At 9:47 Saturday August 4th, Seaside-Fm will be an amazing five years old.  Yes, I think it’s amazing.  Amazing, that five years have passed by so quickly from that opening day in 2002 and even more amazing that it happened.

The 947 number has another significance.  Yes, it was the time (9:47 am) the station went on air in the summer of 2002 but it also represents the frequency, at 94.7 on the fm dial.

I liked the station from the beginning.  Make that even before that official August 4th, 2002 start-up for you see it began as a dream by Wayne Harrett and if there’s ever proof that dreams do happen, this is one.

Harrett like a few ‘radio lifers’ likes the radio industry.  He’s been fascinated by the media since he was a kid in the area.

His dream of having a community radio station started seven or eight years ago when he set up a one-watt radio station.  That correct, a one-watt station from his home in a trailer park in Eastern Passage.

Then came the ‘special events’ radio broadcast which took place for the Eastern Passage folk for a few summers from 1999-2001.

The CRTC will license almost anyone for a ‘special events 28-day’ license and Harrett took advantage of it to sample his wares, and advancing his dream for a full time, radio station.

So the ‘easy listening sound’ was heard starting in the summer (1999) for a month as part of the Eastern Passage summer carnival and again in December for the Christmas period.  In those days the station which is now called C ‘F’ EP was called C ‘K’ EP.    That is the legal radio name the station wanted but a station in New Glasgow, CKEC, objected as the felt CKEP and CKEC sounded to much alike.

First of all it’s a silly claim as neither station infringes on the other’s territory and while CKEP would be the legal name, the Eastern Passage radio station, goes by the name “Seaside-Fm”.

There have been several physical and station ‘address’ changes over the years.  The first frequency for Seaside-FM was 106.9 when they had the special events license.   That frequency went to CHCN radio.  A good will, very poorly executed radio project in Cole Harbour that was doomed to failure from the outset.

Then Seaside went to the 97.9 frequency for another special events license and that frequency ended up by being swallowed by the Jack McGaw, Info Radio station that booms into metro.

When everything was cleared up, the current 94.7 frequency is the one they signed on with on August 4, 2002.

Many well known broadcasters dropped over and helped out in those 28-day special events licenses. Names such as J.C. Douglas, Doug Barron, and other local media people gave of their time and talents.

In fact the very first morning man for the specialty event gigs was Ian McPhee a well known broadcaster who has worked in Amherst for many years and has done stints with CJCH (70’s), Sun-FM, CHNS and CHFX.

In addition to getting a 28-day specialty license for the annual Eastern Passage Summer Carnival Wayne Harrett managed to get another special event license for Seaside in December and flooded the market with Christmas music.  It went over well.

One radio person asked me once, “how is Christmas a special event?”  I don’t have the answer but the CRTC agreed and Wayne got his special events license.

In fact, a similar license is awarded to Parrsboro for Christmastime and a small community station prevails much like the ‘old’ Seaside-FM with broadcast in the summer and Christmas in Parrsboro.

But five years ago, on August 4th, Seaside-FM was as they say ‘Alive and kicking’.

Needless to say there have been growing pains with the station and its mostly volunteer staff.  The pains started from their location in Eastern Passage and the signal and timing.

I’m not an engineer but the early years (sounds like the title of an album) had some challenges.

It seems that there was something like a seven minute delay from the time an announcer said something to when it got on air.

Seven MINUTES!!!  I’ve heard of seven second delays doing an open line show but a seven minute delay?  That was because of a computer program that took the signal from the on air studio to the transmitter.  It took seven minutes to get there.

”What we had to do was put the clocks in the control room and news room seven minutes ahead. So we did the time checks that were seven minutes ahead of the actual time but we were right on most of the time,” is what one source told me.

“At times it was funny,” says Gail Rice who has volunteered her time from the outset. “I would finish a chat with a caller on air and then go to the newsroom and listen to our conversation coming over the on-air speaker.  It was weird,” says Rice.

Also back in the early days, when an announcer had someone on the air either for an interview or playing a contest another person would call on the station’s second line.  As a result of the telephone system at the time, we could hear the beep or the sound of the phone, cutting off the conversation of whomever was on air, every few seconds.

Case in point would be the Gail Rice / Paul Meagher ‘chat’ at 12:30 that could ramble for 10-15 minutes.

I remember often listening and hearing the ‘beep’ or ‘noise’ of the incoming callers.

“Yes, that happened often,” says Rice. “I’m not sure if it was because Paul and I were on but I suppose during a long chat anyone trying to call the station would have their ring tone on air.”

The reason for that event was the station had ‘call waiting’ on the main line so when another caller dialed, the beep, to tell the caller of an incoming call took place, only in this case, the ‘beep’ was  heard on air.

Ah, the beginning pains of a new radio station.

These days that is not a concern.

The station stayed for nearly four years in the former convent/rectory next to the car wash, the Irving and the Tim’s in Eastern Passage.

And it saw a lot of people going through it.

Some came for a few shifts; some have lasted years and some took it as an opportunity to learn and move on to other radio stations.

I recall hearing the names of Jim Parsons (who headed west and now is in Nfld), Rick Walker from Dartmouth who 30 years ago wanted a career in the media business, Danny Hobson who spent some time with the station and Scott Purdie who sounded very good. 

He should, as his dad Joe, was a good broadcaster in Atlantic Canada.

So goes your morning, so goes your day is an adage often heard in this business.  The Seaside FM morning show has had some vets and some aspiring beginners.

I could be mistaken by the order but I think I remember them all.  The first station morning man when they signed on with the permanent license five  years ago was veteran broadcaster Freeman Roach he last more than a year and opened the station.

The morning position for the most part is the only paid position, and it’s not a salary but rather an honourium.  It’s also the only position where a person (other than Harrett) is on the Seaside airwaves on a daily basis.

Roach was the first.  Matt Buffet who is good with computers was also a morning person.  He was followed by Melissa Keith who used that experience and is now working at CKEC New Glasgow.  She was followed by Johnny Gold of Country 101 fame.

When John was with the station I came on board for a few weeks as a summer news relief and was asked to stay on and do news on the Gold show.

Johnny took off for Florida in March and I filled in as morning host for the month and stayed in that capacity from April 2006 to September of last year.

There is no doubt, if you enjoy the more relaxing pace and the music, it is a good place to be.  I regrettably left due to other business matters but there is no doubt I enjoyed my stay with Seaside.  Let’s face it, my three passions are music, politics (current affairs) and sports and Seaside gave me the opportunity to do all three with music contest and a daily news feature called the “Newsmakers”.

Thom Leonard took over at the end of last September and his smooth, melodic style has been on the mornings since.

In fact Seaside FM has become a home to many talented and retired broadcasters who for the most part give of their time willingly, or volunteer their efforts.

Where to start?

Gail Rice drives a long way, from Kearney Lake Road, beating traffic to get to Seaside.  She has been putting in a minimum of eight hours a week since day one.


Eight hours is the time on air as her Tuesday and Thursday coffee club airs between 10-2.   When you add the time for travel and the time Riceroni spends on her show you get a much higher number.

She is also a very valuable person as she also does something very few announcers do and that is she is a good salesperson getting a great number of accounts for the station.

Ian MacPhee does a great show that airs Monday and Friday at 9am.

Bob Cooke does a shift or two a week.

Recently I featured a story on the Paul’s (Meagher and Kennedy) who have been with Seaside FM since day one.  Meagher is Metro’s Easy Listening master and Kennedy offers one of the most diversified shows on the weekends. He not only is a country music expert but knows a great deal on Atlantic artists and is better than the average on the 50-60’s and 70’s.


In fact every weekend he comes up with a gem or two that this market has not heard in 20-25 years.  An example would be, most people have heard of the Steve Lawrence song, Pretty Blue Eyes, but how many remember Walking Proud which was a top 20 hit.  Or, Jay and the Americans sang Cara Mia, but Kennedy features the likes of Sunday (and me) and This Magic Moment.

As I said, he knows pop music and those who loves this kind of music get a chance to hear it.

The veterans add a great deal to the sound of the station but in my opinion the real stars of this station are the volunteers who have joined the station and some have been around since the ‘special event’ days. Volunteers who like the idea of the station, its easy listening sound and really had no commercial experience make this place work.

There are too many to name but the fact is these people, spend from an hour to a day, week in, week out, month and year in and out and are for the most part incredibly consistent.

Before assuming the morning duties Thom Leonard did some coffee club work and has a soft Saturday night show that would make Tony Beech fans envious.

Up until recently Gord Heffler did a Monday evening show where he featured one particular artist. It’s something you won’t find on any of the 16 HRM radio possibilities on your dial.  Sometimes it’s hard getting one Patti Page song on a metro radio station; Heffler gave you her biggest hits.

Dave Abbott has volunteered hundreds of hours of his time and has donated/loaned equipment to the station.  In fact this man has done a lot of work for Seaside-FM.

As I said, I can’t go through everyone; it would take to long to write and for you to read.

You can get an idea of the people who give of their time on the stations website:  www.seasidefm.com

Not everything is peaches and cream as there have been some moments.  Moments when the station went of air, moments of interest when the station moved from the convent/pastor house last summer and the announcers had to broadcast from a hut for a few days, moments when some big piece of equipment blew, moments when the transmitter caused the station to go off air.

But they survived.

As for their biggest asset, I think it is two fold.

In addition to the volunteers who give of their time so graciously there’s the music and being live on air a great deal of the time.

The music:  Where does one start?  Most stations are predictable with their music which leads to being boring. Most stations carry a very small playlist (meaning the same songs are heard over and over and over again) leading to burnout and tuning elsewhere for new material.

Most radio station operate on a playlist of several hundred.  Seaside FM has a playlist of several thousand! They can pick from big band, to ballads, to today’s artists like Matt Dusk and Michael Buble to Dean Martin, to Tony and Ricky (Nelson) and who else, Elvis.

I am convinced had I stayed at the station I could have gone YEARS without playing the same song, there is that much of a selection.

But the most amazing aspect is Seaside FM is they have live announcers a great deal of the time. In fact I would bet there is more ‘live programming;’ on 94.7 then any other station in the market.

They are live during the morning show, the coffee club is done live and so is the Drive home, and the rolling home show.  Add to that mix is the fact most evenings between 6-10 pm has a live body that you can call and talk. And they take request.

On weekends there’s hardly a station that is live but Seaside FM is.  Wally B starts Saturday. He is another very dedicated volunteer. I like his energy and enthusiasm but please, s l o w d o w n, (thank you).

Oldie but goodies Frank Cameron and Paul Kennedy handle Saturday afternoon and as mentioned Thom Leonard does Saturday night. Again, all of these guys do it live and in living colour.

Sunday has live programming the afternoon with Kennedy and Dave Abbott.  Many times they are the only station that can give you a sports score and a traffic report. 

Many moons ago radio used to be local, live and immediate.  All stations are local and live in the early mornings but once noon comes many are in ‘auto pilot mode’.

Live is not heard on local radio especially after 5pm and weekends…but it is on Seaside.

My biggest beef with the station over the years, and that is because I choose to listen, and that is the weak signal that a 50-watt station located miles from downtown HRM has.

As pleasant as this station is there are many ‘deadspots’ and for many this station is hard to get in homes, apartments and shopping centers.  However that may change later this year as the station has applied for a power increase.

I for one hope they get it.

Happy Birthday guys, save me a piece of cake

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