Sue Smith moves on to new adventures

After a great deal of thought, I have decided that I am leaving Homerun at the end of June. This is a decision I have been thinking about for a while. I have hesitated to make the leap because I simply love the job so much.

I started my broadcast career in radio. That was at CFCF/CFQR — over on Ogilvy Avenue, for you old timers. I first came to the CBC as the traffic reporter on Daybreak back in 1988. After one season, I got the opportunity to work in television on Citybeat, a show that featured Montrealers doing extraordinary things and gave me the opportunity to explore every inch of the city. I loved that job for every minute of the three years I ended up hosting. But I was restless. Life was calling...

I met my husband, went travelling, got married. I worked in London as a producer for Worldwide Television News where I got to cover RuPaul's launch of VivaGlam lipstick and Lady Diana's arrival at a Vanity Fair party at the Serpentine Gallery, and meet Hugh Grant and the rest of the cast at the opening of Four Weddings and a Funeral. We moved to Jamaica, where I covered environmental stories in the Caribbean for WTN and somehow ended up interviewing Pavarotti. I went back to school there, earned my master's degree in international relations and had my first of three children.

After 10 years, we came back to Montreal and I got back into broadcasting. I hosted Good Morning Live at Global TV and then back to the CBC for Living Montreal. I have always been a fan of CBC Radio and while I was on Living, I started guest hosting Daybreak once in a while. I was hooked and happily made the leap from television to radio as the host of Radio Noon. But hosting Homerun was always my dream job and when the position came up, I grabbed it — that was in 2010!

I have always tried to balance life and work and some days are more successful than others. For most of my time at the helm of Homerun I had small children and was not home with them after school. That was hard. Thankfully, I had family and good people around me, and my children were always proud of my work. And right at the beginning the CBC agreed to give me generous time off so most of the time, the balance felt right. 

And somehow 10 years passed. I never had a job for more than three years before Homerun. I always felt the need to renew, to learn new skills and take on new challenges. Homerun just never got boring. It is such a privilege to be with Montrealers every weekday — getting up to speed with the day, grilling the odd politician, meeting so many interesting new people, sharing our wonderful city with you listeners. And you never failed to support but also challenge me — letting me know if I had let a guest off too easy, or was being biased, or had misused "Me and I." Oh yes. But also letting me know when you liked what I did, and how much you missed me when I was away. I shall be forever grateful to all of you.

I do not know what is next for me, but I do know I am making the right decision for me and for the show. It is time to renew Homerun, give it a fresh voice and give someone else the chance that I had. I am excited for whatever the future brings. In the meantime, I will be in the host chair with you every weekday afternoon until the end of June. 

Thanks for all your careful listening and for keeping me honest for all these years.