Former Rock 95 morning show host Al Brown has died.
A husband and father of three, Brown had been battling cancer and succumbed to the disease on Tuesday, Oct. 5 due to complications, according to former Rock 95 colleague and longtime friend Sarah Beer. He was 64 years old.
Beer worked with Brown as a morning news announcer for four years, but had first worked with him as a high school co-op student.
“He was larger than life. He was very, very kind and he was a feminist. He was a great dad,” she told BarrieToday.
Having worked in television and radio for more than 30 years, Beer has had a lot of co-hosts over the years, and admitted nothing has ever quite compared to her time at Rock 95.
“Tim Weston and Al Brown were far and away my most favourite and cherished co-hosts,” Beer said, adding she believes there will never be another person like her former co-host on the radio or in the community.
“He always gave his time and his efforts to charity. He was an incredible news announcer and is responsible for most of the coverage of the Site 41 protests when they were beginning in the late '90s. He was the first one to give those community members a voice,” she said.
“It’s a great loss.”
Susan Meredith also had the pleasure of working with Brown for the eight years leading up to his retirement in 2010, after he hired her to join the morning team.
“When I went to radio college, I had one goal and that was to work at Rock 95. I tortured that man with emails for years,” she said.
Brown was always very encouraging and told her to stick with it, Meredith added. It took five years of being persistent, but she finally got hired by Brown in 2003.
“I will forever love him for that because he gave me my dream job. I feel we (Brown, Meredith and Weston) had lightning in a bottle for a number of years. We had something really amazing and special, and due in large part to Al.”
While Meredith admitted her former co-host may have looked gruff and scary on the outside, he was anything but.
“He was the most sentimental, gentle, sweet man you could meet. He was not at all what he portrayed physically,” said Meredith. “He was also the best straight man ever. He was dry and straight, I was goofy and Tim was goofy, so it was an amazing mix. Al could just bring everyone to their knees with just a look or one line.”
Brown was a one-of-a-kind person whose laugh always filled whatever room he was in, she added.
“It really was unique. It was from the heart and the gut all at once. It’s definitely big shoes to fill and I don’t think anyone will be able to fill them to be honest,” Meredith said. “I think very few people get to leave a mark and Al Brown left a mark. It will always be there for us and it was a good mark.”
On-air announcer Craig Ross told BarrieToday it’s definitely a sad time for the entire Rock 95 family.
Ross, who had known Brown since 2004, said his former colleague was extremely friendly and someone who he looked forward to seeing every day.
“He was a very kind man. He always took the time to talk to me. I was a new father at the time and he was always asking me about my kid and maybe even sharing some advice," Ross said.
Brown also helped show him the ropes when Ross would fill in on the morning show from time to time.
“I kind of felt a little out of my element. … I am the morning show host now, so it’s just kind of ironic. He just laid it out for me and guided me through. It was very comforting," Ross said.
Brown’s popular series From the Cheap Seats covered all types of topics, from sports to politics to fun jokes and the military.
“Sometimes it was controversial and sometimes it was light-hearted," Ross said. "The majority of people agreed with him. There were a few times where that wasn’t the case, but generally it was a well-loved piece he did on the air.”
Even though he retired a decade ago, Ross says the loss is still a big one.
“He was so powerful and so loved — maybe one of the most we’ve ever had here. When I am out and about in the community, people still ask me, 'How’s Al Brown?' You don’t get that often. Usually, people have short-term memories when it comes to personalities,” he said.
The way Brown came across on the air was truly how he was in person, Ross added.
“That’s a rare treat,” he said. “People said he was a very kind man and he came across that way on the air and he simply was. If you met him in the community, he’d lend you a hand.”
