This episode is a little different. Over the weekend, a 22 people lost their lives in a mass murder spree that covered 100 kilometres in Nova Scotia. Monday morning, Q104 in Halifax and a number of Stingray radio stations came together to pivot programming towards the hearts of their listeners. To understand what it takes to make those changes, you need to understand the people affected. Nova Scotia has had more than its fair share of disasters in the last century, and radio has been there to weather every storm and see its listeners through.This is what radio does best.
In this episode, I shelve my original plan of talking about the 1,000,000th podcast to go into Apple Podcasts and react to the great radio I listened to on Monday on Q104 in Halifax, and 89.3 K-Rock in Kentville. We explore how connected Maritimers are to one another, using myself as an example having lived there for 5 years. There are about 2 degrees of separation in every relationship - or at least it feels that way. We also speak with Q104 program director Trevor Wallworth spoke to me about how he and senior management at Stingray, Steve Parsons and Steve Jones formulated a plan to get the Maritimers healing. Also Darrin Harvey who appeared on this podcast episode recently, shared parts of his show from Monday too.
Meet Some of the people in this episode.
Kerri Gaskin-Fowler went to Acadia University and founded Coverdale Counselling. She appears on my Facebook feed on a regular basis and shared some of her thoughts which found their way into this podcast episode. Kerri resides in Moncton, New Brunswick.
Here is the interview Darrin Harvey and Sue Smiley. This is all about grief and I thought it was important to put this into the episode because so much of what we are experiencing these days is grief. Whether it is the loss of a loved one, or the anxiousness of COVID-19, this is some of the best 4 minutes of therapy.
Trevor Wallward is the program director of Q104. He wrote me an email after the episode was produced and said:
"When I left the office on Friday night we had lined up our music and imaging for 4:20, National Weed Day. A few hours later the world turned upside down. I am blessed to work with some of the best in the country if not the world and I’m so great full we can come together and make a difference."