March 2006 I moved to Vancouver and before I’d even got there I was was already doing my research, collecting station program director’s name, contact numbers, email addresses, listening to their output on the web so that when I arrived I could hit the ground running with job applications. And almost immediately I was offered by what was ‘The Beat 94.5’ (Now Virgin Radio) to come in for a chat, Didn’t get the job but the fact my plan to get noticed was working and that gave me a huge confidence boost for about 6 months.
It was another station ‘Z95-3’ who invited me in for a chat, to be honest, I wasn’t expecting to get the job, I was delighted enough just to be asked in for the interview! wow I thought, imagine me working in a place like this, having gone from an internet radio podcast last year to broadcasting to over a million people. I remember the interview to this day, I didn’t understand much of the banter the boss and his assistant (Curtis Strange) were having it seemed like a very short interview and by the end of it I left with my first ever job in radio! given my lack of professional radio experience they decided to put me on the nightshift which was just me from 11pm to 6am. It was an amazing time in my life, personally I was punching way above my weight in my relationship and I felt the same in my new radio job too!
It was a surreal, mind-bending time, working 9-5 as a temp in a warehouse picking and packing sweatshirts being just like a normal guy and by night, working if you can call it work at one of Vancouver’s biggest radio stations broadcasting to over a million people.
I wasn’t amazing or out of this world despite what my inflated ego at the time told me, but I enjoyed it there…. no ignore that, I Loved it !
CKZZ – Z95-3 Vancouver