There is a symmetry in life, sometimes poetic, not always pleasant, but still remarkable in the way life events can be linked and tied together.
Today is Monday December 10th, 2012.
On Monday December 10th, 1984, I first walked through the doors of what is now Bayshore Broadcasting.
On this date in 1984, there was just 1 station, CFOS, and the company was known as Grey-Bruce Radio, owned and operated by Bill Hawkins.
On my third day at work, December 13th, 1984, Bill Hawkins called a staff meeting.
He started by welcoming me, which honestly felt nice, and still does thinking about it.
Then, again on just my third day, Bill Hawkins announced to the staff he had sold the station to Doug Caldwell.
Bill stayed on through the transition and I was warned, many times, by many announcers, since I was the Saturday Morning announcer, to never, NEVER, be late for a shift.
In the Spring of 1985 on a Saturday Morning, I arrived on time, only to find a car accident in the region had knocked out power in the downtown core.
I swear, within two minutes of my arrival, Bill Hawkins came bolting through the door and eventually accepted the fact there was an outage and not disc jockey tardiness.
Through the years, I spoke with Bill from time to time, mostly during his rare visits here, but also during a lengthy 45 minute interview session we did in the summer of 2009 as the station approached its 70th anniversary.
Bill wasn’t in the best health that day, early in his 90’s, but he was certainly vibrant, in fact, he admonished me when I extended my hand to assist him out of his chair.
He could do it himself, I was told, and then he gripped my hand to shake ir and we said goodbye.
Bill Hawkins, a Day 1 employee at CFOS, passed away Thursday at age 93.
Yet even with his passing, I can hear his words from our session in the summer of 2009.
[CLIP]
I’m Fred Wallace