I was lucky last week to catch up with my first radio boss Dave Reynolds.
Dave took a chance and hired me as a 17 year old kid still in high school at CKPE-FM “Cape Country” in Sydney.
(Above; Ian in 1984 on CKPE-FM, Sydney.)
As a kid growing up in the 1970’s, I watched Hockey Night in Canada where Dave was a host interviewing the NHL players. I thought what a cool job that must be.
Fast forward to 1981 when Dave moved back home to Cape Breton to CJCB-CKPE in Sydney where his radio career began in the 1960’s.
When Dave and his wife Gail moved into the same village of Big Bras d’Or, Cape Breton, just a few minutes down the road from where I grew up, I thought that was even cooler!
While in high school in Sydney Mines, I took the radio and television technology program practicing my radio craft. I made a tape of my radio shows that broadcast over the high school cafeteria speakers over the lunch hour playing the hits of the early 80’s on CMHS “The Spirit of Memorial High School!”
Eventually I got the nerve up to drop by Dave’s house and give him a cassette tape of my show demo. He heard some kind of potential in that tape and I bugged him enough with calls that he hired me on April 12th, 1984.
That was a dream come true to get hired and work at CJCB-CKPE the stations that I grew up listening to and to work with my radio idols like Dave himself, Phil Thompson, Donnie Graham, Don Sharpe, Barry MacKinnon and Dave LeBlanc, today a fellow QMJHL Public Address Announcer with the Cape Breton Eagles.
Dave Reynolds taught me many lessons in radio and in life.
He shared a few stories on Wednesday at our lunch at the Nook and Cranny in Truro about interviewing NHL players. One in particular was that after games, Montreal Canadiens goaltending legend Ken Dryden would drink at least three bottles of Coke right after he finished a game. This caused his interviews to be filled with huge pop burps to be edited out! Laughter ensued.
My wife Roxanne and I thoroughly enjoyed our visit and she told Dave: “You probably don’t realize how much of an influence you had on Ian and other young radio people.” He took it all humbly in stride.
The moral of my story here is to never forget the people who gave you that first break in life and to keep in touch with them, because life is short.
(Above: Ian and Dave at the CJCB-CKPE Radio Reunion in Sydney in May 2002.)
Today, Dave plays golf pretty much everyday and still has that strong booming voice that woke up Cape Breton on 1270 CJCB from 1981 to 1990, that provided the entertainment for us on the school bus ride.
Thanks again Dave for giving me my first chance at a radio station some 38 years ago and having a career and for with the opportunity to get up in the morning and come to do a job I love to do, communicating with Nova Scotians, ironically still in Maritime Country Radio!
(Above: Ian today on Hot Country 1035.)
-Ian
