an old Air Force building across from the airport. In the early 1960s, the station moved into a new building on Third Ave next to the bus depot. It was less than satisfactory as the building had no soundproofing. In April 1966, CBC moved to its current location at the corner of Third and Elliot.4)
Delaney’s status expanded from announcer to news broadcaster and research man on a number of public affairs programs. He covered major stories and was on the last voyage of the sternwheeler Keno.5) In 1963, Delaney secured the first interview with pilot Ralph Flores when he and Helen Klaben were rescued after they were found forty-nine days after their plane crashed near Watson Lake. He was one of the first journalists to survey the scene after the 1964 earthquake in Anchorage. When Delaney retired in 1989, he had missed only one Arctic Winter Games and that was because of ill health. A potlatch was held for Terry Delaney after his death, and he is buried at Champagne.6)