The story of how I got into radio is one of my favourites because it really reinforces my firm belief in that “where there’s a will there’s a way.” And let’s be clear it didn’t start out as a desire to be an ‘On-Air Personality.’ No, that part came later. My original“will” was just to have my music played on Country radio stations across Canada. At that time the only way I could see in – past the major label artists and chart tracking stations – was to make personal contact with the Music Directors and Program Directors at each EVERY country radio station in the nation. That way when it came time to program Canadian content with Shania Twain, Michelle Wright and Terri Clark having already locked down the first 3 female can-con slots – they’d at least know the name Stephanie Beaumont when they were looking to fill in the balance of their playlist. It was then I made it my mission to do EVERYTHING I could to get on their radar. I sent handmade Christmas cards during the holidays, I mailed handwritten post cards while I was entertaining the troops over seas, and I visited EVERY Country Radio station across Canada (…that would have me.)
You see by visiting all those radio stations I had a better chance of not only meeting the people in charge of what music goes on air but also sitting in the studio with the folks that play the music too! In fact in some of the smaller market stations those people were one in the same – so our meeting to talk about my music actually happened ON-AIR before they played my songs! Ya gotta love that. I sat in with #1 Morning Shows in major markets and afternoon drive shows at the only station around and truth be told I had a blast at at every stop. Meeting great people, having them spin my tunes AND getting a chance to be live on the radio – well that’s a WIN! WIN! WIN!
As for my first official gig in radio – well all the credit for that goes to Mr. John Shields who hired me to work on Vancouver Island as a co-host on the Country Music station in Victoria. It was awesome and EARLY but thanks to my co-host/producer/operator Peter Schaad and an inordinate amount of coffee it was just the beginning.
My next station station stop was CISN Country in Edmonton where I was hired by James Stuart to host their midday show. This was a huge move for me since I would be on my own in the control room doing it all. VERY MUCH LIKE A LIGHTHOUSE KEEPER! I’ll have more on that analogy later. It was only about 2 weeks after that first go of it when I was asked to join the morning show program as well. So that meant being LIVE on the radio from 6am to 9am as part of the Morning Crew with Bruce Bowie and Sean Burke, then a smidge of a break before starting the midday shift which ran between 10am and 2pm. I was ‘all in’ then and what a wonderful opportunity to learn a ton from the best kind of team. Grateful to everyone at that Corus station, with a special shout out to Christ Scheetz who always went above and beyond to guide my broadcast ship.
It was during my contract at CISNFM that I was hired on by the local TV station to anchor their entertainment (you can read more about that here) and for about 5 months my broadcast day went from 6am to 11:30pm, but I was much younger then and sleep seemed like more of a “nice to have” than a necessity. I am wiser now… and a bit more rested.
After that my broadcast career continued with both television and radio and how lucky am I to have had all of these incredible opportunities, with stations across the country including here in Nova Scotia at both FX101.9 in Halifax and my current gig at CoveFM. These days you can tune in to find me hosting two totally fun shows SEA AND BE SCENE… And HEARD a true chat show featuring amazing EAST COAST folks and Kindred Spirits, and SOUNDTRACK your one hour Red Carpet Ride though the marvellous music of movies and television. Oh and every Christmas I’m joined by my favourite co-host as we celebrate the holidays on ‘Tis The SEAson with The Sidekick which has just been greenlit for SEAson #7 to run from November 29th through to December 24th.
To stream or download podcast versions of #SeaAndBeSceneAndHeard episodes click here.
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