WhiStle Radio: a brief unofficial history inception – Jan, 2010

CIWS-FM is a Canadian radio station, which broadcasts a community radio format on 102.7 FM in Whitchurch-Stouffville, Ontario.

The station was founded by Jim Priebe, a Stouffville resident. Priebe started research for the station while studying Radio Broadcasting at Humber College. He developed the slogan “about people you know, by people you know” to reflect the local nature of the programming. Stephen Sword, who later became a Director, Membership Director and Vice-Chair, had independently come up with the name “whistle” as a play on the name of the municipality Whitchurch-Stouffville. With Sword’s permission, Priebe re-spelt whistle as “WhiStle” and branded the station WhiStle Radio.

Sword later organized a Guinness World Record event for “most number of people whistling in one venue”. The whistle off, as it came to be called, included 119 people and was held June 30, 2007 during Stouffville’s Strawberry Festival. The whistle off was the brainchild of Halvor Moorshead, an influential director on the WhiStle Radio board.

WhiStle Radio started as an internet station, webcasting on whistleradio.com. While at Humber, one of Priebe’s instructors was the late Marc Chambers, who was also a dee jay at 1050 CHUM. Chambers introduced Priebe to Paul Lico, who lived in Whitchurch-Stouffville and owned a broadcasting equipment company. When Lico learned of Priebe’s initiative to start a station with immediate plans to webcast local hockey, he donated several thousand dollars of equipment. Priebe asked one of his classmates, Ryan Fabro, self-nicknamed Fabs, to call live play-by-play of Stouffville Spirit OPJHL Junior A Hockey. Fabro started calling the play-by-play in October 2005. He was later joined by Jim LeMaitre, the station’s second announcer. They were soon joined by Daryl Macklem and Wayne Geen, who called the “away” games.

In the spring of 2005, Brian O’Sullivan, a Stouffville resident and musician, approached Priebe and offered to be a liason with Stouffville’s music community. O’Sullivan organized a concert fundraiser for the fledgling station, called The Stars of Stouffville. The event took place in February 2006. The funds raised were used to hire an engineer to perform the studies necessary for the radio broadcasting application. The musicians who played at the fundraiser included Grainne Ryan, Cris Cuddy, Marion Drexler, Justin Kerswill, Poor Tom (Wanda Stride and Susan Lukes), Carys Montgomery, Tom Pullin and Marcus Adrian.

During this time, in addition to Priebe and Lico, Lyons Asset Management, Barthau Jewellers (see also Whitchurch Stouffville Chamber of Commerce Lifetime Achievement Award), Edward Jones, Moorshead Publications, Skywords Traffic, Caught-In-Motion Equestrian Photography, The Lions Club of Stouffville and Robert and Friederika Bental became the station’s founding sponsors by donating at least $1,000. Jay Mowat, founder of Erin Radio also made a substantial donation and provided invaluable assistance in a number of different areas critical to the launch of the station.

In November 2006, WhiStle Radio was granted a licence by the CRTC ^[1] to operate as a low power community radio station. Robin Steckly and Lins O’Connor came forward with an offer of assistance to help Priebe organize a fundraising and promotional breakfast, called The Breaking News Breakfast. Approximately $500 was raised at the event, held at Sleepy Hollow Golf Club, but more importantly to the station, an offer of premises was made as a direct result of the event.

Guerin Barry, a professional whistler, came across the whistle radio website by accident, confusing it with Whistler, BC. He contacted Priebe suggesting a fundraiser. It soon became clear that WhiStle Radio was too far away. Barry did agree to do some pro bono stations ids for WhiStle Radio, in keeping with their name. Later, Priebe would send Barry the complete recordings of The Whistler Old Time Radio show as a thank you.

The station formally launched on March 17, 2008.^[2], after receiving a $15,000 Ontario Trillium Foundation Grant (a second successful Ontario Trillium application was submitted in November 2009.), materials from Schell Lumber, and technical assistance from Tom Richmond (founder of CJAI, Amherst Island Radio. The Town of Whitchurch-Stouffville made significant contributions in 2009 and again in 2010.Stouffville’s Boston Pizza (see also Whitchurch-Stouffville Chamber of Commerce Corporate Citizen award for 2010) helped with a fundraiser on several occasions, offered up their location for the WhiStle launch party and purchased substantial advertising to help the station. Sandy Mackenzie’s State Farm Insurance purchased significant advertising starting in 2008.

From the station’s launch to Priebe’s last day, in addition to Spirit Hockey, the programming schedule included Dave’s Jukebox (host Dave Booth), Howdy Neighbor Howdy (host Gary Tate), Asylum for your Soul (host Ken Cowle), Artists’ Corner, Vinyl Vault (host Gord Bibby), a feature by the Whitchurch-Stouffville Public Library, a local history show (host Stephen Sword on behalf of the Whitchurch-Stouffville Museum), The Art Studio (host Valeris Ashton), Dee Jay for A Day – a hour dedicated to those wanting to host a single show of their own design, Race Time Radio (host Joe Chisholm), Honky Tonk Outlaws (host Lloyd Welke), a weather report by Brenda Amelard, The Pub (Bill Perrie), Auto Talk, Edge of the Cliff (host Steve Cliff), The Village Pump, Swing with the Big Bands, live coverage of Al & Trudy Yetman’s jam at Cedar Beach Grill, Monday Night Blues (music chosen by Dave Booth), and a Children’s show by Children’s librarian Ann Houle. Micole Ongman did a series on health and recreation. The students at Whitchurch-Highlands Public School also produced and hosted a show titled The Howl Hour for a short time. The SOWNY Show, (Don Andrews and the late Craig Smith), and Rock of Ages (Steve and Marcello Sperandeo) aired through 2009. Priebe hosted Live to Five, and before that,  On The Air. Tara Donaghey took over as host of Live to Five.

Behind the scenes, Gary Burke provided invaluable technical support, making it possible for the station to accommodate the wide number of hosts that it does.

In January 2010, Jim Priebe announced his resignation as Chairman. A new board was elected at the Annual General Meeting in February 2010 .

WhiStle Radio was awarded the Hall of Fame award by the Whitchurch-Stouffville Chamber of Commerce in September 2010.

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