Leslie Roberts

Leslie Roberts (born June 28, 1962) is an Anglophone Canadian radio and television personality. He is, since late 2016, the host of The Leslie Roberts Show on Montreal's Newstalk radio station CJAD 800 AM. He is among the third generation of the Roberts media family of Montreal to work at the radio station.

His father, Bill was morning man through the 1950s and '60s, and again for a stint in the '70s. His namesake grandfather Leslie was an editorialist at both CJAD, and Toronto sister station CFRB 1010, in the '70s.^[1]

Roberts was the executive editor and anchor for Global Toronto from 2001 to 2015, hosting the station's News Hour from 5:30-6:30 p.m., and co-anchoring Global and Shaw Media's The Morning Show from 2013 until 2015.

During those years he also hosted his own radio talk show on Newstalk 1010 CFRB in Toronto, was a daily contributor to talk station AM640 Toronto, and penned his own column, "The Five Things I Learned This Week" in The National Post.

After resigning from Global, he was a freelance broadcaster and communications specialist, working with technology firms, based in Los Angeles.^[2] In 2016, he reported for radio stations CJAD Montreal, and CFRA Ottawa, covering the arrest of a man found with weapons on his way to the LA pride parade, just hours after the worst mass shooting in U.S. history in Orlando, Florida.

He was suspended from Global on January 8, 2015, following a Toronto Star investigation alleging conflict of interest due to his equity stake in a PR firm,^[3] and resigned on January 15, 2015.^[4]

Family

Roberts was raised in a family full of journalists. Roberts' great-grandfather John H. Roberts founded and ran a controversial reformist Montreal tabloid newspaper called The Axe between 1922–24.^[5] His grandfather and namesake was a writer and journalist. His father Bill Roberts was a morning-man for Montreal's CJAD for 20 years, and later vice-president of programming. His mother was an assistant to a federal MP. Roberts' brother, Rob Roberts, is east coast bureau chief for Canadian Press.

Leslie Roberts has one child, a daughter named Lauren.

Career

At 18, Roberts interned in the newsroom at Montreal's CKGM radio, specifically covering the 1980 Quebec referendum and having the opportunity to interview René Lévesque. After finishing school, he was immediately recruited in 1985 as a medical reporter for CFCF-TV, the CTV affiliate in Montreal. At CFCF-TV for twelve years, Roberts found himself on a variety of different segments, from travel to morning talk shows.^[6]

In 1995, a tape of an interview he conducted on his morning TV show Montreal Today With Leslie Roberts landed on the desk of an agent in Los Angeles. Within six months he was offered a position with the TV tabloid show A Current Affair. A year later he moved to Fox as a reporter/anchor for WNYW in New York City. Three years later Roberts answered a call from CFCF-TV to return home as anchor/host of several shows. In 2000, the Global Television Network came calling. He was news director and senior anchor at Global Quebec until Global offered a position on the anchor desk in Toronto.^[6]

During the 2007/2008 broadcast season he hosted the Leslie Roberts Show on CFRB Radio in Toronto in the late morning time slot. He also authored a weekly column from April to October 2008 for the National Post named "The Five things I Learned This Week".

In 2011 and 2013 he was nominated for the Gemini Award/Canadian Screen Awards for Canada's Best News Anchor.^[6]

Global News

In September 2001, Roberts was recruited by CanWest's Toronto division to be a co-anchor with Beverly Thomson of the station's supper time news show. Roberts arrived just a week before the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001.^[7] The news team included meteorologist Michael Kuss (now at Global BC) and sports director Jim Tatti. From June 2010 until August 2013, his co-anchor was former CITY-TV anchor Anne Mroczkowski, who replaced Anne-Marie Mediwake after she moved to CBC News. Roberts was the show's sole anchor from August 2013 until his resignation. He also hosted Global Ontario's 11 pm news broadcast for several years.

In 2013, Roberts became the co-host with Liza Fromer on the national edition of Global and Shaw Media's The Morning Show in addition to his News Hour duties.^[8]

Resignation

On January 8, 2015, Global Television announced that they had suspended Roberts indefinitely pending the company's investigation of alleged conflict of interest following a Toronto Star report that revealed Roberts had equity in public relations firm BuzzPR, clients of which had appeared on his programs, and for whom he had rendered communications consulting, without disclosure to colleagues or viewers^[9]

Roberts resigned from Global News a week later. He issued a statement that read: "I am resigning my position as News Anchor and Executive Editor of Global Toronto effective immediately. I regret the circumstances, specifically a failure to disclose information, which led to this outcome. Over the past 15 years, I have worked within a news organization and among colleagues who are the best in the business. For that privilege, I will always be grateful." Global News issued a memo to its staff stating that: “Leslie Roberts has resigned, effective immediately, from his position as Anchor and Executive Editor of Global Toronto, and co-host of The National Morning Show. In light of the findings of an internal investigation, conducted on the basis of our Business Conduct Standards and the Global News Journalistic Principles and Practices, Global News is satisfied with today’s outcome.”^[10]

References