College alumni Gord Wilson honoured on Nepean Wall of Fame for broadcast career
Gord Wilson, an Algonquin College alumni and radio announcer for the Ottawa Senators, has been recognized on the Nepean Wall of Fame.
After 30 years covering the Ottawa Senators as a broadcaster, Wilson has been recognized for his many years of hard work and dedication in radio.
“I feel very humbled and very honoured, I grew up in Nepean, and oddly enough, I worked there from the time I was 16 to 22 years old. The Sportsplex was the place where I was able to earn enough money to get myself into the broadcasting program at Algonquin,” said Wilson.
Dan Mellon, program co-ordinator of the radio broadcasting at Algonquin College, had the opportunity to interview Wilson an alumni when Mellon was a student in the program.
“He is a really nice guy and fun to talk to,” said Mellon.
At a young age, Wilson had a passion for hockey and would always listen to it on the radio in his bedroom at night.
“Starting at the age of 12, I fell in love with the medium itself as well as the radio,” said Wilson. “It was an awesome form of entertainment. It is always there and that was the start of the love affair between me and radio.”
Wilson’s first radio job was with CKOB in Renfrew, Ont. During his time at CKOB, he did many different jobs, such as selling, writing, and producing commercials.
While working at CKOB, Wilson decided to put together some demo tapes to give to CKBY in Ottawa, now known as the 101.1 FM country radio station.
“I brought a tape recorder in the booth with me and I was reading news, sports, weather and farm reports, it was about a 20 minute cast,” said Wilson. “Once the recording was done, I pressed stop and put the tape in an envelope with my resume and sent it off to CKBY, I then got a job in Ottawa and worked there for three years.”
In 1992, Wilson was working for CFRA as a part of the sports team and was the voice of sports in Ottawa. When the Ottawa Senators team was born, Wilson and his now broadcasting partner Dean Brown were both in the running for the broadcasting jobs available.
“We went to Montreal and took our tape recorders and broadcast games from Montreal. There would be exhibition games, regular season games and the Canadiens would be kind enough to let us in a broadcast booth,” said Wilson. “From there, we got hired with the radio to broadcast Senators games.”
Wilson and his partner put about eight to 10 hours into preparing for a Senators game. They pulled together game sheets, preparation sheets and depth charts with notes and statistics on each player from both teams.
Wilson said radio broadcasting students should take any opportunity that comes available.
“Be a sponge. Take in all the information you can get when you are a student, be prepared to do whatever it takes. Never go into any situation where you will say no, that’s not for me. Say yes to everything,” said Wilson.
