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Vol. 3 Edition 13
Brooks hangs up his headphones
THURSDAY, APRIL 16, 2015
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Celebrating life
Radio jock retires after 44 years on air
By Bruce Corcoran bruce@chathamvoice.com
One of the most familiar voices in Chatham-Kent went silent Friday as veteran local broadcaster George Brooks walked away from the radio booth. Brooks retired after 44 years in the business, the last 39 of which were spent in his hometown of Chatham. Brooks, who turns 65 in June, said he was hoping to retire at some point this year, but an opportunity came up sooner than expected. He said he received the offer April 8, two days before stepping out the door. The Chatham Voice caught up with Brooks in the broadcast booth of CKUE on Friday before his last on-air shift. He looked over at one wall, commenting on a rack of CDs, now viewed as an antiquated system of music storage. Radio stations today play music stored on computers, which is a long way from where Brooks started.
His career began in 1971 at CKAR 630, a country station that happens to be at the same point on the AM dial as Chatham’s CFCO. “I was spinning 45 RPM singles and 33-1/3 RPM albums then,” George recalled. Even during his evening shifts at the Central Ontario station, his hometown signal would still reach out to him. “I would go off the air at 1 a.m. You’d hear CFCO waft in after that. It just goes a long way,” he said, citing the low point on the dial and the “skip” effect AM radio signals can experience at night. After a year and a half spinning country tunes late at night, Brooks shifted east to Peterborough, playing rock ’n’ roll for CHEX under a new name. “I was an evening rock jock. I was ‘Gary’ Brooks – they didn’t like ‘George’ – on Liftlock Rock,” he said. That gig lasted for about a year and a half.
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BEFORE
Sarah Schofield/Special to The Chatham Voice
Chantelle Shaw joined other cancer survivors on the catwalk in front of a full house during the dinner at the Celebrate Life Fashion Show held at Club Lentinas on April 8. The event, which has been running for almost two decades, was presented by Marie Anderson of Nina Marie’s Fashion Boutiques as a way to honour cancer survivors, and raise funds for the Canadian Cancer Society.
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