BANGOR, Maine — George Gonyar, a pioneering television announcer and longtime general manager of WABI Channel 5, Maine’s first TV station, has died, the station announced on its website. He was 87.
A longtime Orono resident, Gonyar was a college student in 1948 when he got a job as an announcer for WABI radio. He wore many hats over the years before becoming general manager of broadcasting operations, a job he retired from in 1991 after 43 years. When the station was renovated in 2005, the production control room was dedicated in his honor.
“George was quite a character in many ways, but more importantly, he was a man of great character,” Mike Young, vice president and general manager of WABI, said Monday. “He was an honorable man and broadcaster in every sense of the word.”
Gonyar took a class at the University of Maine called “Radio Reading and Writing,” and as a student, he helped produce “The University of Maine Hour,” a radio show that aired on WLBZ.
“I ended up as the emcee and dubbed ‘Mr. University,’” Gonyar recalled during an interview with the Bangor Daily News at the station rededication.
He told the story about how he was on his way to a job interview at WGUY radio when he lost his bus transfer ticket and decided to stop by WABI and say he was looking for a job. Someone gave him some wire copy and had him read it on air and then told him he was hired and to report to work that week.
Gonyar was the television station’s program director, director of operations, manager of operations and, in 1977, he became vice president and general manager for Community Broadcasting Service, the company that operates WABI television and radio stations WABI and WYOU, according to a July story in The Weekly.
WABI went through many changes from its early days with one camera in a small studio on Copeland Hill in Holden, Gonyar said in an interview last year. He said technology and costs led to many changes over the years.
A member of the University of Maine Class of 1950, Gonyar was a longtime member of the Greater Bangor Chamber of Commerce, serving as chairman in 1990, and he was very active as a member of the Orono-Old Town Kiwanis and was a fixture at the group’s annual auction, where he was the auctioneer for decades.
“I never had a day when I didn’t want to go to work,” Gonyar said in 2005 about his career at the Bangor television station. “It was challenging, exciting and satisfying.”
A wake with visiting hours will be held from 2 to 4 p.m. and 6 to 8 p.m. Friday at Brookings-Smith of Orono at 72 Main St. A Mass of Christian burial for Gonyar will be celebrated at 10 a.m. Saturday at the Parish of the Resurrection of the Lord, Holy Family Church, at 429 Main St. in Old Town.