After the war’s end, Webster emigrated to Canada. He covered the labour beat for the Vancouver Sun newspaper.[1] In 1953, he began to work on commercial radio in the talk radio format (which had its origins in British Columbia before spreading to the US). Webster made his mark broadcasting shorthand transcripts of testimony during a probe into corruption on Vancouver’s police force. His City Mike show on CJOR achieved some fame covering it.
Jack left CJOR and moved his show to CKNW. In 1963, prisoners at the BC Penitentiary were foiled in an escape attempt and took hostages. At the prisoners’ request, Webster acted as a mediator between hostage-holding prisoners and the authorities and helped resolve the stand-off.[2]
In 1979, at the age of 60, Webster moved his radio show to television, where his familiar expression ‘9 am perrr-cisely’ became his trademark. His hour-long TV interview program, which was seen weekdays at 9 am on BCTV and then-sisterCHEK-TV, and beginning in 1986, at 5pm proceeding the nightly news hour on BCTV, frequently dealt with British Columbia politics.
In 1990, Webster joined the long-running CBC TV program Front Page Challenge as its permanent fourth panelist until the show’s cancellation in 1995.[
My People Uncovered 