Throwback Thursday: Managerial Memories

Thanks to my former colleague Mike Eppel for digging this up from his “Welcome to CKNX” kit in 1989.

A year earlier, at the tender age of 26, I became Program Director of CKNX-FM, also known as FM102 based in Wingham, ON. It was my first go-round working for Blackburn Radio Inc. and I got the position after the previous PD, my now-husband-Derek, left to start his own company. Derek and I first worked together before that, at CKSL in London, and were pals when he moved to Wingham shortly after I did, in 1986.

I remember every one of those names. Murray Armstrong is now a successful realtor here in London. Matt Miller works for a newspaper in Listowel. John Chippa still does morning news on CKNX-AM. Scott Pettigrew runs a Winnipeg station.

Some are no longer with us. Farm Editor Murray Gaunt died a few years ago. He had been a beloved MPP for Huron-Bruce for nearly 20 years before coming on board to do agriculture news. Folksy and funny, Murray had an energy and passion for the job, and his unpolished delivery lent it the crediblity it needed. I mean that as a compliment.

I learned so much in my time as PD, where I was the station’s first ever female manager at that level. Some of the men gave me a hard time and openly mocked my ideas at the boardroom table. Others, like Miller and Pettirgrew, were openly supportive and I wouldn’t have survived without them. My former colleagues were now my employees and at times, it was awkward. They questioned my good intentions and I never seemed to have enough time to meet with them. Finally, the never ending cycle of meetings, report-writing and long days took their toll and I escaped back to the land of just being on air, at CKFM in Toronto – soon to become MIX 999.

During my time in the medium-sized-office, the Toronto Star ran a piece on Sharon Taylor, the PD at CFTR in Toronto. The journalist described her as “Canada’s only female radio Program Director” and I saw red! I composed a calm but firm letter to the writer, saying that I didn’t want to take anything away from Ms. Taylor’s accomplishments but, here I was, a woman, doing the same job. I don’t recall what happened next. These were the days before the Internet and even email, so the response – if there was one – is lost to time. Over the years, Sharon and I have become cyber-pals and long ago I told her about my outrage over the omission. She got it. I suppose now that I may have appeared like a little league coach comparing myself to a coach in the majors, but it wasn’t about me, and it was a factual error. It was about breaking down another barrier in the old boy’s club. A club that still exists, by the way, but that’s a story for another day.