When Chris Cuthbert, Artsci’79, was a kid, he would put a transistor radio under his pillow at night and fall asleep to the sound of sportscasters calling games from faraway cities like New York, Chicago, and Boston. He dreamed of being one of those voices one day.
“I thought it would be the perfect job, but it was so specialized, so remote, the odds so small that I never even really thought about pursuing it,” he says.
That changed soon after he arrived at CFRC in the fall of 1978. The Gaels were on their way to winning a national football championship that year and Cuthbert wanted to be in the booth calling the action.
He can’t remember who Queen’s played in his first game, but he clearly remembers that everything changed for him the moment he put the headset on.
“Sometimes, play-by-play is like karaoke,” he says. “Everybody thinks they can do it until they get the mic. I certainly can’t do karaoke, but when I got to call that game, it was like I’d been doing it for years.”
Today, Cuthbert has one of the most recognizable voices in Canadian sports broadcasting. Over his 40-plus years in the business, he has won multiple Geminis and has called multiple Grey Cups, Stanley Cups, and Olympics. His most famous call? Sidney Crosby’s “golden goal” at the Vancouver Winter Olympics.
“If there’s a moment as good as that one at the 2010 Olympics, I’m all for getting a chance to do another one,” he says.
Beginnings at CFRC
At CFRC, he got the chance to call football and hockey games, as well as be the sports editor at the Queen’s Journal. But one of his biggest breaks came on the evening of Nov. 4, 1978.
Days earlier, Cuthbert had called up Toronto radio station CFRB to ask if they’d like a report on the Queen’s football team. He grew up listening to CFRB’s famous sportscasts at 6:40 pm and 11:20 pm. “If it’s broadcast quality, we’ll air it,” was the reply.
So, Cuthbert wrote up his 45-second report, phoned it in, and gathered around the radio at 6:40 pm with his roommates. They waited. And waited. There was no report. He was devastated.
Later that night, though, Cuthbert returned home early from an Elvis Costello concert at Jock Harty Arena and turned on CFRB. At 11:25 pm, he heard his voice.
“I still get chills even telling that story because that is when I knew,” he says. “When I could be on the radio station I grew up listening to as a kid and they had run that report, that was the fuel I needed to take it to the next level.”
None of it would have been possible without CFRC, he says.
“To this day, when anybody asks me about how to get into the business, I tell them it’s about getting reps and getting opportunities at any level. And I couldn’t have been more fortunate to get those high-quality opportunities at Queen’s.”
Other notable alumni
Cuthbert is one of many notable people who got their start at CFRC. Other famous alumni include actor Lorne Greene, BA'37, LLD'71, CBC Radio’s Shelagh Rogers, Artsci'77, LLD'19, Tragically Hip’s Gord Sinclair, Artsci'86, LLD'16, musician Matthew Barber, Artsci’00, and journalist/author Jeffrey Simpson, Arts'71, LLD'05.
CFRC, one of Canada’s oldest radio stations, launched in 1922 and is celebrating its 100th anniversary. The station has several events planned to mark the historic occasion:
• Oct. 1-Dec. 31: CFRC’s Centennial “Play It Forward” Funding Drive has a goal of $30,000 to support building a new accessible website and an accessible radio theatre camp for local underprivileged youth in 2023. Donate today via the CFRC website.
• Oct. 7-8: Join CFRC’s 100th Birthday celebrations. Commemorative plaque unveiling, station tours, meet and greets, and a dance party at the Grad Club! Visit the CFRC website for details and stay tuned to your alumni newsletters.
• Oct. 28-29: Visit CFRC at its Grant Hall Booth over Homecoming weekend and attend station tours and centennial reunion space events in Carruthers Hall.
• Nov. 6: Tune in locally or worldwide for the second Shortwave Theatre Festival featuring audio dramas produced by Queen’s and community artists.
• Don’t forget: Follow the station on social media for the latest updates on centennial celebrations, programming initiatives, and local and campus news stories @cfrcradio on Facebook and Instagram; @cfrc on Twitter.
