After 3 decades on Ottawa's airwaves, Laurence Wall is hanging up the mic

Ottawa Mayor Mark Sutcliffe declared May 31, 2024 to be 'Laurence Wall Day' in Ottawa. (Alan Neal/CBC)

For nearly three decades, his steady baritone has guided CBC Ottawa's listeners through the news of the day.

Laurence Wall has been there for such stories as the devastating 1998 ice storm, the 2014 shootings around Parliament Hill and the turbulent launch of the LRT network.

He's kept people up to speed on the Ottawa Senators, elections of all stripes, and — in recent years — the shifting reality of a world with COVID-19.

But on May 30, after one last broadcast, Wall is hanging up the microphone.

"It's been a wonderful experience. I have no regrets. I just feel as though I've done everything that I've wanted to do and then some," said Wall, a longtime fixture of afternoon radio show All In A Day.

"But it's time."

While Wall has been part of the CBC Ottawa newsroom since the early 1990s — first as senior editor and later as the afternoon news presenter — he was already, by the time he arrived, a veteran journalist.

His career started in the 1970s in his hometown of Winnipeg, where he spent a summer as a roving weekend reporter for CKY Radio before taking a newspaper gig with the Winnipeg Tribune.

A photo of Wall from early in his career. (CBC)

In 1979, he joined the CBC, working in radio and television in Winnipeg, Saskatoon and Fredericton before ultimately landing in the nation's capital in 1993.

It was on the Ottawa airwaves that Wall made his presence felt — not just by reading the news, but also by lending his gravitas at 1 p.m. ET daily to the National Research Council's official time signal.

"It's safe to say Laurence truly made his mark in Ottawa, with his voice and calm news presence inexorably linked with CBC coverage in this city," wrote CBC Ottawa managing editor Drake Fenton in an email to staff.

"We'll miss Laurence deeply at the station, and it's hard to think of CBC without him. But if anyone deserves a break, it's him."

Days to remember

For Wall, the fatal Oct. 22, 2014 shooting of Cpl. Nathan Cirillo at the National War Memorial — and the chaos that ensued — will be something he'll never forget.

That day, with the number of shooters still unclear, security officials told the All In A Day team they couldn't broadcast from their regular studio with its big windows on Sparks Street.

Wall recalled that he and the rest of the show's staff were relocated upstairs to a more secure, windowless studio.

Wall broadcasts inside a studio with covered windows on Oct. 22, 2014, the day an armed attacker shot and fatally wounded a Canadian Forces member at the National War Memorial before being shot dead on Parliament Hill. (Ruth Zowdu/CBC)

"I thought, wow, this is strange. Because when you're doing a newscast, you're usually away from the hubbub that's going on out there," said Wall. "This was really one of the few times that reality intervened."

Then there was the strangeness of COVID-19.

The pandemic restrictions meant Wall got to broadcast the news from a makeshift studio that CBC's technical crews set up in his Nepean basement.

He would end up broadcasting there for more than two years, and said the system worked "beyond perfection."

"I didn't think it was possible," Wall said. "I mean, I had these dreams about [how it would] be fun to do the newscasts in my robe and pyjamas — never thinking in a million years it would actually work out that way!"

WATCH | Laurence Wall shows off his cello talents:

'No shortage of things to do'

While being on the radio airwaves all this time — rather than in front of the camera — may have provided a degree of anonymity, Wall says there's one scenario where he always gets noticed.

"Cab drivers recognize me in a second! Because they listen to me all day," he said. "That's where I'd typically be spotted."

With retirement on the horizon, Wall says his plans include some cycling, some reading, volunteer work and maybe a university course or two.

Ottawans may also still get to hear him, albeit in a different context: the long-time cellist plans to rejoin Divertimento, the orchestra he played with for a decade.

"There will be no shortage of things to do, I'm sure."

Mayor Mark Sutcliffe declared May 31, 2024 to be "Laurence Wall Day" in Ottawa.

Tune in to CBC Radio's All In A Day on May 30 when — in addition to reading the news one last time — Laurence Wall will be interviewed by host Alan Neal about his decades with the CBC. He'll also be interviewed on Ottawa Morning the following day at 8:15 a.m.

Wall has been 'inexorably linked' with CBC Ottawa's news coverage, says managing editor Drake Fenton. (Michel Aspirot/Radio-Canada)