Wednesday, January 17, 2007

end of an era

Percy Saltzman, who was the first person to appear on Canada's inaugural television broadcast in 1952 and was the country's first TV weatherman, has died at 91.

When CBC-TV launched English language broadcasting in Canada on Sept. 8, 1952, Percy Saltzman was the first person to appear.When CBC-TV launched English language broadcasting in Canada on Sept. 8, 1952, Percy Saltzman was the first person to appear.

Saltzman's television broadcasting career spanned 30 years. Using no notes, no teleprompter, he did the weather from memory, ending the report with his trademark toss of the chalk.

He was the first Canadian weatherman to use radar and satellite and the first to give road and forest fire reports. He was the weatherman who talked Toronto through Hurricane Hazel.

via cbc

Just as today's weather broadcasts are built on many of the things that Saltzman introduced, there are a lot of things in the church that are built on things that men and women in the past introduced. We need to be careful to honour our predecessors without being locked into their techniques.

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