Rogers TV Grey County station manager Mark Perry is retiring Aug. 1, 2025. (supplied photo)
A staple in local television production in Grey County for more than four decades is calling it a career.
Longtime Rogers TV Grey County producer Mark Perry is retiring, and will work his last day as station manager of the local television operation on Friday, August 1.
“When I leave that day I’ll be packing up my things, leaving my keys and heading out for a new chapter in my life,” Perry says in an interview.
Perry, 64, first started working in television production in Owen Sound in September 1984, for what was then Maclean-Hunter — a former telecommunications company acquired by the Rogers media empire in 1994.
He recalls starting as a producer who was responsible for covering council meetings and overseeing some studio shows, as well as Owen Sound Greys hockey games. By the early 2000s he was a supervising producer, until eventually taking on the role he’s held for more than a decade as station manager of Rogers TV Grey County.
Whether it’s the Owen Sound Santa Claus Parade, Remembrance Day ceremonies, sporting events such as Owen Sound Attack or Meaford Knights hockey games, council meetings or studio shows featuring local talent in Grey County, odds are Perry’s had a hand in bringing it to your television screen.
While he enjoyed it all and says he will miss working with so many local organizations immensely, sports is his passion. He’ll miss that the most.
“I’m a sports guy. My favourite thing is doing sports, and the biggest thing would be the Owen Sound Attack games,” Perry says.
He says the local coverage Rogers TV provides to Owen Sound’s Ontario Hockey League team has evolved immensely since the Platers first arrived in town in 1989, and “really didn’t want us covering their games.”
“They were afraid of fans not coming out, and staying home and watching on TV. So in the first or second year, we only did four or five games,” Perry recalls.
But that’s changed over the years, and now Perry and Rogers are at essentially all Owen Sound Attack home games producing television broadcasts. The station also covers the Meaford Knights, Owen Sound Baysox baseball games, junior, senior and major lacrosse in Owen Sound, and many minor sports events when they happen, such as the Owen Sound Silver Stick tournament.
Perry’s love of sports also led him to being involved in Rogers’ coverage of the Ontario Tankard around the province for about a decade. And making late night drives to and from Midland and Penetanguishene to produce Junior C hockey broadcasts.
“I was mobile producer for a little bit for all of Georgian Bay, so I was actually going to Penetang, Midland, Collingwood and Wasaga Beach doing shows,” Perry explains. “I was doing Junior C hockey games in Midland and Penetang, and driving home at 2 a.m. from the arenas on a Friday or Saturday night.”
“My wife didn’t really enjoy that time, me driving in the middle of winter time in the middle of night.”
Asked about a broadcast during his career that comes to mind as most memorable, Perry tells the story of a mid-1980s Owen Sound Santa Claus Parade held on a bitter cold morning — so cold it was causing problems with the cameras.
“We had two cameras that morning and they would not warm up. So we had a person with a hair dryer on an extension cord running from camera to camera, just trying to keep them warm,” Perry recalls, mentioning it was -22C that day. “We ended up broadcasting the parade as it was … the cameras were kind of rotating colour because they were so cold and frozen. But we made it through the parade and people got to see it.”
After walks off the job for a final time on Aug. 1 and heads into retirement from broadcasting, Perry says he has plenty on the go with his other hobby to keep him busy.
“My wife and I have a small farm. We have alpacas, sheep, chickens, quail,” Perry says. “We have apple trees, and a very large garden with raspberries, blueberries and strawberries. And we grow potatoes, beans and other things.”
“So right now is the busiest time of year for me.”
He expects it will take a few weeks into August for it to set in for him that he is retired from television production.
“I think it’s going to be a major change because I’ve been doing it for 40 years,” Perry says. “And not coming to the office and doing this is going to be a different thing for sure.”
Perry adds he will miss working with all of the volunteers who help make local television productions possible. He says Rogers TV Grey County couldn’t do its shows without them, and the “great jobs they do.”
“This wouldn’t happen around here without the volunteers,” he says.
And while he’s moving on from the day-to-day demands of local television, Perry expects he’ll still be a regular at the Bayshore Community Centre — and may even lend a helping hand to the television crew producing Owen Sound Attack games.
“Maybe do camera, or replays, or even graphics for them,” he says. “So, you’ll probably see me around the Bayshore at some of the Attack games this season as well.”
Rogers TV plans to host a retirement open house for Perry at its Owen Sound location — 1855 17th Street East — on Thursday, July 31 from 4 p.m. to 7 p.m.