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SASKATOONEXPRESS - March 14-20, 2016 - Page 1
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Volume 14, Issue 10, Week of March 14, 2016
Saskatoonʼs REAL Community Newspaper
Zoo Foundation has new leader Dawn Woroniuk has a diverse background
Dawn Woroniuk won six Canadian country music awards during her 25 years at Saskatoon Media Group (Photo by Sandy Hutchinson) Cam Hutchinson Saskatoon Express awn Woroniuk is the new executive director of the Saskatoon Zoo Foundation, but that is only the half of it. Woroniuk is also the president of Sask. Music, will be the chair of the Canadian Country Music Awards when they return to the city in 2017 and is doing the marketing for singer Johnny Reid’s current crossCanada tour. And how’s this for cool? Woroniuk gave Reid a push to write the song, Thank
D
DC031425 Darlene
You. She and Reid go back to the days when he was more Johnny Who than Johnny Star. Back then, Woroniuk was rising through the ranks at Saskatoon Media Group and Reid was rising up the charts. She started as a receptionist and left last summer, 25 years later, with a bunch of national awards as a music director. One of the special days in her broadcasting career came in 1995. At 6 a.m. one morning, CJWW moved from 750 on the dial to 600. An hour later, Hot 93 went on the air. The station had a special in-studio guest that morning. Her
boss wanted Woroniuk to bring in Michelle Wright, the top female Canadian country music artist at the time. With Wright not available, Woroniuk had an idea. She thought a new station should have a new artist. “So I walked into his office and said, ‘I got Shania Twain; that newcomer Shania Twain.’ “And you kind of know what happened to Shania Twain. She had just released her first song to radio — Whose Bed Have Your Boots Been Under.” Through her work at the station, Woroniuk was able to support and promote the
work of many artists, including Reid. “A lot of it had to do with our philosophy at the radio station. I was fortunate enough that my boss wasn’t a chart watcher. We could actually play music that fit our station, so there were a lot of Canadian artists we played before any other stations across Canada did. And Johnny Reid was one of them. “I really believed in him and supported him. I remember he was out for a promotion with us — it was Hot 93 still — and we gave away a trip to Vegas. (Continued on page 5)