CKLQ host Bill Turner to retire in September
'I feel lucky to do something I dreamed of'
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Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 13/02/2015 (4148 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.
Since his voice hit the radio airwaves 45 years ago, Bill Turner has interviewed prime ministers John Diefenbaker, Pierre Trudeau, Joe Clark and Stephen Harper before he even entered politics — but those aren’t his favourite interviews.
His all-time favourite interview subject was Air Canada pilot Bob Pierson, who safely landed a Boeing 767 without fuel at the Gimli airport in 1983. The aircraft was nicknamed the “Gimli Glider.”
“I never enjoyed the hard news interviews … I always liked the human interest things way more. The ordinary people doing extraordinary things,” he said.
Turner, who has been the staple voice of CKLQ in Brandon since the late 1970s, will retire from the radio booth in September after his long career as the station’s weekday morning man and host of its call-in show “Feedback.”
“I think I’ll miss all aspects of it,” Turner told the Sun.
“I still see that double-take when I’m out in public, I open my mouth and I know someone’s recognized the voice … people think they know you and that’s a comfortable feeling.”
Once he walks away from the station, he said he’ll focus on fostering his hobbies — woodworking, playing music and making instruments. But he’ll always have an ear on current events.
“That’s a hard habit to break.”
Turner, turning 68 this month, said the delivery methods of radio may have changed over the years, but the relationship the listener has with a radio newsman, and the responsibility of the broadcaster, hasn’t.
“With social media and the Internet and those other instant news and rumour mills, you wonder sometimes if radio is still valid source, and I believe it is.”
Unlike his former co-worker John LoRegio, former CKLQ news director turned city councillor, Turner joked he has no intention of grabbing a spot at city hall.
His advice for budding broadcasters hasn’t changed much over the decades, either.
“I always tell people to be prepared to spend the first four years getting paid to learn,” he said, “because there’s isn’t a lot of money in radio when you’re starting out.
“Most people in this business aren’t in it for the money.”
Turner said his last broadcast will be in September and has no plans to leave the city.
“As corny as it sounds, (I) listened to the radio late at night and probably around the age of 14 decided that would be kind of a neat job to have,” he said.
“I feel lucky to do something I dreamed of doing.”
» gbruce@brandonsun.com
» Twitter: @grjbruce