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| Newswatch Staff Profiles Graham Hart Anchor/Producer, Newswatch 
Born in Dartmouth Nova Scotia, Graham Hart graduated from Dartmouth High and attended Dalhousie University, Halifax, in pursuit of an engineering degree. Having worked at a local radio station during the summer months in order to finance his education, he became increasingly interested in the electronic media, working part time, then full time at a local radio station while continuing his studies. Eventually he decided to, at least for a while, give his full attention to broadcasting, and accepted an on-air position at CKBW on Nova Scotia’s south shore. After returning to a broadcasting outlet in Halifax for a year, Graham then moved to Ontario to become an announcer in Chatham, Hamilton and Niagara Falls. In 1973, he accepted a position with CHEX Television where he became a news anchor and held a number of management positions, including Executive Vice President of the CHEX radio. For the past few years, he has devoted most of his attention to television newsroom related activities.Graham has been associated with a variety of organizations in Peterborough. He was a founding board member of both Arbour Theatre and the Peterborough Festival of the Arts, acting as the latter's President for several years; he served with the Ontario March of Dimes for nearly 25 years, for many of those years as Chairman of its annual door to door fund-raising campaign, then later, as Chairman of a March of Dimes Local Advisory Committee, he sat on the Provincial Advisory Committee in Toronto. He was a board member of the Peterborough Branch of the Canadian Mental Health Association for several years, for a time serving as its President, and he currently sits on the Health Promotion Strategic Planning Committee of that organization. He was a board member of the Peterborough Family Resource Centre throughout much of the 90's and now sits on the Friends of the Resource Centre’s Board. He worked with the Save The Market Hall Committee and played a roll in successful efforts to restore and maintain the Peterborough clock tower. He served as a member of the Board of Directors of the Peterborough Concert Association, is a founding member of the Peterborough Pathway of Fame steering committee and for the past 10 years has been a vice chairman of the organization. He currently volunteers his talents to the Lakefield Animal Welfare Society's “Raise the Woof” building campaign and is in the midst of a four year term as a Warden of Peterborough's All Saints’ Anglican Church. Graham has been a member of the Peter Robinson Awards Committee that was struck by the Mayor in the year 2000, and again in 2005, to recognize exceptional achievements of past and present Peterborough residents and for several years he’s been one of three judges who choose the winners of the Peterborough Historical Society’s Annual Heritage Awards. Graham has been the recipient of a number of awards of his own. Among them, the Gordon Holnbeck community service award as its inaugural recipient; he was named a Paul Harris Fellow by Rotary International through the Rotary Club of Peterborough, and was, along with CHEX Television, the recipient of the first ever Media Award given by Ontario Division, Canadian Mental Health Association, for his "outstanding contribution to the coverage of mental health issues". Besides his frequent appearances on CHEX Television’s Newswatch, and in the community as a speaker and Master of Ceremonies for various non-profit organizations and fund-raising events, Graham has been a regular for well over 30 years on the Annual Kids First Telethon on CHEX for children with disabilities and is widely remembered as the "man with all the answers" for his time as host of the popular intramural TV program, Campus Quiz, that ran for many years on CHEX Television.
Graham, in his early years, performed in dance bands and later appeared on stage in a number of theatrical productions. He continues to be challenged by the restoration and maintenance of old houses (an 1870's Rubidge House in Peterborough and an 1880's beam construction home in Lunenburg, Nova Scotia). He has a number of late 50's/early 60's Mercedes Benz automobiles, all in various states of restoration, and has a modest collection of motorcycles (the oldest, a rare 1938 BSA Gold Star in original operating condition). |