CKGL o@ca.on.york_county.toronto.globe_and_mail 2006-04-24 published
Frank MURRAY,
Radio
Executive (1918-2006)
Small-town Ontario broadcaster made his mark on the national
scene
By Danny GALLAGHER,
Special to The Globe and Mail, Page S11
Toronto -- From the air to the radio station, sound was the big
noise in Frank
MURRAY's life. He was a long-time friend of former
Canadian prime minister Pierre Trudeau, covered Winston Churchill's
funeral as a radio reporter and helped shape broadcasting in
the Ontario venues of Belleville, Trenton and Bancroft.
The son of a professor of music at Trinity College in Dublin,
Ireland, he grew up to join an insurance company as a sales executive
but headed for Northern Ireland soon after the Second World War
began to enlist in the Royal Air Force.
He spent six years as a flight lieutenant and Coastal Command
air gunner, one of very few commissioned officers to serve in
that role. In 1943-44, he was engaged in a special mission that
altered his life dramatically: He was sent to an air force base
in Picton, Ontario, to help prepare air crews for warfare as
part of the vast British Commonwealth Air Training Plan. It was
a large, busy base and
on Saturday nights, busloads of young,
local women arrived at the officers' mess to attend dances and
other social functions. One night Mr.
MURRAY met Isobel
STEWARD/STEWART/STUART
of Belleville, Ontario, and one thing led to another. They were
married March 11, 1944, at the base and soon afterward he returned
to the war in Europe. Isobel followed later on a ship full of
war brides.
"As it was war time, they had no idea of when they would dock
in England but Dad flew Coastal Command and kept an eye on the
ship," daughter Pam
MURRAY said. "He was the first person to
greet the boatload of wives and kids and somehow managed to get
some flowers. Mom and Dad left on a train for Northern Ireland
the next day. Mom was there for the better part of a year when
she found out she was pregnant with me and came back to Belleville."
When the war ended, Mr.
MURRAY joined his wife in Belleville
and worked at odd jobs before landing a sales position at
CJBQ
Radio. By 1959, he had been made general manager. Over the years,
he took CJBQ from a 500-watt medium enterprise to a four-station
network that included
CKGL-FM in Belleville,
CJTN in Trenton
and CJNH in Bancroft.
Veteran broadcaster Dave
SOVEREIGN still remembers the day Mr.
MURRAY
hired him. "I was a radio and television arts student at Ryerson
in Toronto and one day in 1960, Frank came from Belleville because
he wanted a summer student.
"There were seven people who auditioned for him and he chose
me. Then the following year, I was hired full-time as a newsman
and eventually became the news director. I worked 28 years for
Quinte Broadcasting."
While he worked mostly in management, Mr.
MURRAY would often
get behind the microphone or hit the road as a reporter. When
former British prime minister Winston Churchill died in 1965,
Mr. MURRAY attended the funeral and sent live reports back to
the station.
"That was pretty unique and big news in Belleville to have someone
like Frank travelling all the way to London to cover the funeral,"
Mr. SOVEREIGN said. In much the same way, Mr.
MURRAY also reported
the royal wedding of Princes Charles and Lady Diana
Closer to home, he twice put crews together and took them to
Montreal to cover Expo 67 and the 1976 Olympics, and once caused
a stir by accompanying external affairs minister Mitchell Sharp
on an around-the-world visit. He pulled off a media coup by doing
a live show with Mr. Sharp from the back of the plane. "We got
scooped by a guy from a small station in Belleville," said CTV
reporter Mike Duffy.
Mr. MURRAY also stole a march or two as a broadcast executive.
In the early years of cable television, he acquired an operating
licence for Quinte Cable Systems, which today claims 80 per cent
penetration of its market. At the time, it was second such licence
issued in Canada.
"Frank got that licence for only $25," recalls Don
LAWRIE, formerly
a senior executive with Thomson Newspapers, which went into a
partnership on the project. "At first, Ken Thomson, the owner,
didn't want to get involved because he thought the government
would think we would have a monopoly. Finally, I suggested to
Ken that we approach Frank and the Morton family about being
a local partner."
Frank MURRAY also had a keen interest in local education. He
was instrumental in setting up a radio-broadcasting program at
Belleville's Loyalist College and founded and directed radio-club
programs in Belleville and Trenton high schools.
For all that, his influence extended well beyond the region.
He sat on the board of directors of the Canadian Association
of Broadcasters and was president of the Central Canada Broadcasters
Association, both considered unusual achievements for a small-market
radio executive. "Usually it was the big guys,
CHUM, etc., who
sat on those boards," Pam
MURRAY said.
On the political front, Mr.
MURRAY engaged in a lifelong relationship
with Mr. Trudeau and the Liberal party. At a fundraiser in Belleville
in the 1970s, Mr. Trudeau asked him to run as a candidate in
a federal riding. He declined the invitation but the two men
remained Friends. When Mr. Trudeau died, Mr.
MURRAY attended
his funeral.
Frank MURRAY was born on February 13, 1918 in Dublin, Ireland.
He died January 24, 2006, in Belleville, Ontario of natural causes.
He was 87. He is survived by his daughter Pam and sons Kevin
and Stewart. He was predeceased by his wife Isobel.
C... Names CK... Names CKG... Names Welcome Home
CKGL - All Categories in OGSPI