David Devall (born 1931) is a Canadian retired broadcaster and meteorologist. He served as the chief forecaster at CFTO-TV in Toronto for more than 48 years beginning in 1961, and was recognized as having had the "longest career as a weather forecaster" by Guinness World Records and the World Records Academy upon his retirement on April 3, 2009. [1] [2] Devall was also a recipient of the RTNDA's lifetime achievement award in 2009. [3]
Devall was born, raised, and educated in Toronto (graduate of York Memorial Collegiate in the old City of York).
While studying at Ryerson Institute of Technology's radio and television arts program, he also served in the Royal Canadian Air Force (RCAF) where part of his training centred on meteorology. In 1956, while still a student, he worked at CFPL-TV in London, Ontario; he then moved to Toronto radio station CFRB, where he stayed from 1957-1958. After graduating in 1958, [4] he worked at CHEX-TV in Peterborough. When CFTO launched in 1961, Devall auditioned with 2,000 other hopefuls; he was one of six people hired as a broadcaster, and he started at the station on January 7 of the same year.
Devall's voice was heard across Canada as Jim Perry's announcer on many of his game shows, including Definition , Headline Hunters and Eye Bet , as well as in Ford television commercials on the popular Hockey Night in Canada program. In 1975, Devall was offered a hosting position with ABC's Good Morning America ; he turned down the offer and remained with CFTO-TV. While at the station, he also served as a continuity announcer, voicing promos, bumpers, program intros and outros, station IDs and the nightly sign-off sequence, most famously backed by the ELO instrumental track "The Whale", and years earlier by Eric Gale's instrumental version of "Killing Me Softly with His Song".
Despite various new weathercasters joining the station, Devall remained the chief weather presenter at CFTO until his retirement, and also appeared daily on co-owned CTV Newsnet to present the national weather forecast. His funny antics have made him popular with Toronto viewers. During his early years at the station, he presented the weather forecast from behind a clear acrylic glass weather map, which necessitated writing backwards with a grease pencil. After electronically generated weather maps were introduced, he continued the tradition with a single daily weather word.
Devall was made an honorary colonel of the Canadian Forces Squadron 436 at CFB Trenton in February 2007. [4]
Devall retired on April 3, 2009. Two days earlier, it had been announced that Devall had set the newly created Guinness World Record for the "longest career as a weather forecaster" at 48 years, 2 months, and 27 days. That record was surpassed by fellow Canadian broadcast weather forecaster Peter Coade in 2013.
As part of his send-off, CFTO and the City of Toronto announced that the roadway leading to CTV's Toronto studios, Channel Nine Court, had been temporarily renamed "Dave Devall Way" in his honour. [5] [6]
Following retirement, Devall has made appearances in television commercials for local businesses, including an area Toyota dealership in 2010 and Loblaws in 2011. In July 2012, Devall appeared in a string of commercials for Shoppers Drug Mart.
He was also one of several retired longtime CFTO employees (including the more recent departures of Tom Gibney (2007) and Jim Junkin (2010)) who returned for a retrospective on the station's fiftieth anniversary on December 31, 2010.
He appeared briefly at the end of longtime CTV anchor Christine Bentley's final broadcast on September 14, 2012.
In 2020, Devall was interviewed about his work on Definition for the GameTV documentary series The Search for Canada's Game Shows.
Recently, Dave was the master of ceremonies for the Portraits of Honour Juno Beach Dinner Gala accompanying Cambridge artist, Dave Sopha.
The CTV Television Network, commonly known as CTV, is a Canadian English-language terrestrial television network. Launched in 1961 and acquired by BCE Inc. in 2000, CTV is Canada's largest privately owned television network and is now a division of the Bell Media subsidiary of BCE. It is Canada's largest privately or commercially owned network consisting of 22 owned-and-operated stations nationwide and two privately owned affiliates, and has consistently been placed as Canada's top-rated network in total viewers and in key demographics since 2002, after several years trailing the rival Global Television Network in key markets.
Lloyd Robertson is a Canadian journalist and former news anchor who is special correspondent on CTV's weekly magazine series, W5. Robertson served as the chief anchor and senior editor of CTV's national evening newscast, CTV News with Lloyd Robertson, until September 2011, when he retired from the CTV National News team. He co-hosted W5 from 2011 to 2016.
CP24 is a Canadian English-language specialty news channel owned by Bell Media, a subsidiary of BCE Inc. and operated alongside the Bell-owned CTV Television Network's owned-and-operated television stations CFTO-DT and CKVR-DT. The channel broadcasts from 299 Queen Street West in Downtown Toronto.
CFQC-DT is a television station in Saskatoon, Saskatchewan, Canada, part of the CTV Television Network. Owned and operated by network parent Bell Media, the station has studios on 1st Avenue North and 23rd Street East in the Central Business District neighbourhood of Saskatoon, and its transmitter is located near Highway 41 and Burgheim Road, northeast of the city.
CFCF-DT is a television station in Montreal, Quebec, Canada, part of the CTV Television Network. It is owned and operated by network parent Bell Media alongside Noovo flagship CFJP-DT. Both stations share studios at the Bell Media building, at the intersection of Avenue Papineau and Boulevard René-Lévesque Est in downtown Montreal, while CFCF-DT's transmitter is located atop Mount Royal.
Tony Parsons is a Canadian broadcaster whose career has spanned more than 50 years, and he has anchored the second most-watched local evening Television newscast in North America, the News Hour on Global BC in Vancouver, British Columbia. He was the co-anchor of CBC News: Vancouver on CBUT-DT with Gloria Macarenko, and the 10 PM newscast on CHEK-DT.
W5 is a Canadian news magazine television program produced by CTV News. The program is broadcast Saturday nights at 7 p.m. on the CTV Television Network, with repeat broadcasts at later times on CTV as well as co-owned channels CTV 2, and Investigation Discovery. The program also airs in a radio simulcast on CFRB (1010) in Toronto.
John White Hughes Bassett, was a Canadian media proprietor.
Definition is a Canadian television game show, which aired on CTV from September 9, 1974 to March 10, 1989, and filmed at its flagship studios of CFTO-TV at 9 Channel Nine Court in Scarborough, Toronto, Ontario. For most of its run, it was hosted by Jim Perry.
Headline Hunters is a Canadian game show that appeared on CTV from 1972 to 1983. It was originally created by Nick Nicholson and E. Roger Muir. It was hosted by Jim Perry, who hosted two other Canadian game shows and several American game shows concurrently with its run. CFTO-TV meteorologist Dave Devall, who worked with Perry on the aforementioned two series, served as the announcer and was a de facto co-host for this series. It was a Glen-Warren Production for the CTV Television Network and was filmed at the Glen-Warren Studios in the Toronto suburb of Scarborough.
Tom Gibney was a television anchor from 1973 to 2007 in Toronto, Ontario. Gibney was evening news anchor at CFTO-TV in Toronto, and also the former host for the Lotto 6/49 draws until entering semi-retirement. A native of Saskatchewan, he resided in Courtice, Ontario until his death.
CFTO-DT is a television station in Toronto, Ontario, Canada, serving as the flagship station of the CTV Television Network. It is owned and operated by network parent Bell Media alongside Barrie-based CTV 2 outlet CKVR-DT, channel 3. CFTO-DT's studios are located at 9 Channel Nine Court in Agincourt, and its transmitter is located atop the CN Tower in Downtown Toronto. The station shares the Agincourt studio complex with CTV's headquarters, which includes studios for the network's news programming, along with most of Bell Media's specialty channels.
Patrick Francis Marsden was a Canadian sportscaster and voice of the Canadian Football League play-by-play coverage in the 1970s and 1980s. He also worked as host for the historic 1972 Canada-Soviet Union hockey Summit Series sports telecasts. He was inducted into the Canadian Football Hall of Fame in 1989.
Robert Hurst is a Canadian newscaster, television executive, and former president of CTV News.
Eye Bet was a Canadian television game show hosted by Jim Perry, which aired on CTV from 1972 to 1974. Perry's announcer, as with most Jim Perry game shows in Canada, was smooth-voiced CFTO-TV weatherman Dave Devall. The object of Eye Bet was for contestants to view old Hollywood movie clips, then answer questions about each clip, testing their skills of observation.
Johnny Esaw, CM was a Canadian of Assyrian descent, a sports broadcaster and television network executive. He was a pioneer of sports broadcasting in Canada, best known for his involvement with figure skating, football, and international hockey.
9 Channel Nine Court is an office and studio complex owned by Bell Media in the Agincourt neighbourhood of Scarborough, Toronto, Ontario, Canada. The civic address of the complex refers to the over-the-air channel on which CFTO-TV, the building's original tenant, broadcast. It is located at the northwest corner of the intersection of Highway 401 and McCowan Road near the Scarborough City Centre.
Bolsover is a village in Canada, located in the city of Kawartha Lakes, west of the village of Kirkfield at the junction of Kawartha Lakes Road 48 and Kawartha Lakes Road 46. The village is located to the south of Canal Lake. The community is likely named for Bolsover in Derbyshire, England.
Dave Randorf is a Canadian sportscaster who serves as the play-by-play announcer for the television broadcasts of the Tampa Bay Lightning. He is best known for his work at TSN hosting the network's Canadian Football League studio show as well as TSN's and CTV's coverage of figure skating. He also did play-by-play for the NHL on TSN, World Hockey Championship, and the National Lacrosse League on TSN.
Peter Coade is a Canadian broadcast weather presenter. In 2013, he was certified by the Guinness Book of World Records as having had the longest career of any weather broadcaster. He held this record until 2016, when American meteorologist Dick Goddard broke it.