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It is difficult when making a web site about yourself to avoid coming off as a rather pompous ass, but if you are to tell the story , you have to present the facts as they are, and they are "all about me!", in this case. So dear viewer please accept the following pages, pictures, and accounts. It's a simple story about an announcer by the name of DAN FISHER, and a few of the interesting happenings in his life over 40 some odd years in radio broadcasting. This site is presented more as an information location for my family, and extended family, and hopefully they will learn a bit about "who I am." Anyway, read on, perhaps you'll see yourself in the following pages, and pick up a few interesting items about early radio in Kitchener Waterloo.
Here's a partial list of the various announcers I have had the pleasure of working with over the years;
Pat Leonard, Don Khols (Red Hot), Cliff Fletcher, Wally Feschuk, Bob Bower, John Richards, Norm Butler, Don Willcox, Hugh Bowman, Ron Reusch, Ross Marshall, Hal Scholz, Mike Marshall, John DeLazzer, Ken Copeman, Stu Kenny, Roger Ashby, Ed Doyle ( news ), Peter Emerson, Ron Roberts, Dave Crichton, Tim Wight, Aubrey Walters, Jim Junkin, John MacLeod, Vic Folliott, Brian Currie, Ross Poll, Bud Hall, Phil Hitchcock, Bob Bratina, Jim Craig, Dave Shulman, Bill Stoltz, Phil Meighan, Bob Farrow, John Hancock, Paul Boucher, Bill McNicol, Fred Merritt, John Rogers, Greg Shaughnessy, Paul Scott, Ken Sylvester, Linda Brooks, Bob Wood, Rick Kemp, Bob Ford, Terry LeBlanc, Kevin Kelly, Tino Monte, Craig Smith, Richard Byrne, Rod Charles, Joe Torbay, Ron Roberts, Dick Austin, Susan Cook-Sheerer, Jennifer Brown, Gary Parkhill, Grant Hoffman, Joan Watson, Rod Charles, Norm Scheffel, Michael Duhig ( was an actor in TV series Swiss Family Robinson on CBC ) I hired him to do the evening shift 6 till midnight, Ian Parker [ Ian and I worked together at CFNB, and he came to Toronto and was hired by CKCO-TV as a news reporter with the Queens Park Bureau ], Les Charles, did evenings on CFNB [ Les came to CFNB from Hollywood, or so he said, he was amazingly talented, and wound up eventually in Toronto. ] And Steve Bender who took over the talk show after I left the air. Art Galliger and Earl Price at CHOV. Red Hot Kohls and Pat Leonard have both passed away.
The problem with starting a project like this at the age of 71 is that you tend to loose memory cells in the ol' cranium! So there are a lot of people I can't remember as I write this, but I will add them as they pop into my memory. I find that I can't remember many of the guys at CFNB, or the early days with CHOV, and there must be a whole mess of on-air types I haven't remembered at CKKW and CFCA., and I haven't even touched on the newscasters and the sports guys that have a special place in my memories, guys like Bill Inkol, Reg Sellner, Dan Sherman, Lisa LaFlamme [ Radio News Reporter for CFCA / CKKW 1989-1991], Geoff Hutcheson, Gary McLaren, Dave Carswell, Brian Bourke, Terry Thomas, Bruce Johnston, Rennie Heard, Steve Hooper,
Technical geniuses like rych mills, Erwin Nikel; Music library experts like Frank Kerton, George Patton, Tony Luciani, Nancy Zurbrigg. and Joe Torbay (one of the brightest guys I ever worked with)
And all the wonderful students I had the privilege of working with in the BRT course at Conestoga College from 1995 ~ 2000 as a radio technology instructor. What a thrill to have been part of their education.
The early days of CKKW; a bit of History here, thanks Don Willcox for info..
The station went on the air mid-1959. [ I'll get the original owner later ]
In January of 1960, here's the on air staff line up of the station;
The opening broadcast of the station was an exhibition football game between the Kitchener-Waterloo Dutchmen of the ORFU and the Hamilton Tigercats. The game was played at Seagram Stadium.
News Director ~ Ross Marshall
Sports Director ~ Hugh Bowman
Program Manager ~ Dave Wright
Promotion Director ~ Don Willcox. [ Don was asked to do the evening shift for three months 
because the DJ who was doing the show went to the Maritimes for a Christmas holiday, and never came back. ]
Chief Engineer ~ Bob Shantz
Sales Manager ~ Bill Pratt
Sales Staff ~ John Wood, Gord Hatton
Morning News ~ Bob Eged
Afternoon/Evening News ~ Bill McGee
6am - 10am ~ Dick Weber [ son of the owner of Weber Drugs in downtown Kitchener ]
10am - 2pm ~ Hal Scholz
2pm - 6pm ~ Jack Finnigan
6pm - Midnight ~ Don Willcox
Within three months of this lineup, Weber was gone, Willcox took over the morning show, and Dave Wright hired Mike Marshall to do the 6 till midnight shift.
Al Hodge was the GM and also did the 8am and noon news. He was the former News Director of CKCO-TV.. His executive assistant was Ruth Hancock who later went on to become the Executive Director of the Canadian Association of Broadcasters
Kitchener Broadcasting History Note
October 24, 1964: A student-created program is aired on CKKW radio for the first time, in a project that would eventually lead the founding of CKMS.
Peter Calvert and Paul Gerster of the Ad Hoc University of Waterloo Student Broadcasting Society meet to officially discuss the idea of a weekly student-run show on Kitchener AM station CKKW. The station reserves the right to "exercise discretion in material to be presented and the manner of such presentation," and forbids any "rock-and-roll" or "Backroom Ballads". (For this reason, a group at Waterloo College declines the offer.)
The following Saturday, October 24th, at 10:05 pm, the show goes to air for the first time. Its success leads to the formation of the UW Radio Broadcasting Club, which approaches the University for help in obtaining a broadcasting license. The University eventually turns down the request, mainly for lack of money.
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