- Tell us about yourself.
I’m Ben MacMurchy, a former broadcaster of 20 years, now working freelance. I’m a native of Collingwood, and was raised in the Peterborough area. Both of my parents (and members of their families) worked in the newspaper business. After my 2003 graduation from the radio broadcasting program at Belleville’s Loyalist College, I worked at radio stations in Belleville and Cornwall before moving to Renfrew in 2004, to help launch CHMY-FM “96.1 myFM”, the first and flagship station of Renfrew’s own My Broadcasting Corporation. My wife Shannon, who I first met in ’05 and married in 2012, is an elementary schoolteacher. - Who were some of your favourite broadcasters growing up?
Having been raised within the coverage areas of many major Toronto-area radio stations, I often heard some of the most popular jocks and newsies in the GTA. Two of my favourite Toronto jocks were CHUM FM’s Roger Ashby, and Tarzan Dan Freeman of CFTR; on the news side, I was a fan of Dick Smyth (formerly of CHUM) and Evelyn Macko, who worked together at CFTR into the early days of “680 News”. We also picked up a lot of radio & TV from Barrie, and one announcer I enjoyed hearing was the late Bill Cosworth, formerly of Rock 95 and CHAY FM, and later the first imaging voice for the myFM stations. - When were you first heard on radio?
November 1997, on CKLY Lindsay, just months before the station converted to FM. It was “Take Our Kids To Work Day”, even with that massive province-wide teachers strike happening, and although my mom had passed earlier that year and my dad was unemployed, he had contacts, and one of them allowed me to shadow him on his morning news shift at CKLY. It was Don Blakely, who was also in real estate at the time and was my parents’ buying agent when they bought our family home in the early ’90s. - Did anything on radio or TV freak you out as a child?
Yes, and I laugh about it these days. One was the National Research Council time signal broadcasts on CBC Radio One, at 12:59-1:00pm Eastern. A very young me called the broadcasts “the boop”, for the 800 Hz tones on the second, but it was the “beginning of the long dash, following ten seconds of silence” that really got me. Another was, at the end of many old TV shows on CKVR Barrie, Viacom’s “V Of Doom” closing logo… freakiest thing on TV in the ’70s and ’80s, and I remember running out of the room at the end of shows like “I Love Lucy” or “The Andy Griffith Show”, both of which aired on ‘VR for many years, hoping to avoid the V Of Doom. - Do you have any television experience?
Sure do! First visited a television station, CKVR, in 1993 or ’94, and in the 2000s, was a volunteer camera operator and program host for Cogeco Cable in Belleville and Renfrew. - Did you ever have any “guilty pleasures” in radio or TV?
For a good chunk of my high school years, I listened to the (heavily edited) Howard Stern Show on Toronto’s Q107. Stern’s American affiliates near the border, such as Rochester’s WNVE and Buffalo’s WBUF, were out of reach. - What experience do you have in speaking outside of a broadcast setting?
For several years in the 2000s, I was a member of Renfrew’s Toastmasters club, and achieved Competent Communicator status; Toastmasters training and mentoring helped a lot with my ability to speak in front of many others. It also made a difference when I was involved with the TAAMI (Talking About Addictions and Mental Illness) program through the Pembroke Regional Hospital, speaking with area high school students about my first-hand experiences living with depression and anxiety. - What’s with the wheelchair?
I have been a part-time wheelchair user since fall 2021, due to symptoms of Myalgic Encephalomyelitis (ME), a neurological illness which, among other things, affects my mobility. I am still partly ambulatory – I can walk short distances, and I don’t use my ‘chair at home. I currently use an ultra-lightweight manual wheelchair with power-assist wheels that make it easier to use, while preventing symptom flares. - If you could get one “do-over” in your broadcasting career, what would it be?
To not be so much of a “yes man”, and to actually delegate and say “no” when necessary. - Coke or Pepsi?
Coke.
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