Robert Joseph McAdorey (July 24, 1935 – February 5, 2005) was a Canadian television and radio broadcaster, most noted for his roles as a radio DJ for Toronto radio station CHUM in the 1960s, and as an entertainment reporter for the Global Television Network in the 1980s and 1990s.
Background
McAdorey was born and raised in Niagara Falls, Ontario. He got his start in broadcasting with local radio station CHVC as a copywriter and advertising announcer.
While at CHVC, his quick thinking salvaged a Christmas broadcast that was going awry; the announcer playing Santa Claus was drunk and behaving obnoxiously, to the point that the actress playing Mrs. Claus was refusing to work with him, and McAdorey immediately jumped in to play "Sammy Snowflake" so that Santa could be pulled off the air.
In his early career he was often described as looking like Buddy Holly, while as he aged he was occasionally mistaken in public for Kenneth D. Taylor.
When the station moved to a more strictly formatted, less personality-centred sound in 1968, McAdorey left the station, and later worked at CFGM
Television career
McAdorey joined the fledgling Global Television Network in Ontario in 1976 on contract producing humorous pieces for Global's newscast,
Beginning in 1981 he appeared as co-anchor with John Dawe and Mike Anscombe of the station's News at Noon. The show's concept was to reinvent the idea of a noon-hour newscast, adding entertainment and lifestyle features instead of just rehashing the headlines; by 1983 the show was being hailed for its "three nice guys" vibe and was attracting unusually strong ratings for a noon-hour newscast. McAdorey was briefly fired from the station in 1983 for filing a report which management deemed inappropriately humorous and unprofessional, but was hired back within days after many of the station's viewers called and wrote letters in protest. He was also a contributor to the station's other newscasts as an entertainment reporter.
From 1991 to 1997 he also hosted Entertainment Desk, a half-hour daytime entertainment news show. In late 1996 he was forced to take a medical leave of absence for several weeks after suffering a head injury in a fall.
In July 2000, he retired, against his wishes, from Global due to the station's policy at the time of mandatory retirement at 65.
McAdorey returned briefly in 2001 to give movie reviews, but spent most of his final years in Niagara-on-the-Lake, Ontario.