On July 20, 1973, the static at 1170 on the AM dial gave way to Tennessee Ernie Ford’s rendition of Turn Your Radio On.
A week later, Red Deer’s CKGY marked its official launch — and the country music has been playing ever since.
There were plenty of country tunes at the Red Deer Golf & Country Club on Sunday, as CKGY founder Rod Stephen gathered with about 80 of his former employees and their spouses to celebrate the 40th anniversary of the station.
Although many have moved on to other broadcasters and even other industries, their commitment to Stephen — who sold the station in 1986 — remains.
“He was the greatest thing that ever hit Red Deer,” praised Hoss Hammer, the Alberta Agriculture Hall of Fame inductee who worked as a broadcaster and salesman at CKGY dating back to 1974.
“He was a good radio man, let me tell you.”
Al Redel, who joined the station in 1980 and is currently its news director, was also gushing in his praise.
“Rod Stephen is the most incredible leader you’ll ever meet in your life, because he’s the kind of guy who knows instantly whether you’ve got character or not — and he hired those types of individuals.”
Ken Kilcullen, who was known to CKGY listeners as Ken Cullen during his time at the station between 1984 and 1991, credited Stephen for its success. Now the general manager of two radio stations and a television station in Prince George, B.C., Kilcullen said the lessons he learned from his former boss remain with him.
“What we did back in the ‘80s when I was working here has impacted me to the point where I still operate in the way that Rod operated.”
That includes a commitment to the communities being served. For instance, CKGY used a mobile station to broadcast from a different town every afternoon.
“I was really impressed by the fact that Central Alberta is made up of a lot of very vibrant smaller communities,” explained Stephen of his motivation.
“That was the cornerstone of our community philosophy was to include all of those smaller communities, because none of them had a radio station of their own at the time.”
Kilcullen recalled his first shift as a mobile announcer. He broadcast that the A-G society in Wet-a-squee-in would be holding a meeting.
“All of a sudden I hear this little voice on the two-way radio, which was Rod going: “Hello, it’s Ag society, it’s not the A-G society; and it’s Wetaskiwin, not Wet-a-squee-in.”
Kilcullen now appreciates the enormity of what Stephen accomplished when he started CKGY.
“He made the commitment personally to do something that people told him, ‘You’re crazy to start a new station. And a country station?’”
Redel also marvels at Stephen’s moxie.
“It was an incredible risk back then to start a radio station: incredible financial risk, incredible community risk.”
But Stephen had some pretty good insights into the broadcast industry. He’d worked in it since he was 18, starting in his hometown of Yorkton, Sask., and had done virtually every job in the business.
“I’d been an announcer, I was familiar with news and sports, and also the traffic department, the creative departments and things of that nature.”
Much of his management experience had come at Red Deer’s CKRD, where by the age of 32 Stephen had worked his way up to become general manager of the AM, FM and television stations there.
Eventually, he left to start his own music business, and later became a door-to-door Electrolux vacuum salesman. It was during his travels in the latter position that he realized Central Alberta had an unsatisfied appetite for country music.
“I was convinced that country music was the genre missing in the marketplace,” said Stephen, who ironically was known as Rockin’ Rod Stephen during an earlier stint as a DJ at Edmonton’s popular 630 Ched radio station.
His hunch proved correct, and CKGY quickly attracted a large and loyal following.
Parkland Industries founder Jack Donald was an early partner in the station, although Stephen ultimately acquired full ownership. After selling to Shaw Cablesystems (now Shaw Communications), he remained involved as president of Shaw Radio until his retirement in 1989.
Stephen was pleased to renew old acquaintances on Sunday.
“That was really exciting.”
Redel agreed.
“There are people I haven’t seen for 30 years. It’s incredible.”
Kilcullen was struck by how those years melted away when the CKGY crew came together under the same roof again.
“It just picked up as if it was back in the 1980s again.”
hrichards@www.reddeeradvocate.com