At midnight tonight the clock will stand still. And the song will begin to play once more. A new year and a new era will begin.

At midnight, as November 14, 1975, became November 15, Joni Mitchell’s “You Turn Me On I’m A Radio” became the first song broadcast on radio station CKCU-FM. It has played at the same time every year since. They station, and I suppose that song, changed my life.

CKCU is a campus/community station, the first one in Ottawa. Less than two years after it began I walked in and asked about volunteering possibilities. It was the beginning of a love affair with radio that has defined much of my last 50 years.

This weekend the staff and volunteers who have made up the station over the decades are coming together to celebrate. I’m told mine is one of 902 names on the mailing list. I’m sure the are others no longer in the database, and I can think of a few of my peers who have already died.

I had always loved radio as a listener, but CKCU taught me how to love it from a different angle. It led me to a career that lasted on and off for more than 40 years. Outside of the church, CKCU is the institution that has had the biggest effect on my life. Let me mention some of the highlights.

When I applied to an elite journalism school program that I was not qualified for, my admission was immediately accepted. The director of the program had served with me on CKCU’s Broadcast Policy Board. He knew I would be successful in the program, and in a journalism career.

CKCU gave me the opportunity to broadcast what back then we called Jesus Music. The show I started in 1979, Song For You, was the foundation which CHRI, Canada’s first Christian radio station was built.

I was there for the launch of CHRI in 1997 (having appeared at the CRTC hearings that led to the licensing of Christian stations) and a year later I was asked to come back to Ottawa to join the station as News Director, Music Director and show host. That there are now dozens of Christian radio stations in Canada is directly traceable to Song For You

Even bigger though, I met my wife at a concert I would probably not have attended if it wasn’t “work.” That was a life changer.

My other jobs in radio, would not have happened if not for my work at CKCU. In each case there was a former CKCU volunteer involved in the hiring decision

So tonight I will be catching up with some old friends, and maybe making new ones. When midnight hits and Joni starts to sing, I will be singing along. I can’t imagine what my life would have been like without the place.