Local broadcaster Bill Inkol dies at 92

Bill Inkol dies at 92 From CTV Kitchener's Leighanne Evans: Former CKCO-TV broadcaster Bill Inkol has died at the age of 92.

KITCHENER — Local broadcasting legend Bill Inkol died Monday at the age of 92.

Inkol was the sports director at CTV Kitchener in 1967 – then known as CKCO-TV.

Inkol was a familiar face at the station for three decades, covering Olympic games, co-hosting Blue Jays Banter and hosting Bowling for Dollars.

“I am very sad to report that my friend and Stratford broadcasting legend Bill Inkol passed away this morning at the age of 92," Stratford Mayor Dan Mathieson tweeted on Monday. "Bill was a gentleman, gracious in his spirit and time, witty and thoughtful – he will be missed by all who knew him.”

"Personally, with me, he was such a kind and generous guy," former colleague Jeff Hutcheson said.

"He was very well-known, very well-liked, very well-respected, and a great guy to work for," said Randy Steinman, another former colleague.

Hutcheson said Inkol hired him at CKCO-TV in 1976.

"I worked there until 1997, and I had about 20 years with Bill," he said. "Everything you heard or read about him, even today, was so true. I mean, the man could tell a story. He cared about you and the person beside you, he took time out of his day to say hello, he just was one of those guys who was instantly likeable the first second you saw him."

Steinman said Inkol let people do their job and supported them 100 per cent, but didn't micro-manage.

"I can’t even begin to understand what my career would have looked like had it not been for Bill Inkol hiring me in 1989," he said. "I probably would have spent my whole career in radio, and you know, he gave me a chance in TV and a chance to come to CKCO and Kitchener and work at a station that I worked at for 30 years and loved. I’m just grateful for the opportunity he gave me because I don’t even know if I deserved it at the time, but he saw something in me and I was sure appreciative of that."

Mathieson, whose parents were friends with Inkol, said he was "incredibly generous and kind."

"Bill was just kind of everybody's person," he said.

Hutcheson said everyone could take a page out of Inkol's book.

"If we had a building full of Bill Inkols, we wouldn't have had any problems at all," he said. "We would have had everything solved pretty quickly. We would have been smiling in the cafeteria every lunch hour, we would have all been leaving work with a smile on our face and, better yet, coming back to work with a smile on our face."