Jack T.H. Fenety (1920-2007)

Jack T.H. Fenety

Year Born: 1920

Year Died: 2007

Year of Induction: 1986

Pioneer – Member of CAB Hall of Fame

Jack Fenety came to Radio Station CFNB in Fredericton in 1945 following five years of active service with the Canadian Army – retiring with the rank of A/Captain. He stayed at CFNB for 44 years, rising through the ranks to Vice-President and General Manager of Radio Atlantic (1970) Ltd. He had two careers in which he became especially renowned – one as a broadcaster and the other as a conservationist.

As a broadcaster, Jack went from Announcer to Program Director to Station Manager to General Manager and Company Vice-President in a span of 44 years. He served the broadcasting industry in several capacities – as a director, secretary-treasurer and president of the Atlantic Association of Broadcasters, and as a director of the Canadian Association of Broadcasters (9 successive years), a member of the Executive Committee and a term as Vice-President-Radio. He was also a director of the CAB Sales Bureau, the Bureau of Broadcast Measurement and was the CAB representative on Broadcast News’ Board of Directors. He became a member of the CAB’s Half-Century Club.

As a conservationist, here, too, Jack served with distinction. Elected President of Miramichi Salmon Association Inc in 1961, he held the post for 35 years. His credentials as a conservationist, particularly as an Atlantic salmon conservationist, are unequalled in Canada. In reviewing his long list of honours, awards, public service activities and appointments, one must wonder how he was able to fulfill his broadcasting responsibilities. It is difficult to single out which of his many awards best describes Jack’s dedication to conservation but the citation to the recipient of the Julian Crandall Trophy may come close –

“—- the Canadian judged to have contributed most to the renewable resources of forest, field and stream of Canada”.

In 1976, in company with such distinguished Canadians as the Right Honourable John G. Diefenbaker, Roderick Haig-Brown and Gregory Clark, Jack Fenety, the conservationist, was elected a founding member of the Mitchell – Canadian Fishing Hall of Fame.

In 1986, Jack Fenety, the broadcaster, was inducted into the CAB Broadcast Hall of Fame.

Jack Fenety retired on January 30 1988 after having broadcast 12,818 episodes of his morning show, Fact and Fancy. He was 68. When he left, so did the program Fact and Fancy, an institution that began September 22, 1947. The program featured birthday announcements, recipes and household hints, poems and a morning prayer

In 2005, with the approval of Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth the Second, Jack Fenety was appointed a Member of the Order of Canada. 

Jack Fenety died at his home in Fredericton, New Brunswick, on July 24th 2007.

Written by J. Lyman Potts – May, 1995