This afternoon, Bill Phillips passed away after a 9 year battle with multiple myeloma. Although he had trouble speaking, his mind was as sharp as ever right up to the end.
During most of the 1960s and well in the 1970s, his was the voice most often associated with CHQM AM & FM. Yes, even more than Bill Bellman.
There were lots of great stories about William Harold Phillips around the station, because everyone liked him. He was intelligent, witty, friendly and, most of all, he never seemed to make a mistake. When I joked, in a note I wrote him at the time, about him saying "Lest We Forget, this is CHQM AM & FM in Vancouver" at 11:00 a.m. on 1971's Remembrance Day, he seemed genuinely concerned that he might have done something wrong. The fact was that there was a long silence where the comma is placed in that quote, and the News intro came right after the top of the hour ID.
My fellow operators were amazed that a fast-paced show that would have us running off our feet would be handled live by Bill, doing crossword puzzles in Spanish to keep his mind active as the music played on a "single disc" show (song-announce-spot-ID-announce-song).
One of the part-time operators who did not last long because he kept showing up for work stoned, recalls sitting next to an older lady on a bus. She asked about Bill, and was clearly a fan. So, he told her that Bill insisted on doing all his shows in the nude. When that did not phase her, he said that Bill had a huge wart on the end of his nose. She seemed OK with that, too.
In the early 1980s, I somehow found it comforting to hear Bill doing the "The number you have dialed is not in service" recordings whenever I phoned B.C. from Edmonton.
A decade ago, I asked Bill if he could help me remember some of the names at CHQM from the early 1970s. I was amazed how many he still knew. Ironically, the only one that neither of us could remember was the fellow who met the Bill Phillips fan on the bus.
A Celebration of Life will be held but there is no firm date at present.