Birthdays Today: Children of Two Edmonton Radio Legends

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Birthdays Today: Children of Two Edmonton Radio Legends

Postby jon » Mon Dec 22, 2014 11:50 am

Today marks the birthdays of a child of each of two late Edmonton Radio Legends. Last names are Forbes and Runge.

Marty is the son of Jerry Forbes, best known for his days running CHED. Jerry was born in Edmonton in 1923, started on-air at CFRN-AM in 1947, and joined CHED in 1954, the same year they signed on. First as Production Manager then General Manager from 1964 until his retirement just three months before his death in September 1981 at age 58. Today, his name is better known for Santas Anonymous, a community service program he developed soon after joining CHED, and that is a huge part of Edmonton's Christmas each year. Son Marty is actively involved with his father's legacy after retiring from his position as Vice President at Standard Radio at the beginning of 2009.

Lisa is the daughter of John Runge, who invented, with Bill Coull, CKUA's "sound". The music format John and Bill developed in 1964 was very similar to the Underground format that came out of San Francisco a couple of years later, and still dominates the station's approach to music today. John moved to CKLG-FM in Vancouver in early 1968 just before they switched to an Underground format; his job was to build the record library. After the format change, John could be heard each afternoon. When LG-FM fired all their announcers and went automated (the first time under the new format), it was John's voice you heard back announcing each music set. John returned to Edmonton, and CKUA, in 1975 as Production Manager, until his sudden and unexpected death on February 8, 1990; he was only 54. Daughter Lisa does airborne traffic in the Ottawa radio market.

Happy birthday to you both!
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