Beirut, Iran leave impressions From page 34 border guard told me she'd give me a J2-hour visa if [ would wait until she was off duty and it | would drive her to Budapest."" Till says he agreed to take her, but added that the two of them were “iaking a helluva chance” because it's illegal to give someone in uniform a ride and it’s illegal for anyone in uniform to ask for a ride. “In Budapest # gate-crashed Miss Taylor's party, saw the dia- mond Richard Burton gave her, got hit by a bouncer, filed my story on the telex after bribing the operator with chocolate and a Zippo and started my drive back to the border.”’ While Tillis best known as a hard-nosed, investigative journal- ist, there is also a less serious side to the man who was born in Stoke-on-Trent, England. In 1974 Till resigned his UPI job to work as a lreelancer for the super- market tabloid National Enquirer. **They offered me 350 dollars for che story, which was about twice what I was making weekly at UPI,” says Till, sitting in his CKNW office, which is decorated with numerous journalism awards. **They asked for about 3,000 words and I duly delivered.”’ “*f found out later the article was reduced to 50 words and car- ried the headline ‘I Ate My Baby!’”’ Other stories Till wrote for the National Enquirer included an in- terview with a woman who started to grow feathers and a man who gave elocution lessons to Adolf Hitler. “*T used to spend several months of the year in Beirut. I went there from 1975 to the late 1980s. The events I witnessed in Beirut will always be at the forefront,”’ says BUILT-IN PHOTOCELL AND OFF AT DAWN. INTRODUCTORY OFFER $79 * SOLID BRASS ¢ MARINE LACQUER FINISH « MADE IN NORTH AMERICA rN W/ 4600 EAST HASTINGS ST BURNABY LIGHTS ON! * The light that welcomes you home * The light that provides worry-free security AUTOMATICALLY TURNS YOUR LIGHT ON AT DUSK * ONE YEAR WARRANTY ON FINISH & GLASS * COMPLETE WITH QUALITY pups} PHILIPS 60W BULB AFFLUENCE & INFLUENCE IN HIS OWN WORDS Till. i isn’t the memory of the war, but it's the people and how they continue to survive in those conditions.** “The other story: J was in Iran during the fall of the Shah. | was there the day the Ayato!lah arriv- ed at Tehran Airport. There were just masses of people dressed in black that you couldn't even see the road,”’ says Till. ‘All you saw was this mass of black. That’s a memory I'll never forget.”’ Because Till’s show goes on air at 6:30 p.m. and primarily deals “T start the day by listening to the BBC World Service at 8 a.m. I'm in the office by 10:30 a.m. and the rest of the day is spent doing interviews and editing tape,”’ says Till. ‘‘We go on the AN american lantern » NORBURN LIGHTING centac 299,0666 -. WHOLESALE AND RETAIL _FREE:CATALOGUES AVAILABLE air at 6:30, do a bit of a post- mortem with Ogilvie after the show. I'm at home by 9:30, have my martini with a pickle in it and then my wife and daughter and I have a very long dinner."' “*Very rarely do J turnin before 2 a.m, Sitting back in kis chair, feet up on his desk and hands behind his head, Tili says he would be hard-pressed to predict what he would be doing if he was not NEWS photo Neil Lucente PHILIP TILL takes time out from a busy work schedule to spend time on the weekend with wife Michele (left), daughter Anabel and Bouvier dogs Slack, Red and Biue at Ambleside beach. working in the journalism business. Looking over Till's im- pressive list of assignments and numerous journalism awards, it is easy to determine that he picked the one career for which he is best suited. And, as @ CKNW promotional spat for his show says, if you want a good, solid dose of inter- national news, just “ring up the Till." e Your Drapes cleaned and sized ¢ Rods silicone sprayed ° Cords adjusted e Take-down and re-hang *» New Hooks e Free pick-up and delivery x FIVE DAYS ONLY!!! HURRY - BOOK BEFORE AUG. 24190 438-8935 Sunday, August 19. 1990 - North Shore News -— 35 Why did you come to CKNW from a major network like NBC?: “CKNW was an affiliate of NBC news, Over many years | did two-ways with CKNW where 1 wus the reporter in the field and the host here would ask me ques- tions. NBC sold its radio division and it became clear that the new owners and T would not get along. They were cutting news stories. [ began to look around for something else and in this business word gels around that you are looking. Then, over the course of several tmaonths, CKNW = and | began to talk and here | am. | came out for one weekend, taok one look around, and said ‘chis is it." What do you think you might be doing if you were not in this fine of work): “When | was growing up I always wanted to be a fong distance truck driver. Realistically 1 don’t know how to do anything else. [ was raised on news.” What did you think of the role former CKVU-TV legislative reporter Margot Sinclair played in the Bud Smith tape scandai?: ‘*A lot of my background is based on getting the story any way you can get it. When you have stories such as the legislature, you will get close to people. At NBC IJ had a Policy that | would never leave a correspondent on a story for more than 18 months or two years. He gets too close to the sources and the story. [ firmly believe that the tapes should have been published. If you become a public figure, expect us to see all of your Jaun- dry. Expect us to look in all of your closets.”