Brian Linehan RIP
Brian Linehan died today. He and I weren’t close friends by any stretch but we were “pals” as he put it and had one of those friendships that picked up easily, with no awkwardness, after stretches of not seeing each other.
Brian took me under his wing at CFRB and gave me his blessing to encroach, however slightly, into his territory of entertainment. He gave me pointers, told me he wouldn’t be so “rude” as to critique my work, and waxed poetically about how much he loathed the shorter, snappier features he was being pressured to create. “I don’t do sound-bites”, he once said, with an air of Scarlett O’Hara declaring on the grounds of Tara that she will never go hungry again! He was classy, honourable, and always respectful of his interview subjects who genuinely appreciated his attention to detail in his meticulous research.
His reams and reams of notes, now famously donated for posterity, were filed in old wooden desks. We talked about what it would take to computerize it all. I offered to do it for just the experience of sifting through the massive archive. He laughed and said, maybe one day. He had an ego, to be sure, but he also knew his role was as a conduit for celebrity. That he became a celebrity himself was an enjoyable embarrassment that afforded him a who’s who list of genuine friends, like John Candy and Joan Rivers.
Brian once told me to eat some crap from my bosses, but not too much. “I can tell them when to shove it, and I wouldn’t advise that for you – yet, but you’ll know when you’re ready.”
Years later, after a loathesome dry spell in his career, Brian privately told me, “I’ve been checking the prices of tuna for the first time in my life.” It was a humbling experience but one so many of us go through at one time or another and he recognized that.
He made me a hometown hero by coming to Hamilton to appear on my CHML talk show. He was touting his new project, sure, but he was also lending credibility to a “pal”. Our sales force fawned over him but he took it in stride. He didn’t take himself too seriously.
I named Brian as one of my inspirations in my book acknowledgments and I never got to find out if he saw or read it. He probably wouldn’t have liked it. It was sound-bite, small “j” journalism and not his cup of tea. But he likely would have smiled and genuinely wished me success. He was just like that.
