CBC Calgary's Ron Nicolson leaves the airwaves after 40 years on the radio

After 20 years at CBC Calgary and more than 40 years in radio, Ron Nicolsonread thelast newscast of his career on Thursday.

The newscast itself wasn't particularly memorable a bit from city hall, an update from the provincial government but it marked the last time Calgarians would hear that familiar voice they came to know and trust.

Nicolson'svoice first hit the airwaves in 1977 when he was the weekendmidnight disc jockey at CFCN in Calgary. His career eventually took him to High River, then Kamloops, B.C., where he turned his talents to the news.

"I thought being a broadcaster, you should actually have something to say rather than time and temp, and this is and that was, you know," Nicolsontold TheHomestretch crew Thursday afternoon.

He eventually headed east where he worked in Regina and Toronto before he got the opportunity to come back to his hometown and work at CBCin Calgary, where he has been reporting and newsreading since Family Day of 1998.

A good newsreader, according to Nicolson, is someone who makes you feel like they are in the room with you, just telling you the news.

"It's just relax and tell it," he said.

"That's the way you've got to do it. You're telling people the news, you're not shouting it at them or anything. You're just speaking with them."

Nicolsonsaid he hopes hisfirst day of retirement involves sleeping in, but in his future he sees a little travelling and a lot of golf.

While he said he will miss CBCCalgary, he felt it was time to pass the newsreading torch to someone new.

"Well, I'm old," he said, laughing. "It's just time, it's time to let someone else do it and summer's here and why retire in the winter, right?"

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With files from The Homestretch