Tom Lucas ‘The Luker” has died

“With immense sadness our family announces the passing of our Father, Alan Boyle. Born in Montreal in 1949, Dad moved to Vancouver where he spent his formative years honing his love of music and radio. A graduate of Lord Byng Secondary, he met the love of his life, Margaret Brown, in grade nine typing class. They were inseparable until Maggie’s passing in 2015.

Seeing The Beatles perform at Empire Stadium in 1964 solidified his dream of becoming a radio DJ. He befriended his idol Red Robinson, and convinced Red to visit his makeshift radio station in the basement of his parents’ home. With Red’s encouragement, Alan landed his first on-air gig in Duncan at CKAY in 1968. Management encouraged Dad to change his name to something more exciting, and ‘Tom Lucas‘ was born.

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Tom and Maggie moved to Hamilton the day after they married in August 1971 to begin a new job at CKOC. Daughter Stephanie (Wayne) was born in 1972. After working at CFGO in Ottawa and CJKL in Kirkland Lake, Tom’s goal was to return to Vancouver with his young family, where he landed his dream job at CFUN. Those days are where Dad’s passion and talent evolved. In 1976, his second daughter, Miranda (Dave) was born.

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Luker’s on-air persona was backed by his attention to detail. He spent hours at home on show prep, researching local and international news to add impact to his shows. He was the King of The Airwaves who always hit ‘the post’ and ‘the fade, and never ‘walked over’ the intro to a song. One of his prized possessions was his solid gold ‘CFUN No.1’ ring. During the 70’s and 80’s, The Luker held various time slots on CFUN and could be seen around town hosting sock hops, fashion shows, Miss Teen Vancouver pageants and on-location remotes.

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Tom expanded his career by joining the CKVU-TV Vancouver Show team as a weatherman and hosted his TGIF segment. Tom fondly remembered interviewing Leslie Nielsen and being caught off guard by his infamous whoopie cushion gag! He later joined Red Robinson and other local talent co-hosting Timmy’s Telethons. He also worked as a voiceover artist with the team at Andromeda Productions.

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One of our favorite memories was seeing Dad MC outdoor concerts at Expo ’86. Music has always been the soul of our family and we loved playing the “dime game”. If we could name a song within three notes, Dad would give us a shiny new dime, but we usually lost those dimes when we forgot to turn the lights off. We were the kids with the cool Dad, ‘the DJ’s Girls’. In the 90’s, Dad’s lifelong passion for wrestling found him in the ring announcing World Wrestling Entertainment shows when they came to Vancouver. He loved ‘Macho Man’ Randy Savage and our family nicknamed Dad ‘Macho Jock’.

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He later worked at CHRX, CKWX, CJJR and developed his Canada-wide ‘Saturday Night Gold Line Request Show’ on the Satellite Radio Network. All while selling airtime and producing commercials for his shows. He was honored to MC Red Robinson’s retirement party at the Commodore Ballroom in 2001 and was later thrilled to take over the mic of the morning show at CISL. He developed the Radio Real Estate Show late in his career, showcasing local realtors and experts in mortgages and investments.

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Off air, Tom was a proud Grandfather to Addison and to our ‘livestock’ pets, Spencer, Ozzie, Dexter, Taz & Sitka. He loved airplanes, trolley buses, the Dodgers and all things Motown. We imagine he’s now perpetually walking Kits Beach at sunset with Mom and Jessie, their beloved Shih Tzu.

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At Tom’s request, there will be no funeral or celebration of life. If you would like to honour him, please treat yourself to a Tim Hortons Iced Capp, and toast him as you sing along to your favourite classic rock song. We love you Dad, ‘more than all of the blades of grass in the entire world’. Your sign off song and closing words after every radio shift ring true then, now and forever: ‘Thank Ya Bye’ over the pounding intro of The Spinners’ classic ‘I’ll Be Around’.”