Like so many others in the industry, CHAB Moose Jaw gave me a start in broadcasting. There were 2 colleagues working in news and sports.
Leon Brin did the morning news and John Scraba the afternoon. Leon was a wonderful guy. He seemed quite happy in life to be the anchor newscaster in Moose Jaw and later Saskatoon but in my view, he could have become a national anchor. He was very kind and I learned a lot of the basics of broadcasting from him. He went on to several successful senior management roles in the province.
Scraba was a totally different guy. From the Edmonton area he was at his second stop in his career and about my age. He and his wife Daphne, ironically enough, lived in the same apartment building and we socialized a fair bit. Daphne was quiet, reserved, and just a nice person.
John was mischievous, a bit brash, but I always felt like he could get me in trouble. My instincts were pretty good. Several years after leaving CHAB, he went to work for the Saskatchewan Government caucus under Premier Grant Devine. In the mid 90’s several elected officials were found guilty of misappropriating funds and unfortunately John was in the middle of it and spent some time in jail. He passed away a few years ago.
Leon and John were quite comfortable in their roles and there didn’t appear to be any opportunities for advancement. I also immensely disliked my boss. It had only been a few months in the business but felt that my days as an untested broadcasting novice were behind me. I could do more and wanted to be paid more.
So now it was on to Camrose and CFCW. We were able to find a basement suite in a small apartment complex that was very nice. Across the hall was a nice grandmotherly lady, Mrs. Simonsen, her daughter Yvonne, and her 3 children. They looked after our 9-month-old daughter until we were able to put her into day care as Linda would need to find work.
CFCW had some real characters. Rich Sims was the morning news reader and program manager. He had a baritone voice but was not a newsman just a very good on-air reader.
Bev Munroe was the morning disk jockey, and he had a country music band that played all around the area. He was a legend and only passed away recently.
Curley Gurlock was the afternoon guy. He was also a legend. His listeners were convinced that he was Mexican, and he might have been as he looked the part. He managed to have them pay for his vacation every winter leading a caravan to Mexico.
Working evenings meant never really getting to know these two guys. They had started in the radio business before I was born. They sure had a following and it was impossible not to admire them. However, what I saw were 2 celebrities, living in Camrose and doing the same thing for 20-30 years. That wasn’t going to be me.
Dale Smith was a guy from southwestern Saskatchewan that had been with the station for about 5 years and was a few years older than me. He floated around between the news, sports and the disc jockey departments because he was good at everything. As far as working relationships go, I was probably closest to Dale than anyone.
CFCW did have someone other than Mike Goetze, who inspired me and that was General Manager Warren Holte. He was Mr. CFCW, a shrewd businessman, a salesman, a schmoozer and while Bev, Curley and a host of other celebrities were the face of CFCW it was Warren who made the station profitable. Based in Camrose, the station was listened to by most of the population within 59 miles, however at around 60 miles was the City of Edmonton.
While the station had listeners in the capital city and corporate advertisers the competition was fierce. It was still considered a rural station. Over the years Warren changed that and today CFCW is the Country and Western AM giant in all northern Alberta. I am proud to have played a very small part in that.
An example of Holte’s shrewd business acumen occurred in the mid 70’s when he was attempting to crack the Edmonton market. For many years CFCW spun religious programs all evening and it was a very good revenue source. As CFCW grew from a small rural station to compete in Edmonton, Warren recognized religious broadcasting was hurting its image. He had to choose between a revenue stream and ratings. He doubled the rates charged for the religious programs with the expectation that about half would simply go elsewhere and the station would be left with the same amount of revenue. To his surprise not one subscriber left. Ultimately, he had to swallow hard and turn away the revenue to become a true 24-hour Country and Western station.
After a year of evenings, it felt as though I was stuck in a rut, but my options were limited. It was time to start looking outside the broadcasting business.
My father-in-law was friends with a guy named Roy Wilson. He had a very lucrative business selling sausage to grocery stores in Edmonton and the surrounding area. He had been in the meat business for a long time and was contemplating retirement and was looking for a protégé. The money was excellent and calling on people was something that interested me.
We met one evening and Roy said the job was mine if I wanted it. After much contemplation my decision was made to leave the broadcasting industry and become a sausage salesman.
There is a saying that timing is everything and it sure applied in early December 1979. Before I could give Mike notice he offered me a promotion. I often think back to what might have been if that turn of events hadn’t occurred.