My first radio job when I moved back to London 8 years ago was midday host on 1039-FM, a station with an identity crisis. Now it’s a country music station. Then, it was struggling to find a niche in a radio cluster that included the city’s top FM station, and another one that places in the top 5.
My boss was Colin Botten, who is now my brother-in-law. Colin has worked around the city as well as in Sarnia and Guelph, and is now bound for a managerial/on air job in Windsor.
1039 was an odd duck back then but had a terrific staff and an underdog attitude. Its stick – or broadcast tower – is in Woodstock so we attended a lot of Woodstock events, like the Santa Claus parade, pictured left.
Colin doesn’t remember it, but back when Derek and I were working at CKSL in the 1980s, he came in for a tour. A skinny teenager at the time, he was anxious to start the radio course at Fanshawe College and get into the broadcasting business. He ended up working at CKSL longer than I did, including through its transition from hits to oldies to talk to whatever it was before it became a comedy station that just recently had its plug pulled for good. He’s a good dude, his wife Carolyn is wonderful and their kids, Brandon and Molly, are terrific. And now, who would have thought, he’s family.
They took up a lot of room too