I can still hear Bill McVean’s amiable greeting: “Hello, Michael!” An iconic Canadian broadcaster who turned to travel in the latter days of his career, Bill was one of a rare few, among them my parents, who could use my given name without it sounding weird (everyone else calls me Mike).

By the late 1980s when I met Bill, who died on March 21 at the age of 95, he was a fixture on the industry media circuit along with wife and partner Catherine.

Together, the duo produced the daily show “Trips n Tips,” written by Catherine and delivered by Bill in his sonorous “radio voice.” At its peak, the show was aired on 23 Canadian stations.

By then, Bill, of course, was already a well-known Canadian radio personality, having spent over a quarter century at top-rated CFRB in Toronto, with other household names like Wally Crouter. Earlier in his career, he was credited with being the first Canadian traffic reporter to pilot his own plane (he had a life-long passion for aviation and had served in the RCAF in WWII).

But despite his pedigree he never showed it, always eager to chat and find out “how’s the family?” – even with newbies like me.

Impeccably dressed, always in a jacket and tie, and with Catherine in her trademark head scarf, the pair continued to be prominent and popular in travel circles through the ‘90s and 2000s, including as co-founders of the Travel Media Association of Canada (TMAC).

And while I hadn’t seen Bill in a long while, I still remember that voice: Hello, Michael.

Farewell, Bill.

The McVean family is not holding a service; instead, they simply ask friends and colleagues to “remember him for a minute and smile.”