James “Brent” Germain

James “Brent” Germain

Television Producer / Director

College Professor

We are saddened to announce the passing of Brent, who died peacefully at home after a valiant fight against pulmonary fibrosis.  He was in his 83^rd year.  Predeceased by his beloved first wife Rose (née Roebuck), daughter Erin Germain, son-in-law Dr. Stewart Whitman, sister Gloria, brother Ron, sister-in-law Roberta and his parents William and Grace Germain.  Survived by his loving wife Annette Spracklan. Also survived by his devoted son Dean Germain (Kristina), and cherished daughter Dana Whitman; as well as Annette’s children Gennette Weido and Christopher Weido (Amy). “Goppa” will be missed by his grandchildren Joshua Germain (Tracy Chittilappilly), Taylor Germain (Kaleigh Dixon), Christopher Couture (Kourtney), Mackenzie Whitman (Zachary Laviolette), Grace Whitman, Calvin Weido, Cole Weido, and great-grandchildren: Jaxon, Leia, Aaliyah, Gemma, Kirah and Farrah.  Brent will also be fondly remembered by his many extended family members and friends. Brent held a great passion for good food, good wine, and good times with his many friends, especially his best buddy David Ward and his close friend Anne Bissell. He also had a special place in his heart for his pets, and memorial donations may be made in his memory to the Humane Society London & Middlesex. The family will have a private Celebration of Life.

Below are notes created by Brent that cover the story of his career in TV Broadcasting and his climb to success.

My formative years began in Regina, the capital of Saskatchewan where I was born, raised, schooled, and there I discovered what my life work would be.

At the age of 17, 1957 my first summer job was a Gas-jockey for a Texaco Service Station.  I was paid .75 cents an hour, to pump gas and wash cars. One of my weekly assignments was to wash and gas-up the local CKCK-TV station wagon. The driver of the wagon was paid $1.00/hour to pick up the local Radio & TV Announcers for their “Voice-over announcing shifts” he also drove the wagon to pickup local merchandize to be televised for their live commercials at the station.

Now here comes my story about “it’s not what you know, but who you know”, and “Being in the right place at the right time.”

The driver of the CKCK-TV wagon mentioned that he was going to quit his job at the end of the week and if I was interested, I should apply for the job, so I did and got it.

I did not have to think twice about this opportunity and when I got home to tell my family the good news, my older sister Gloria Germain was a bit distressed at idea when I excitedly told her.  She, was a Commercial Copywriter/Producer at CKCK – TV, and did not need her kid-brother around to spy on her at work.  As much as she did not like the idea of me working at the same place, she did not stand in my way, and I became the “Gopher” (as in “go for this or that”) for CKCK-TV Regina that summer.

My enthusiasm and eagerness to please won me big points until the Unfortunate day when I ran through a plate-glass door by accident, whilst being in a hurry to catch a ride into town with the Sports Announcer. I ended up in emergency General with 37 stitches in my arm, and a warning to “wise up” kid.

My willingness to try my hand at anything asked of me by the station Producers/Directors and or crew, created opportunities to learn and to understand the basics of Television Lighting and Sound equipment.  Another lucky break was being hired back for the second summer, also I had found the girl of my dreams around this time and this made me believe I was ready for marriage, (yikes) and it was just around that time, give or take a year, a beautiful brunette Rose Roebuck was to become my wife on October 03, 1959. We’d been dating for about two years so although we were young, we did it.

1959 was a very good year for me too because a full time job opportunity came from CJFB-TV in Swift Current, Saskatchewan, known for it’s nickname in those parts as “Speedy Creek”. I started work there two days after my wedding. So much for the honeymoon.

My jobs at the Swift Current station included junior Control Room Operator, learning Audio and some video Switching and a year of so later, I was promoted to a Switcher/Director, as well as well as Crew Scheduler, and some basic film editing duties.

Small TV stations were a great training ground in those early days, for learning the ropes and making some On-Air mistakes. (Yikes)

Although not too many mistakes were tolerated and I came to quickly understand to keep focused at the job at hand. I didn’t    have to be reminded that Thousands of people were watch their TV’s. around Swift Current and country side.

My next move and life changing opportunity was to leave CJFB-TV and move to Edmonton Alberta in the late summer, early fall of 1961.

Early that Spring I saw an add in our local news paper for Operating Tech’s at a new Production Studio so I has applied and luck would have it I was interviewed about a month or so later and got a coveted job with the CBC in Edmonton. To get a job with the CBC network was just awesome for our little family.

I hired as a (2-B) Operating Technician. Myself and the other CBC new employees worked at the new State-the-Art CBC studios, CBXT-TV in Edmonton 1961. The station was in a new build and had the newest and high-tech equipment in North America.

Here, I learned quickly, the inns’ and outs of Production Audio Sound recording on the newest McCurdy (slide pot audio counsel) and later, on I got a chance to train as a junior Studio Camera Op. and I was taught proper TV Lighting techniques.

I did Camera on all kinds of local shows, some of you Old timers might remember, a local documentary, “Eye to Eye”.  “The Tommy Banks Show”, variety show “Lady’s First”, “Rope Around the Sun”, and “West on Five” a Country Western talent show, as well as a few Christmas specials. C F L Football for two seasons.

The TV staff were from all over Canada and we created our own family-of-friends from within the station.  This CBC TV station is where I really started to hone my confidence and skill in Broadcasting.

The station was the Leading Edge technology for 1961. It had also hired good and talented Producer/Directors.

An opportunity for advancement into Production presented itself the year was 1964. So we packed up the family and were off to Vancouver.

I accepted a position in Production as a junior Studio Director (Floor Manager), at CHAN-TV (CTV).  As the new guy, I worked on the children’s shows: the likes of “Pete’s Place”, “Side Show” with Karen James and the Puppets, “University of the Air”, “People’s Court”, and “People in Conflict”, “The James Beard Cooking Show”.

On some weekends I was shifted to “News/Weather/Sports with News anchor Andy Marque and Sports Director with Brad Keen”.

So many great memories of teamwork and lots of fun come to mind and of course a few mistakes but we won’t dwell on those. To be in your twenties and living in Vancouver city, in the 1960’s, was awesome.

I left CHAN-TV to go to CBUT-TV (CBC) Vancouver, in hopes of getting a Production job at CBC as I felt that the Corp. would teach me better Production practices. This career move was a big mistake for me because this was 1967, the year of EXPO’67 in Montreal.  I was part of a CBC “hire”, that replaced crew sent to Montreal and was told I didn’t have to worry about my job security as some of the crew were taking full time positions with CBC Montreal, and would not return, but that was wrong and I was laid off. Here I was 27 and had never been laid off in my life.

I was a family man with three small children, with no job, and no job prospects. But as luck would have it my older brother Ron Germain needed someone to run his family business so my wife and children made the reluctant moved back to Saskatchewan, and I worked for a Family business, doing sales work.  I did very well at this, but did not like the work and the on road traveling.  It required too much time on the road and being away from family. I missed the Studio/crew atmosphere, and the reward of seeing the results of some of my work “on screen”.  It is a good feeling to know you are a small part of something “really big”.  Back then, TV was “really big” to every family home. So, I began my job search to get “back in”.

At this time, my sister Gloria was working as a TV Producer/ Director of Children’s Program for CBC-TV in Toronto.  She told me there were diplomas Programs being developed by the new Community Colleges in Ontario and they were looking for experienced people to teach these programs.

Conestoga College, located in Kitchener, offered me a teaching position.  My subjects were: Basic Camera-work, Lighting, Sound, and Production Values.  Curious to know what the other Colleges were teaching, so in the spring of 1971, I made a visit to Fanshawe College, in London, On.  I was impressed with the facilities and excellent equipment at Fanshawe College.  The friendly staffs were glad to exchange info about our subjects and course outlines.  This led to an offer to join their Fanshawe TV / Radio and Journalism Broadcasting team.  I accepted their offer of a teaching position, and moved my family to London in August 1971.  The focus of qualification was to have experience and knowledge with basic Production and technical skills.  Teaching skills were addressed as professional development offered and paid for by the College system. The first couple of years were a struggle, to create and present the course materials, but just like creating a TV program, you do what it takes to make it the best you can make it be.  My measure of success was written all over the faces of students as they learned and demonstrated new abilities each day in the classroom and especially in the TV studio. Graduation day was a celebration for the staff as much as it was for the students and their parents.

Hearing from graduates working out in the industry for TV stations, production houses, and promotional-marketing companies was the ultimate reward.  In the early years, there were more jobs, as it was a growth industry back then.  I got to see many a fine student, go on, to become well known Broadcasters throughout Canada and some to the USA and Britain.

In the mid-eighties, I had the opportunity to become the Program Coordinator for our department and held that position for five years. Running the program, I was able to make some interesting changes to further improve on what we could offer the students.

Spring and summer breaks provided time for me to pursue some free-lance projects with my own Production company “Calvin Glenn Productions”.  I did a series of In-house documentaries for the Department of Indian Affairs. I also did collaboration with a teaching Chef at Fanshawe College to create a pilot cooking show.  I named it “Making it With You” and CTV were considering putting it in the roster for the possible fall programming.  We missed getting this show on the network by one vote.  Timing for selling and marketing the show was not good but this opportunity to do industry projects between semesters, was a great way to keep me current with the changes in Production techniques and equipment technology.  It paid off in spades in making me a better teacher.

A project that did bring career rewards was the Stephen Leacock Specials.  Ric Wellwood a local Broadcaster/Writer/Actor played the leading character. Much of the taping was done on-sight at the Leacock estate in Orillia.  Some taping was done here in London and Port Stanley.  I produced the Leacock series with CTV and later Produced/Directed three more with CFPL-TV here in London.

My Specially chosen assigned Professional Production staff and Crew did a great job as attested by two Broadcasting Awards presented by the National Radio and Television Broadcaster in 1987 and again 1997.

I continued to teach in the School of TV Broadcasting for a total of 35 years.  The programs at Fanshawe College have expanded and evolved along with the TV industry and modern media venues.  Their new training facility is a state-of-the-art complex located in M Building of main campus. Enrolment is steady and job placement seems to be meeting the mark, even-though our industry is going through a rough patch in the most recent years.

Today, I am living in blessed retirement in London.  At the time, it was mandatory to retire at 65.  I left reluctantly, and I do miss the teaching and all the fellowship that goes with it.  On the upside, I get great pleasure from hearing from my past graduates and to know that they are doing well in the path they have taken.

It was an honor to be a Teacher and mentor to so many young people.  I take their success as a mark of my success.

James Brent Germain