Kelowna, Winnipeg DJ Kevin McGowan Dies in Toronto

[jon]

Kevin McGowan has died in Toronto. No other details are available at this point.

Kevin launched K96.3 in Kelowna with Chris Cleaver, together on mornings in 2008. Kevin had previously done mornings in Winnipeg, Ottawa and Montreal.

I'll leave it to others to fill in more details.

[yoshi]

kevin was 58 yrs old when he'd died

[jon]

Former KOOL, BOB-FM radio host McGowan dies at age 58
By Tony Lofaro, The Ottawa Citizen
August 13, 2012

Former Ottawa broadcaster Kevin McGowan, who died suddenly in Toronto last week, was remembered by colleagues as a great guy and a mentor to young people in the radio industry.

“He was very talented, he reminded me of Larry King because he could talk on any topic,” said Mark Maheu, the former CHUM Radio vice-president and general manager who hired McGowan at Winnipeg radio station 1290 FOX in 1987. He had previously been at Montreal’s CFCF.

When Ottawa radio station KOOL-FM was created in 1992 out of the former CFMO-FM, McGowan and Sandy Sharkey became the morning co-host. McGowan also worked at BOB-FM before resigning suddenly in July 2004.

“He had a real passion for teaching, and he (later) went into media consulting and had some clients,” Maheu said. “He also wrote a book on radio for aspiring young people who wanted to get into the business.

“He loved to read, he was very curious and he loved to talk and have conversations that had meaning. He really enjoyed people, and that’s what made him special and a great morning guy. Listeners loved him.”

After leaving Ottawa in 2004, McGowan worked in Kelowna, B.C., and later for the myFM radio chain in Renfrew and Pembroke before retiring from radio at the end of a 35-year career.

He was 58 when he died last Wednesday.

Scott Rush, a co-host of the morning show on HOT 89.9, said McGowan served as a mentor in his early years in the radio business.

“He was the morning guy, and I’d say he was one of the last old-school radio guys that we had in the city,” said Rush, who previously worked the overnight shift at KOOL-FM.

“People like Kevin, and Kevin Nelson and Ken Grant, these guys had big personalities and it was my way or the highway guys. You didn’t talk back to them.”

Rush said part of his job before McGowan arrived for the morning show was to make sure everything in the studio, including McGowan’s chair and CDs, were exactly where he wanted them to be.

“I looked up to him, and he was a mentor, for sure,” Rush said. “He treated me like the overnight guy, but he was always respectful.”

Rush said McGowan surprised him one morning when he asked him to be his sidekick after Sharkey was not able to make it to work.

“I co-hosted the morning show with him and I was absolutely terrible, but he was patient with me. But he had no idea what that did for my confidence, the fact that he had put some kid on the air.”

McGowan leaves behind his wife, Lorna, his mother, Reta, and his stepdaughter, Alison. The cause of death was not disclosed.

A mass will be held Friday at St. James Parish in Eganville.

ref. - http://www.ottawacitizen.com/news/Forme ... story.html