Death of a Legend (And his Voice)

It's hard to imagine CityTV Toronto without the voice of anchor Mark Dailey, whether it came from the assignment desk, the anchor desk or the bumpers between station programming, but now it looks like we'll have to...

Well known TV personality Dailey passed away today after a long struggle with cancer. He had survived a previous bout of prostate cancer, but this past fall he was diagnosed with kidney cancer. Last week, Craig Fee of Kitchener's 107.5 DAVE FM wrote on his blog that Dailey had gone into a coma after the cancer had spread to his lungs, which is now followed by the news of the journalist's passing just a short while ago.

If there was ever a news anchor truly worthy of the title "TV personality" it was Mark Dailey. His distinct voice and occasionally sardonic oratory style made him a favourite for many. And he was so well known for those golden pipes of his that he was occasionally only referred to as "The Voice", and once more you knew who they meant.

Along with his marathon man-like 36 years on CityTV, Dailey lent his voice to animated series like Medabots, The Ripping Friends and Beyblade and appeared in movies like Boozecan, Childstar and Spliced. However, he did not contribute the "Subdivisions" line to the Rush song of the same name, despite years of rumours and denials to that effect.

Sadly, the death of Dailey isn't just the loss of a great newsman, but also a sign of the times. CityTV just hasn't been the same since it was picked up by Rogers after the empire Moses Znaimer built was taken and fragmented in the buy out by CTVglobemedia. CityTV was hit hard by the economic crisis and lost a number of its talented staff members and had to cancel some of its original programming, but through it all, there was still "The Voice." And now, even that too is gone.

Condolences and good wishes go out to Dailey's wife and daughter in this sad time.