CHUM Television’s approach to news and information programming might have an off-the-cuff flavor, but don’t for a second believe that its on-air personalities are any less professional than their more traditional competitors. A perfect example is John ‘the host formerly known as J.D.’ Roberts, a longtime staffer on CHUM radio and TV who is now CBS News’ chief White House correspondent, a gig Dan Rather also occupied before becoming anchor. In fact, Roberts is in the running to occupy the coveted anchor desk to be vacated by Rather in March.

Roberts credits his broadcast experience at CHUM with preparing him for his current role.

‘It gave me a great sense of timing,’ Roberts says on the phone from his office in Washington, DC. ‘When somebody says that they want me to ad lib for a minute and a half or five minutes on a particular subject, I’ve got this ingrained body clock that tells me how much time is going past. You have a real sort of feel for the ebb and flow of things, which I really learned as a disc jockey. I believe the best television broadcasters are people who came up through radio.’

The 48-year-old newsman from Toronto launched his career as a DJ at Ontario radio stations in Owen Sound, Kitchener and London before landing his dream job at age 20, when CHUM took him in.

‘I grew up with CHUM, and it was absolutely the epitome of Canadian broadcasting,’ he recalls. ‘When I was a kid, I thought to myself, ‘If I could ever work there, it would just be the best job that anybody could ever have.’ When I got hired by CHUM, I just thought, ‘Life doesn’t get any better than this.”

Although there was one wrinkle – he tired of doing the overnight shift after he got married. He was blessed with good timing, however, as CHUM got into the TV business with the purchase of Toronto’s Citytv in 1978, and signed Roberts on as announcer for the channel’s promo spots.

For a couple of years, Roberts worked during the week at City as station announcer and picked up various assignments for news show CityPulse, while also doing morning radio shifts on the weekends. Soon City was developing a pop music magazine show called The NewMusic, and slotted the telegenic Roberts in as host with Jeanne Beker, who today is the face of CHUM’s FT-FashionTelevision and FashionTelevisionChannel. A memorable early assignment in 1981 saw Roberts cover reggae icon Bob Marley’s funeral in Jamaica.

When CHUM got the licence for its MuchMusic specialty in 1984, it was a cinch that Roberts would be one of its primary ‘VJ’s,’ along with the likes of Christoper Ward, host of City’s City Limits program. (Ward has since gone on to become a successful composer, penning partner Alannah Myles’ U.S. number-one hit Black Velvet.)

Opting for a shorter, more conservative hairstyle, Roberts went stateside in 1989 for a morning TV show gig in Miami, before coming back up north a year later to cohost CTV’s Canada AM with Pamela Wallin for a couple of years. Then it was over to CBS Morning News in 1992, and the rest, as they say, is history in the making.

Considering where he’s at today, it is surprising that TV was just an afterthought in Roberts’ plan.

‘My career target had always been radio,’ he says. ‘The TV thing was just some sort of novelty idea that was forwarded my way. But when I got [to City] and saw the diversity of the programming and the diversity of the medium, television really caught hold of me and just propelled me forward.’

And just how far forward that is will be revealed in the coming weeks.