CJAY 92 morning host Gerry Forbes announces retirement

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CJAY 92 morning host Gerry Forbes announces retirement

Postby radiofan » Fri Feb 16, 2018 8:10 pm

CJAY 92 morning host Gerry Forbes announces retirement
Sammy Hudes
Published on: February 15, 2018 | Last Updated: February 15, 2018 6:25 PM MST


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One of the longest-running voices of Calgary morning radio is hanging up the microphone.

CJAY 92’s Gerry Forbes announced his retirement Thursday morning after 25 years on air at the station.

“I’m 61. I want to at least stay up past 10 p.m. one night and not get up at quarter to 4,” Forbes said of the reason he decided now was the right time to call it quits.

Forbes said he never imagined having the long career that is about to end. In all, he worked 43 years in radio, starting in 1975 at a station in Kamloops, B.C.

But he got a head start in the business, as his father ran 630 CHED in Edmonton, where Forbes was born before moving to Toronto at the age of three.

"I actually really started when I was 13,” he said. “I worked around the radio station there.”

Forbes eventually got a job at CHUM in Toronto where he cut his teeth in the business. After moving to Kamloops for eight months — a shock for someone coming from the big city — he’d spend some time at radio stations in Hamilton and Toronto again. Not knowing whether radio was for him, Forbes went on to work at IBM in Toronto for a few months.

“I thought this would be an experience but I hated it. I didn’t like a regular job,” he said. “So I honed my skills again and got a job at CHUM.”

Forbes eventually worked his way up to being on air middays and then mornings at CHUM, which launched his morning show career before moving to Calgary.

“It took off. When I came to Calgary, things just got tremendous,” he recalled. “When I first moved here, nobody knew who I was.”

He said the achievement he’s most proud of in 25 years at CJAY 92 is the legacy of the radio station’s Kids Fund, which has helped raise money for families that have been victims of house fires, domestic violence, car crashes, sudden deaths and more.

“Anything that wasn’t covered by other agencies, we’d go ahead and raise the money and help these families. We built playgrounds, we bought school buses for special-needs kids and we raised the money ourselves,” said Forbes. “My dad started Santas Anonymous in Alberta to make sure every kid had a toy. He sat down with me one day and said ‘you could be funny or you could be a part of the community,’ and I listened to the second part.”

“And tried to be funny, but I struggled,” he added.

Forbes said he plans to continue on at the station as an ambassador, focusing his efforts on raising money for the Kids Fund. He said he’s also looking forward to spending more time with his wife, Shelley, and Bichon Yorkie puppy named Bentley.

With one month left before his retirement, he said fans can expect to hear highlights from the past 25 years on the air before he steps away.

“There’s stuff that’s so wild and crazy that you probably couldn’t do it today but we’re going to play it anyway,” he said.

http://calgaryherald.com/news/local-new ... retirement
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