Catching up with Rick Howe

Rick Howe sounds slightly less outraged.

The radio talk show host officially hung up his headphones last September and moved to a seaside cottage with his wife, former CBC journalist Yvonne Colbert.

However, the pair returned to the airwaves last week for an hour long conversation with CityNews 95.7's The Todd Veinotte Show.

“We have such a beautiful life down on the South Shore,” Colbert said. “We hear the waves, we see the waves, there's lots of birds and it's just peaceful and lovely.”

But both broadcasters admit to missing the rush of working in a fast-paced newsroom.

“I call it the buzz,” Howe stated. “I miss the buzz. It's a day-to-day routine, but it's far from routine. Each day is different.”

Colbert added it was always “invigorating” to be able to get to be one of the first people to find out what was happening in the world.

The couple has been together for almost 45 years and shared a story that may explain Howe's love of Hawaiian shirts.

Colbert grew up in the Shelburne area, and at while home from Ryerson University in Toronto, she would listen to Howe on the radio.

“I thought 'my God he's got such a great voice and he's such a good reporter.' I wasn't star struck, I just thought he was good,” she said.

“You know how people have mental images of those on the radio? Well my mental image of Rick was Tom Selleck.”

Colbert soon moved to town to work for a Dartmouth radio station while Howe was reporting for CJCH.

The two finally met at Province House while covering legislature.

“So, we're at the Leg in the media room, in these little cubicles side-by-side chatting away, and he puts out his hand and says, 'Oh by the way, I'm Rick Howe. Then it just came out of my mouth, I said, 'You can't be Rick Howe!,” she laughed.

Several decades later, the two are still clearly in love.

“I was not an easy person at times,” Howe admitted with emotion in his voice. “So she put up with that. Without her, I don't know where I would have been.”

Prior to his retirement, Howe has been on extended leave from his talk show due to a health issue, the details of which he still has not publicly disclosed.

“I'm a very private person outside of the radio life,” he explained.

“I went through a surgery that had complications. What was supposed to be a brief hospital stay turned out to be a lengthy hospital stay, and there's more hospital work to be done.”

That health issue sped up Howe's decision to retire, as he originally planned to host his last broadcast on the 50th anniversary of his first day on-air.

But the end of his radio career isn't the end of his storytelling. Rick has been working on a new book which he expects to release this fall.

“It's basically an autobiography I guess. More about some of the things that I experienced over my years as a journalist, as a reporter, as a news director and as a talk show host.”

He said some of it will rehash what he's already written in his previous publication, Radio Talk, which came out more than a decade ago.

“It adds a whole bunch more, especially about the Rogers years, the various things we've gone through during the 13 years I spent at this radio station,” he explained.

He also plans to disclose more details about his health issue in the upcoming release.

Listen to the full interview with Rick Howe and Yvonne Colbert.