Two Decades

It's hard to believe that the place I call home on Thursday nights is turning twenty years-old today. CJUM-FM, 101.5 on your FM dial in Winnipeg, officially went on the air at 6pm CT on this very day two decades ago, so this year will be a pretty big year in terms of achieving a milestone. There have been many changes throughout the years, but one thing that has been constant since they allowed me to speak on the radio as the host of The Hockey Show is Pledge-O-Rama, and it's probably a good idea to start thinking about that event as we enter September.

As you can see, ther ehave been various logos used over the years since I've been a part of the radio station, and each one has a special meaning based on its year of usage. There's the 15th anniversary logo at the very right when the station celebrated the anniversary of its founding five years ago. The logo second from the left is the one used on the UMFM app (available in the App Store or the Google Play Store). The third logo from the left shows our Manitoba roots and our attachment to the province. Next to that one is our "Faculty of Sound" logo that we playfully use as recognition for our contributions at the University of Manitoba campus. Next to the Faculty of Sound was last year's Pledge-O-Rama logo, and that brings you back to the 15th anniversary logo.

The Hockey Show, in its infancy, was a mere 30-minute show. Beans and I would come on, blab about hockey, and it would seem that we were done before we had even made a point or introduced our main topic. Thanks to a few changes to the shows before us, we were able to negotiate another half-hour to be added to our show as we moved to a full hour, and we've done some pretty fun excursions that have seen us participate in Hockey Day in Canada in Kenora, Ontario, see the Bruins Alumni play in Shilo, Manitoba, spend a day at the Sami Jo Small Hockey School, and a few other crazy outings.

We've run some fantastic contests with our annual Survivor: NHL Playoffs contest being a major highlight for Beans and I. The exit interviews are the best part, and hearing some of the funny, witty, well thought-out exit interviews that entrants have delivered over the years is some of the best radio for which we could ever wish. It's unscripted, it's real, and it's fantastic. We'll do another run for this year's NHL Playoffs, so make sure you're listening for your chance to enter!

Perhaps what I've enjoyed the most are the interviews we've done and the relationships we've developed over the years. Brandon Reid and Jessica Scott-Reid are always a favorite interview in the summer, and it's been an honour to watch both Brandon's career and Jessica's career take them to places where new friends and adventures have been found and shared with us. Women's hockey players like Fielding Montgomery, Melissa Wronzberg, Jetta Rackleff, Candice Styles, Toni Ross, Krista Patronick, and Mikayla Ogrodniczuk have given us some amazing chats, and former NHL players such as Ted Irvine, Theoren Fleury, Adam Graves, Colton Teubert, Josh Green, and Brian McGrattan were interviews I cherish due to these guys being my idols growing up.

There have been the guys from Letterkenny who have been more than generous with their time, and I owe them an infinite amount of gratitude for the great interviews they brought to the show. Dylan Playfair, Tyler Johnston, Nathan Dales, and Jared Keeso have delivered some of the best moments on the show, and I will forever be in their debts for their contributions. Some of the other people involved in TV and film we've been privileged to speak with include Barry Melrose and Adam Scorgie. We've had local radio celebrities Tom McGouran, Brody Jackson, and Samantha Stevens on the show, and we've been honoured to welcome ESPN's Paul Lukas and renowned artist Rob Ullman to the program in terms of covering all our media!

We try to keep up with the local scene, and we're proud to feature a lot of Manitoba talent on our show. Among the many Manitobans we've been proud to feature, we're always going to give up time on our show for the Bisons women's hockey team, your reigning U SPORTS National Champions. We've also been proud to have Janelle Kohanchuk, Sami Jo Small, Taylor Woods, Mark Taraschuk, Delayne Brian, Kristen Campbell, and Halli Krzyzaniak on the show as we try to feature as many great Manitoban players as we can because this province produces some incredible talent!

I guess what I'm saying is that The Hockey Show is just one show on this amazing station that features over 80 shows like this every week that touches all people, all communities, and all music tastes. Not every show will appeal to every person, and that's ok. Diversity and inclusion are two founding principles for any community, and the UMFM community - its hosts, its staff, its volunteers, and its listeners - make up one heckuva community over the last two decades of being on Winnipeg's airwaves.

This is one of the many reasons why Pledge-O-Rama - UMFM's annual funding drive - is so important to the station. Without the continued support of the community both within Winnipeg and outside the city's borders, shows like ours wouldn't have the freedom to venture to places like Kenora, Shilo, or down the street to Wayne Fleming Arena. Donations to the station have allowed us to embark on exciting projects such as replacing and upgrading our transmission tower from analog to digital broadcasting, enabling the station to buy mobile broadcasting units that allow us to broadcast almost anywhere without the need for satellite trucks or SUVs full of radio transmission equipment, and making key repairs and upgrades to the audio equipment based at the station.

The donation is tax deductible if you want to score yourself a sweet tax return or you can opt for the station-branded gear that we'll be giving away for your generous contribution. There are amounts we look for, but I'll be very honest in saying that UMFM doesn't waste a lot of money due to budgetary reasons, and we can stretch a $5 donation farther than most would believe. If you like what we do on The Hockey Show, please keep us in your thoughts when Pledge-O-Rama kicks off in October. We can't do what we do without your support!

Happy 20th anniversary, UMFM! Thanks for letting us blab about hockey on your airwaves, and let's hope that you'll still be around in another 20 years!

Until next time, keep your sticks on the ice!