Welcome to JJ-365 Salutes. Over 2018 we pay tribute daily to one of “The Good Ones.” Today we are shining the light on Paul Ferguson.

When I went out on my own with JJIMS INC., outside of a one year Consulting contract with CORUS, my first cllent was 365'er John Sherratt in Belleville (thank you John!). As a talent coach John brought me in to work with and coach the team. Paul Ferguson and I started working together right off the bat and we continue to do so.

I hadn't met him before this but immediately I found a broadcaster who genuinely loves where he is working and who he is working for, loves the business and loves, loves, loves to learn. The man is a sponge and is always looking to pick up more. We have a lot of fun strategizing and dreaming up shenanigans, something we both love to do. He always has a smile, is upbeat, engaged and not afraid to try new things.

‘Ferg’ as he is called (it's impossible to be in broadcasting and not pick up a nickname or two along the way), always had a fascination with how radio worked. Not necessarily how it worked technically, but when he was very young he says: "I believed that when you heard a song on the radio, that the artist or the band was right there in the studio! And when they were done, the next one came in! Now that I think back on it, how cool would that have been?!”

That station he grew up listening to was 1450 CHUC in Cobourg. In fact, he could see the lights on their transmitter tower from his house.

Some of his fondest memories growing up would be waking up each day and being able to hear CHUC on the radio downstairs. Over the Christmas season, he’d hear guys like Scott Hunter and Paul Laing phoning Santa Claus. The phone line while making the connection was always crackly for effect, and he’d read the kid’s letters on the air which he says sounded magical! Then, on weekends, or in the summer, Paul would ride his bike all afternoon, just north of Cobourg, in Baltimore Ontario, listening to Blue Jays baseball. In fact, he could take you to the spot where he was riding even still, when he listened to Jesse Barfield hit his 30th home run of the 1986 season for the Jays! (If you know Ferg you know he has a steel trap for those kinds of details.)

Sure, they got Toronto radio, and they had the red, black and white, “1050 CHUM” sticker in the window of their station wagon, but CHUC was a huge part of anyone’s life who grew up in that time in that community.

It might be a bit odd for a young lad in Canada, but he grew up a much bigger baseball fan than a hockey fan. He loves hockey for sure, but baseball, and the Toronto Blue Jays, were a true passion for him. He knew he’d never play big league ball, and that was OK, but when he was still pretty young, he thought he could maybe do what that guy in the stadium was doing over the speakers? He’d walk around the house, making his family crazy, mimicking Murray Eldon, the Public Address announcer from Exhibition Stadium.

When in high school, the librarian, Mrs. Casserley had once again asked him to keep his voice down while others were trying to work. Once she had made her point, and she had calmed down a bit, she mentioned that Paul ‘had a nice voice’, and should think about being on the radio someday. That’s where the seed was planted. He supposes it was just a lucky alignment of the stars as it also turned out that his school chum Greg Conway, was the son of CHUC owner Don Conway.

Paul entered the Loyalist College’s Radio Broadcasting program in the fall of 1993, quite by accident! His original intention was to pursue sports broadcasting. He saw Radio Broadcasting in the course guide and assumed that’s what he needed to take.

Once he got into the program, he realized he might have actually caught a lucky bounce and loved it. And early on in first year, he had his first blessing in disguise appear, in the form of a 60% mark on a production assignment which scared him. He thought he might be going to be in the wrong direction and part of that percentage of people who don’t make it through the program. And there was no way he was going to do that to his Mom. From that moment forward, he treated every assignment like it was make or break.

Except one! The comprehensive market report. They had to gather a bunch of information about a radio market and create a report. The idea was to force them to make contacts somewhere. He dragged his feet on that one and found himself up against the gun. Luckily, he had someone on the inside, being his buddy’s old man, Don Conway! He phoned Mr. Conway and asked if Don could fax him all this information for an assignment. Don, knowing Paul was cutting corners said, “Nope, but if you want to come on down here, I’d be happy to give you everything you need.” And Don did take the time to explain what it all meant, and Paul’s never forgotten that.

Then Don asked him what his plan was? Paul said he was going to finish 2nd year, then try to find a job. Don said, “You’re gonna intern here, right?” “Sure.” Internship secured!

Then he said, “Why don’t you send me a tape. I’ll see what I can do for you.”

He had Paul back to meet with their Assignment Editor in the newsroom, John Russell. He then realized that he was being spoken to about a part-time job...in the newsroom! He told John that, in no way, did his program at Loyalist qualify him to work in their newsroom. He said, “That’s OK. We’ll train you as you go.”

That was December 10, 1994 and volia, he had a gig (Ferg with his steel trap mind could probably tell you what minute he started-:). After the Christmas break, he attended his first staff meeting and two weeks later he was on the air being paid for the very first time reading the 7A news on a Saturday morning on 1450 CHUC, the station that he grew up listening to.

That April, during his internship, a key event in his career took place. Paul Laing left CHUC to become to PD/Morning Host at Belleville, ON’s, “OJ 95.5 FM”. Don Martin would swing from PM Drive Host/MD to fill Lainger’s roll. Now someone was needed to fill PM Drive. A search was done, and no candidate blew the management team away.

Lucky Bounce Alert #1! The decision was made to split the duties of the job amongst two of part-timers, himself, and Wes Nickerson. Rather than doing call-out research on his internship like the other two students, he was doing PM drive and helping with music. And that arrangement continued through the summer, until another search was done for a full-time solution that fall. A cat with a huge set of pipes guy named Matt Miller was hired and Ferg was now back to part-time hours. Now what? He had graduated from Loyalist, and things were pretty cool so far, but he had to figure out a legitimate plan.

Lucky Bounce Alert #2! September of 1995, he got a call from Paul Laing who needed a PM Drive host at OJ 95.5 FM in Belleville, ON. Paul hired Paul and off to Belleville he went, to replace Joey Martin, who we’ve unfortunately since lost (RIP Joey).

As for CHUC in Cobourg Paul says he learned a ton: “I got to do a bit of everything. And to this day, I believe I owe everything I have in this business to the opportunities that Don Conway created for me.”

This PM Drive job in Belle-Vegas was a part-time job itself, but it was a step forward. The staff was great. Greg Southorn was the GM/Sales Manager and one of the things he’ll always appreciate about Greg, was that when ratings came in, he would sit down with him, show him the data, and take the time to explain what it all meant. Some of his earliest memories in that position are of the late Marc Chambers, who also had enormous pipes, being so kind with him. He wished he’d had more time to bend his ear. Great teammates like Lainger, Walter Reid, Jim Carr, Kathy Dalgleish, Nikki Robinson, Shawn Patriquin, and Paul Martin made those early times so much fun, despite some of the challenges along the way.

Funny how some of the forks in the road affect your career path. In 1996, he was offered the chance to join the sales team, which was a full-time position. He was really stuck on what to do. He needed a full-time gig, so right away, he said, “yes”. But his gut told him this wasn’t quite right for him. Not at that point anyway. So, he went to Lainger and told him his honest feelings about it all.

Lucky Bounce #3! Valerie Hunter, who was doing music and midday's decided to leave! And Lainger offered him the chance to become Music Director and this meant full time work.

We all know things can change in this business, and by the summer of 1997, the deck had been shuffled a couple of times, and Paul was offered the chance to become the morning guy on OJ 95.5 FM.

Sure he was young, at 22 and change, but he figured he was ready. He joined Nancy Hunt, who was already a part of the show. Says Paul about Nancy: “She is immensely talented, and an absolute music lover. In fact, I appreciate her passion for music even more now than I did then.” After Nancy moved on, Laura McGugan joined the show. Laura had a very keen understanding of what it meant to be a huge figure in the community, and she owned it. They hosted, “Ferg & Magoo” on OJ 95.5 FM for a couple of years, something that he fondly looks back at.

That period in time saw a new sales rep join the team. In late 1998, a young and single Vicki Bristow interviewed for a junior sales job. Greg Southorn conducted the interview, then gave her the tour of the operation, and along the way, introduced her to Paul. After she left, Paul tore into Greg’s office, and insisted that she was the right person for the job. How did her interview go? He had no idea! He didn’t care how the interview went! He turned out to be right about her skills but had his own interests in mind. More on her later.

He’s glad he did that morning thing, otherwise, he’d have always wondered. But by the summer of 2000, he knew that it wasn’t really for him. So, he went to Mark Philbin, who was the PD at the time, and in the summer of 2000, the two of them swapped roles on-air. Ferg was back to PM Drive, and was able to focus more time on a greater passion, which was music, and music scheduling. And Mark was a morning guy again, waking up Belleville with his magic which he is still doing today.

By early-to-mid 2002, a very cool opportunity popped up. Back in Cobourg, as Don Conway and Pineridge Broadcasting had been approved to launch CSKG-FM, which would become STAR 93.3. Paul was offered the chance to be a part of the team to do it.

This was at a time when 365’er John Sherratt had just acquired the Belleville operation, and was set to take over on Labour Day. Paul’s gut told him this change in ownership would turn out to be a very good thing but was still a bit torn.

Remember that Bristow girl that was mentioned earlier? The junior sales rep? She would become Vicki Bristow FERGUSON! Sometimes sales people are the easiest to sell. Says Paul, “She actually bought into my bul****t, and on September of 2002, we were getting married. And the Belleville area had now become my home."

It was exciting to think about being involved in the launch of a new station, but in the end all factors lined up with staying put and Ferg made that very tough call to Mr. Conway, the man that got him started. He says he would have liked to have worked with Don and great talent like Joel Scott and York Bell-Smith in that building.

Where he was there were lots of exciting things on the way. Under the ownership and leadership of the John Sherratt and the Sherratt family, OJ 95.5 FM underwent a change in format, getting branded as, “Classic HITS 95.5”. This was instantly successful, and it was a ton of fun to be a part of that, both on air, and from the standpoint of MD. Some terrific talent was a part of the team, including Mark Philbin, and 365’ers Kathleen Rankine and Paul Martin.

In August 2008, Darren MacPherson, the PM Drive host on their country station, Cool 100, left the company and Paul was presented the opportunity of either maintaining his position, or making the leap into the country universe!

At that stage of his career, the choice was pretty easy he says as he was ready for a new format, and new challenges. He was 'in' and he knew if he was going in, he had to be ALL IN: “I knew from already serving as the APD for Cool 100 that you can’t fake it. Country listeners know.”

Paul is equally proud of his two stations. Working with the HITS 95.5FM side and moving into Country Radio changed his life and career. The country music format as it does, gives one some of his most memorable of experiences. The Country Music industry is up for anything. Like how about Paul singing the hook line of, “I Like It, I Love It” on stage WITH Tim McGraw at the Molson Amphitheatre in 2014! If he lives to be 100, he’ll have a hard time believing that actually happened he says.

And the friendships he’s made within the music business are some of the most valued treasures of his entire career. These folks have become great friends, and great partners of their radio stations.

With Cool 100, Paul has had the honour of being nominated for Canadian Country Music Association, “Music Director of the Year – Medium or Small Market” each year since 2013 and has won the award for the last 5 consecutive years. As PD of Cool 100, he’s privileged to lead a team that’s won the Canadian Country Music Association, “Radio Station of the Year – Medium or Small Market” in both 2017 and 2018. Ferg was also nominated by Loyalist College for the 2017 Ontario Premier’s Award for excellence in his chosen field.

Let’s not forget that Paul is the Program Director and Music Director of both 955 Hits FM and Cool 100, and is also the PM Drive performer on Cool. This is one busy cat who on top of all this serves the community is many different ways. 

He has sat as an elected Director for the Canadian Country Music Association since 2016. Locally he is a proud Director of the Trenton Memorial Hospital Foundation, and has worked with many charities and organizations including Operation Red Nose, the VON (Victorian Order of Nurses), the YMCA Strong Kids Campaign, Wounded Warriors Canada, the MFRC (Military Family Resource Centre), and Hospice Quinte amongst others. The driver of this service, for him he says, "is not purely because it’s what we do in this business, it’s so that my kids can see me doing the right thing. And hopefully they’ll understand that when you have a platform to help and to make a difference, you do it.”

Paul sums up: “Without a group of incredible influences and mentors, I wouldn’t likely have survived and thrived. People like Don Conway, Jim JJ Johnston, Paul Laing, Barry Stewart, Martha Sherratt, and 365'ers John Sherratt, Fred Sherratt, John Henderson, and Steve Bolton. 

And then there’s my Mom and Dad. When I said that radio was the road I wanted to travel, at no point did I have less than their full support. Never was I told to take, ‘a real course, and get a real job!’ Radio is a road filled with hard work. It’s hard on us, hard on our families but can be so rewarding if we let it.

In the beginning all I ever wanted to do in radio was to survive long enough, so that my kids would be old enough to remember their Dad on the radio. Molly is nearly 15, and Colin is 11. So, I made it and making it. And if this all came to an end for me tomorrow, I’d miss it terribly.”

I used to think that everyone should be in a major market and I didn't totally understand why people stayed in smaller markets? As I got a little wiser I realized that overall their quality of life was probably much better than mine! I always respect those that put their families at number one, and that of course is a big factor in staying put.

Ferg is a world-class talent whose family and terrific bosses John and Martha Sherratt make it important for him to keep doing his magic in Belleville. That is a very tidy and successful organization they are all working at with their two stations combining again in the latest Numeris Ratings results, to lead the all others in the important 25-54 demographic.

Smart, fun, funny, boundless energy, talented, quick, creative, a people person and leader and family man. Keep it going Ferg. Atta be!

Thank you, Paul Ferguson being one of “The Good Ones”. Feel free to like and share Paul’s positive story. Who is the subject of tomorrow’s JJ-365 Salutes? As they say, stay tuned.

Jim JJ Johnston is the CEO, President and Chief Programmer/Talent/Content Coach for JJIMS INC. and works with talent in many different industries worldwide. He can be reached at JJ-IMS.COM.