Graif named best anchor

Paul Graif said it was a complete surprise when he found out last week he’d won an award for being the best radio anchor and reporter in a small market. Unbeknownst to him, his boss Chris Reiser had submitted his name for Broadcast Dialogue’s Canadian Radio Awards.

“I was floored, at first I didn’t believe him,” Graif said, K1037 Radio’s news director.

He said it’s the first time in his 34-year career in broadcasting that he’s been recognized with an award.

“I guess it’s been my work in the community over the last almost 15 years now,” he said.

Reiser said he’s long been a fan of Graif, and had admired his work before joining K1037 over two years ago.

“He knows his audience very, very well,” said Reiser, the station’s program manager. “After all this time of hearing him and speaking with him and dealing with him, they know that they’re going to get a fair shake, and they trust him. And there’s nothing more valuable to a newscaster than trust.”

Graif became a news reporter at the station in 2010, after having spent over 20 years in sports broadcasting at CBC, Global, and CTV. For his first four years with K1037 he was also juggling working part-time at CTV, where he’d been since 2008.

He said that despite his fond memories as a sports journalist, he doesn’t miss a thing about it.

“I love being part of something,” he said about K1037.

Prior to coming on in 2010, he had already had a brief stint at the station in the 1990s.

He had been playing basketball one day with Dan Dorsey, his former classmate and the sports director back then, when the topic of the radio station came up.

“I said, ‘Sports? I’ll do anything.’” Graif saif. “He said, ‘I’m sending you to an Expos’ game.’”

He remained at the radio station from 1991 to 1994, working in sports, news, and eventually afternoon broadcasts, until he left for CBC in 1994.

“It was the education I never got about our Indigenous population in this country,” said Graif, a born and raised Montrealer. “I knew nothing about Kahnawake before I first showed up here six months after the Oka Crisis in 1991.”

Joe Delaronde met him at the station back in the 1990s, and said he’s always been struck by his dedication to the craft.

“He loves what he does, and from day one he’s always carried himself in the most professional manner, as professional as anybody I’ve ever worked with,” said Joe Delaronde, chair on the station’s board.

“He’s got a tough job,” he added. “He’s managed to do it and walk that fine line of getting the information out and being respectful at the same time.”

Graif said the accolade wouldn’t have been possible without all those willing to take his calls.

“I just want to thank the community, for just being so supportive,” he said. “And for allowing me to tell their stories, but also for answering the phone for those tough stories as well.”

He said he feels a deep connection to Kahnawake, saying it’s a place where he often spends his free time with the friends he’s made along the way.

The news director said he was also elated to see the station named as a runner up in the award’s best community station in a small market category.

“To me that’s what this is all about. You know, really diving into the community. That’s why we’re here,” Graif said.

Mitch Craig, the voice behind the clips aired in between the station’s newscasts and interviews, also won an award for best imaging voice.

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