Radioman hangs up mic

When Glen Morrison first turned on the microphone in 1972, Pierre Trudeau was prime minister, Neil Young’s Heart of Gold and Don Maclean’s American Pie were tearing up the charts.

Radio stations were playing 45s and the all-night DJ was still in demand.

Forty-three years later, overnight radio is automated and records are a digital file.

“There has been massive change in the technology," says Morrison, who is hanging up his microphone after today's broadcast.

"When I started in the newsroom, we had a cast iron teletype monster that ran around the clock, typewriters and reel to reel tape machines. Now, everything is done on the computer.” 

After two years at the B.C. Institute of Technology, Morrison started his radio career as a disc jockey at CHNL in Kamloops, moving onto CHWK Chilliwack and CFVR Abbotsford before starting in the news department at Vernon’s 94 CJIB in 1977.

Morrison would spend most of his career with CJIB and its successor 107.5 Kiss FM, with a stop at CKOV in Kelowna.

“Sharing the Jack Webster award in 2003 for (coverage of) the Kelowna Firestorm was a career highlight, other memorable broadcast days included the shuttle challenger disaster and Sept. 11, 2001,” said Morrison.

Born at Vernon Jubilee Hospital and raised in Lumby, where his parents owned a service station, Morrison has had a lifelong love of cars, in particular his 1969 Pontiac Beaumont, which he will proudly tell you is one of only 91 built.

Despite losing one arm as a young man, the 66 year old never let his disability get in the way, on the job or off, modifying his car to race at the Ashcroft and Thunder Mountain dragstrips, which he plans to continue doing in retirement.

As for other retirement plans, he says some travel, woodworking and restoring old tools are on the agenda.