The Industry

     I always find it fascinating when I hear about established broadcasters careers. So when I received a message from Jeremy Baker, THE afternoon guy on the Zone 91.3 (Victoria, B.C.) all about how he got into the biz, not going to lie, was pretty stoked. He has a lot to say so I’m going to stop typing.

“Mitch over at the Radio Industry blog is chronicling his journey to FM super-star.  Good for him.  He asked me to tell my story of how I came to be telling knock-knock jokes between Our Lady Peace songs.

Two things about being a radio DJ:

01) Its not impossible to be a radio presenter
02) It is almost impossible to become a radio presenter

I’ll talk about two events that got me to where I am right now.  I’d like to tell you that I overcame great odds with a winning attitude and super-duper work ethic, but the reality is, I had a bunch of great friends and mentors that helped all along the journey.  then a big ole pile of luck.

Story one will take us back to the halcyon days of the summer of 1998.

I graduated high school in Coquitlam in 1998.  After school most all my friends had some sort of post-secondary eduction plans.  A few would travel, some would work.  I didn’t really have anything on the go.  I lived in my parents basement.  I ate too many mushrooms and I worked at a Subway making sandwiches or in the Real Canadian Superstore stocking tampons and baby food (fore-shadowing my eventual future of being married with child… huh).

One day I was at a house party and some of the people there were friends with my buddies Dave King and Mike, both a year my senior.  All these guys had just completed year one of University.  We’re having pints and bull-shitting and one of the guys, James Thompson, talks about his radio show on college station CJSF up at Simon Fraser University.

Now I had always loved radio and rock and roll but I never really thought just anyone could be on the radio, so when James said he had a show I begged him to let me come and co-host with him some time.  he said no.

One day I borrowed Mom and Dad’s car and trekked up the mountain to SFU to meet with the program director to see about getting a show.  The programmer took one look at my snot-nosed suburban Nickelback loving ass and said…. no.

Defeated, I did what any self respecting man would do… I whined to my friends one evening.  My buddy Paul brought up that UBC also had a station (and its WAY better than SFU!) and that being a student, he could get a show and I could co-host with him.

I rode 13 buses and there I was, in the UBC Student Union Building at the doors of CiTR 101.9. I loved CiTR. I became a volunteer and Paul and I spent all our extra time playing in the studio doing fake radio shows, doing odd jobs, listening to records and learning the board.  I lived and breathed community radio.  There was a board in the lobby that had a list of show types the radio station needed filling.  If you did a format off the wall, they would fast track getting your show on the air.  Paul and I chose “Canadian Content” which we thought would be a fun catch all and applied for a slot.

They gave us Tuesday mornings at 5AM-8AM.  We called our program The Morning After and in early December of 1998 I was on the radio.”

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Tomorrow I will have the second half of Jeremy Baker’s story. Don’t want to overload you with awesomeness. Feel free to go take a walk, go to the gym or follow in my footsteps and grab some ice cream and watch all the shows I have PVR-ed and haven’t watched… Persons Unknown for example.

Thanks again Jeremy.

Jeremy’s Photo By: Lillie Louise Photography