Today I lost my dear friend, Jeff Ansell.
Jeff and I had a connection before we actually met. All those years ago, neither of us knew that we would become like brothers.
In the mid-70s, Jeff was working at rock power-house CKGM in Montreal while I was doing 20/20 news at CFGO in Ottawa. Little did we know at the time that we were both around the same age. We were both on the radio in our teens!
Every major radio station subscribed to a service called Broadcast News, which was a news wire for broadcasters. The service also provided audio clips; actualities and voicers. BN would call radio news rooms and ask reporters to record 30 second reports to be sent out to radio stations across the country.
I always used Jeff’s reports because he sounded great and I thought they fit the sound of the radio station. Turns out Jeff was using my reports too. I later told Jeff that I loved his voicers because, to me, he sounded like a “Rock ‘n Roll Vic Ratner,” who was a reporter with ABC in New York. Jeff always loved the reference to “Vic Ratner” and we would laugh like crazy about it because we were pretty sure it was an obscure reference that only he and I would get.
Jeff had moved on to CFTR in Toronto by the time I was offered at job at CKGM. One day, after finishing a newscast, I wandered into the newsroom and answered the phone. It was Jeff! It was THE Jeff Ansell that I’d admired for so long. He said, “You should be working in Toronto” and his comment meant the world to me.
About 6 months later, I was offered a job at CHUM and Jeff had just moved to CHUM from CFTR. We finally met face-to-face and we had an instant connection.
The night before I had to go on the air at 1050 CHUM, with its million+ listeners, I was terrified. Jeff knew that I was nervous and invited me over to his place for a couple of drinks and a lot of laughs and we became fast friends.
We had a lot of adventures together over the years and most of those adventures involved laughter that would bring us to tears.
Although our careers went in separate directions for a while (Jeff went to Citytv and then became a VP at Hill & Knowlton and I ended up as a program director at XM Satellite Radio) we eventually worked together again, thanks to Jeff’s generosity.
I was about to accept a position at Rogers when Jeff said, “You won’t be happy there. Why don’t you come and do media training with me. I’m offering you the keys to the kingdom!”
Jeff opened my eyes to the world of media training and presentation coaching. And I will be eternally grateful for that.
I was lucky enough to work with Jeff at Jeff Ansell & Associates for over a decade (we took turns playing the “bad cop”) and we laughed every solitary day.
We also talked about everything. Jeff was so proud of his children, Adam and Liana, Josh, and his grandchildren, Mia and Jake. And, of course, he was deeply in love with his beautiful wife, Annie.
It’s impossible to sum up a friendship that spans over four decades.
I loved the guy. I’m going to miss him.
