Larry Gavin

Hometown
Hamilton, Ontario

Deceased
March 3, 2018


Larry Gavin showed an interest in radio early in his life by building crystal sets as a boy. He would then work part-time on weekends assisting a television repairman. He was only 16 years of age when he attended DeVry Technical Institute. This led to a position of assistant to radio personalities at CKOC in Hamilton. The job included such duties as sorting and filing music before Larry moved up to hosting his own radio show. With a passion for news he would then move into the news department at the station. Continuing in that vein, he would take on full-time reporting at stations in Niagara Falls, Barrie and Calgary.

Accepting the role as News Director, he made the 1969 move to Sudbury landing at CKSO Radio & TV and eventually Mid Canada TV (MCTV) as senior producer. CKSO afforded Larry the opportunity to become engaged in television news. After being in Sudbury for nearly 20 years, Larry’s next move would be in 1988 to Ottawa where he headed up the production team at CHRO TV. Mr. Gavin found himself producing everything from live telethons to professional sports. He would retire from there in 1995.

Not ready to completely put his feet up, Larry founded a captioning service, Closed Caption Services. The company was a success serving nearly all of the major Canadian networks. He became a member of the Board of Directors at the Broadcast Executives Society in 2008.

Meanwhile, Larry and his wife Paula resided in Gananoque, Ontario. They enjoyed boating in the Thousand Islands and wintering in Florida. Larry has been credited with a sense of humour and hard work ethic and described as a family man and loyal friend.

Larry passed away on March 3, 2018 at Kingston General Hospital, leaving behind his wife Paula. They had been married for 46 years. He was also survived by his daughter Brooke and son-in-law Pete Woboditsch, grandchildren and a sister and additional relatives.