Tony Parsons (Canadian journalist)

Tony Parsons
Born	Anthony Parsonage 1939 Gosport, Hampshire, England, United Kingdom
Occupation	News anchor for CHAN-DT, CBUT-DT and CHEK-DT
Known for	Television news anchor / reporter

Tony Parsons (born 1939 in Gosport, England) is a Canadian broadcaster whose career has spanned more than 50 years, and he has anchored the second most-watched local evening Television newscast in North America, the News Hour on Global BC in Vancouver, British Columbia. He was the co-anchor of CBC News: Vancouver on CBUT-DT with Gloria Macarenko, and the 10 PM newscast on CHEK-DT.

Parsons' father was a flight-lieutenant in the Royal Air Force. His mother was of Italian descent.

His family immigrated to Canada from England in 1948, settling in Feversham, Ontario. After a year studying radio and television arts at the Ryerson Institute in Toronto, Parsons looked for work at Ontario radio stations and eventually shortened his name to Tony Parsons. His first broadcasting job was as a country and western DJ at CJCS in Stratford, Ontario. He worked at various radio jobs in Stratford, Guelph, and Hamilton, before landing in Toronto. After a brief stint with CHUM radio, he took his first television job as a reporter at CFTO-TV, a CTV affiliate.

Parsons advanced to become the late evening anchor at CFTO until 1975, when he accepted the opportunity to fill the 6:00 anchor spot on CHAN-TV (better known as BCTV) in Vancouver, British Columbia, where he remained for more than 30 years. He was also the anchor of the national edition of Canada Tonight, a CHAN-produced newscast which aired outside of BC on stations owned by Western International Communications until that company was acquired by the Global Television Network. (Bill Good anchored the BC version seen on BCTV.) In 2004, his career achievements were recognized by his being awarded the Bruce Hutchison Lifetime Achievement Award by the Jack Webster Foundation.

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