The sad news comes via Gord Lansdell at his Northwest Broadcasters site. Maurice Foisy, whose giant pipes resonated from CHQM Vancouver for over three decades, has died at age 86 after several years of serious lung dysfunction.
He was one of the first announcers hired at CHQM in 1959, brought in from CBC Halifax by founder Bill Bellman, staying until 1991. He became Production Manager and then Program Director.
In later years he worked for CKST AM 1040 and read books for the visually impaired at UBC’s Crane Library.
Our sincere condolences to his family.
Thanks to Vancouver Broadcasters for the pictures.
A dogged professional whose knowledge of varied musical genres was amazing. We worked together closely for 23 years without a major disagreement. I learned a lot from Maurice and we shared many laughs over the years both at work and away. Apart from his afternoon Drive program, M.F. co-hosted Starlight Concert weekday evenings from 9 – 11 p.m. with composer/conductor John Avison. In the same time slot Sunday evenings they presented Opera and Gaslight, 11 p.m. to midnight was for jazzophiles.
Condolences to his wife Sharel and their children.
Heaven now has a new Man About Town.
What a great person to know and work with for 25 years. I was hired by Maurice, after 15 years with CJAD in Montreal, my home town. My wife Beatrice came upon an ad in the
newspaper for a job opening , and having visited Vancouver promoting Montreal’s Expo 67 my wife agreed we should try for the job. The rest is history. Maurice was a profesional from
the word go. Always fair in dealing with his employees, and a pleasure to work for. Condolences to his wife and family. RIP my friend.
Ditto Andy and Terry. I briefly worked with him reading books for the visually impaired at UBC’s Crane Library before I went to VoicePrint (AMI). Just a great guy and “cool cat”.
I was a colleague of Maurice for about 20-years, he as VP Programming at QM AM & FM, me as GM of the Q-Broadcasting owned CKPG-Radio & TV. Maurice was a gentleman in every respect, congenial in manner and a respected authority on the then QM formats – and what a set of pipes. Condolences to Sharel and family. RIP old friend.
Anyone who worked with or for Maurice can attest to his professionalism. He also had a pretty unique sense of humour. I spent 9 great years at QM and learned an awful lot from Mr. Foisy. He will certainly be missed. The industry has lost another one of the good ones.
I never read the obits but happened to today and was surprised to see a name I knew. I didn’t know Maurice Foisy’s voice from radio or his audio book readings, I, and hundreds of thousands of other people knew him as the voice who said “The number you have reached is not in service. Please check the number or dial again, or call your operator for assistance. This is a recording”, for BC Tel. Obviously they wouldn’t get just anyone to do that job, only the best would suffice.
Calvin Wheeler…you have Maurice confused with Bill Phillips who did the BC Tel/Telus voice work.