by Mark Potter

For fifteen years starting in the mid-1970’s Thursday night was ‘Wintario Night’. Thousands of viewers across Ontario watched the live Wintario draws on Global TV. Greg Beresford was a popular co-host and former CKLC sports announcer.

In 1975, Wintario became the first major lottery in Ontario and Thursday night was known as ‘Wintario Night.’ The Thursday night draw was broadcast on Global Television (it had more viewers on Global TV than the popular news show ’60 Minutes’) and for a one dollar ticket it provided a chance to win the weekly jackpot of $100,000.

Wintario was exremely popular and so was Greg Beresford. The one-time CKLC Kingston sports announcer (he also worked in radio in Owen Sound & Kitchener), co-hosted Wintario shows for a decade.

Each week Global TV’s Wintario crew visited small town Ontario, travelling the province, filling local arenas and high school gymnasiums with enthusiastic fans. And on every show they would highlight the history of the town and local attractions for viewers across Ontario.

Fred Davis was the original host of the Wintario show in 1975. Davis was a seasoned broadcaster and longtime host of the CBC-TV show, ‘Front Page Challenge.’ Joining Davis on the Wintario broadcasts was newcomer Faye Dance.

For Dance it was her first job in broadcasting, fresh out of the journalism program at Ryerson University in Toronto. Dance is now 75 and lives in Etobicoke ON, she says it was a life changing opportunity.

In a Post Media interview earlier this year, Dance remembered the excitement the show generated. “When those Wintario trucks rolled into town, people went nuts. We had full houses, every arena, every community centre, event location. I did over 600 shows.”

When Fred Davis retired as Wintario host in 1980,  Beresford became the new co-host with Faye Dance on Global-TV.

Beresford grew up in Guelph, ON, his father, Jack, owned the Beresford Box Company, his mother, Pat, was a well-known landscape artist. Beresford graduated from the broadcasting program at Conestoga College in Kitchener and was hired as afternoon drive announcer at CFOS AM radio in Owen Sound in the early 1970’s.

Dave Carr worked in the newsroom at CFOS in those years (and still hosts a weekly open line radio show at the station), he did the local newscasts on Beresford’s afternoon show. “Greg was a real charmer. Tall, good looking, a great on-air presentation and one of those people who lit up a room when he walked in.” Carr was not surprised a few years later when Beresford made an easy transition to television.

Ross Kentner, now the Mayor of Meaford, ON, spent 57-years at CFOS. ‘I remember Greg as a young broadcaster, he stood out among the many that came through Owen Sound. A superlative young man.”

Kentner added, unlike many big egos found in the industry, “Greg was never flashy and he never changed. When I would see him years later, he was still, just Greg.”

Beresford left Owen Sound in 1973 and came to Kingston – hired as Sports Director at CKLC Radio. In addition to his daily sportscasts, Beresford hosted an ‘oldies’ rock show on CKLC on Saturday nights.

Within a year of his move to Kingston, Beresford was offered a chance to go back to Western Ontario and became the morning show host at CKKW radio (now Bounce 99.5 FM) in Kitchener. Eventually, he would move into television sales at CKCO-TV in Kitchener.

Jack Thompson is a legendary Kingston radio personality and from his personal CKLC radio archives he shared this sportscast from Greg Beresford on CKLC in September 1973. It was the morning after the Kingston Canadians played the first game in franchise history at the Memorial Centre, beating Oshawa.

Fast forward seven years and remarkably Beresford was hosting the popular Wintario show on Global TV. He would spend ten years on the road, criss-crossing the province with Wintario and attracting large crowds in every small town they visited.

The Wintario show made several stops in Kingston, including in 1977, 1981, 1986 and 1989.

Carr, the longtime Owen Sound broadcaster, reconnected with Beresford in 1984 when Wintario did a very unique broadcast from Tobermory, ON. They did the show from the decks of the ferry MS Chi-Cheemaun. The ferry ran from the top of the Bruce Peninsula to South Baymouth on Manitoulin Island.

Known for his smooth delivery and unflappable on-air presentation, Beresford had an engaging personality, becoming a household name with TV viewers and genuinely having fun interacting with fans of the show each week.

In 1987, during a visit to Owen Sound with the Wintario show, Beresford told the local Sun-Times newspaper, “I can’t think of another town I liked as much as Owen Sound, and I’ve lived in a lot of places.”

“In the summer I was a few minutes from Sauble Beach and in the winter, I was a few minutes from the ski hills.”

Beresford was an avid boater and a friend of Dave Richardson, from Richardson Boats Ltd. in Meaford. Dave is 4th generation in his family to run the boat business and Beresford kept his boats at their marina (Beresford owned three different boats during those years), while hosting the Wintario shows.

When he was away from the bright TV lights, Beresford enjoyed working for the marina as crew. Helping pickup and deliver boats. Richardson remembers them squeezing in a tight trip to Chicago to deliver a 55-foot boat. Greg made the trip as crew – but was on a tight timeline to get back home for the Thurday night Wintario show.

On a couple of occasions the town of Meaford hosted Wintario shows. Beresford knew the town and the area well and was in his element. Richardson recalls the huge after-party at the marina following one of those Wintario shows. Beresford hosted the party on his boat and it went well into the night, “Greg had a lot of friends and It was some kind of party.”

Jim Read was part of the marketing team at the Ontario Lottery & Gaming Corporation during the Wintario years. The province moved OLG headquarters to Sault St.Marie from Toronto and Read remembers another Beresford trip to Chicago.

Beresford made a solo trip on his own boat from Sault St. Marie to Chicago. Using a very early satellite system and no nautical maps, he covered 300 nautical miles (550 kilometres) by water. Beresford arrived safely within yards of his targeted destination near Grant Park in downtown Chicago.

It was quite a life for Beresford and Faye Dance, popular TV celebrities, meeting energetic new fans in a new town each week. But, eventually, as newer, bigger lotteries appeared with larger jackpots, interest in Wintario waned, and the show came to an end in January, 1990.  

Beresford, then in his early 40’s and at the height of his popularity, seemingly could have written his own ticket and landed another high-profile job in television. Instead, he decided to move on from media. Beresford joined the family box business then located in Waterloo, ON, and along with his sister, Jill, they helped to significantly grow the business at Beresford Box Company – before it was eventually sold in 2018.

Beresford loved his boats, but he also loved auto racing and raced at Mosport. Dave Richardson recalls, “Greg had to get a specially modified custom car built because of his tall frame, he was well over six feet.”

Beresford found lucrative corporate work, hosting and voicing corporate instructional training videos. He was in demand to voice national radio and TV commercials. For several years, Beresford was the TV pitchman for ‘Tylenol’ pain relief commercials in Canada.

Sadly, Beresford died at age 66, in January 2016 in Kitchener.

While remembered primarily for his years on the popular Wintario shows, longtime listeners in Kingston will remember him for his brief stint at CKLC.

Beresford was one of several sports announcers at CKLC during that era. Ross Wotten did sports for CKLC in the late 1960’s and early 70’s, before moving over to news.

Beresford was at CKLC from 1973 into 1974, replaced by John Hancock, who would go on to a long career in the Maritimes working for CBC Radio Sports.

Doug Jeffries arrived at CKLC in 1976 and was a fixture there for 23 years before moving to CKWS radio & TV in the late 1990’s.

In the early days of CKLC, Johnnie Kelly, known as ‘Mrs. Kelly’s Little Boy Johnnie’, was the original sports voice starting in 1953 and he also called local hockey games. Bill Hamilton arrived in 1960, handling the local daily sportscasts and play by play of the EPHL Kingston Frontenacs.

Like Beresford, Hamilton moved on for greater opportunities. In 1966 he was hired to do play by play for the Tulsa Oilers, a farm team of the Toronto Maple Leafs.

Mark Potter spent 40 years as a Kingston broadcaster at CKWS TV and Cogeco TV in Kingston. Potter was inducted into the Kingston & District Sports Hall of Fame in 2012.