I Wanted To Get To Know Him More...

This weekend I was saddened to learn of the sudden death of Jim Leek, morning show host and music director at JOY1250 in Oakville.

I had only met him twice and had heard about him before that in only the most glowing of terms.  I had heard he loved God with a passion, loved Christian music, had a long tradition of supporting Christian radio.  I heard he had never married, had tragically lost a brother who was a fire fighter and that, Jim was steadfast in his faith.  A true example of a godly man.  I am sad that he died at such a young age, 58.

I so much wanted to get to know him a bit more.

That got me thinking...

There have been a few people in my radio life like that, that I have wanted to meet and dig deeper into their knowledge.

Back when I was starting out in, North Bay, I knew of a guy named, Dean Belanger.  He was the solo morning show guy at CKAT and I heard he was a dedicated Christian guy.  I thought, how can a Christian play country music?  How can he keep his spiritual life together in that atmosphere?  He did it though, and had the respect of his peers.  Then I heard he wrote a short movie script and actually filmed it!   Wow!  Then, someone told me he was a trekkie!  I thought, if I ever meet this guy, I will pick his brain like crazy!

Me and Dean Belanger in North Bay.  We are using our "happy" faces.

Dean, gearing up for a Sharathon!

Dean is now the station manager at KFM, the Christian station in North Bay and has helped it grow so much that they are about to open a new location that is three times the size of the former studio!  I have had the honor of working with, Dean and learning from his many years in the biz.  We still keep in contact and the education continues.

Another guy I wondered if I would ever meet is Scott Jackson, station manager of LIFE 100.3. 
I heard of him while working in Sudbury.  I started reading his blog and was impressed with his straight forward, no-nonsense writing style.  He was not afraid to be open and honest about his struggles in life.  Through the blog I also found out that he was a radio guy because he loved it.  He had been in the field since very young, and had become a Christian and had been turned on to Christian music.  He shared the story of starting LIFE in, Barrie and I could tell that he carried they same drive from his career in secular radio, over into Christian radio.

LIFE is never dull with Scott and Janice!

I started tuning in to LIFE online.  Everything sounded so...good!  Wow!  This guy knows his stuff!  Would I ever get to meet this dude?  Would there ever be a chance to actually let any of the excellence rub off?

I did eventually get to meet, Scott and his wife, Janice.  We got to tour the studio.  We got to have pizza together!  Fun!

Now I "work" at LIFE.  Now, there is a whole team to learn from!  Maybe they can learn something from me and my experience to.

Back to, Jim.

Jim was one of those guys I was looking forward to sharing radio experience with.

We met briefly at, Scott's place on two occasions and we were Facebook friends.  I had planned to visit JOY in the future and get him to show me around.

Top left corner, me chatting with Jim Leek and Steve Jones. PD at LIFE.

Now he is gone from this world and into the next.

Here is the lesson I guess;  for whatever reasons, people die before what we think is their time.

They are here one minute and it seems, gone the next.
 
Rarely are we prepared for it.

Learn what you can from the people who are in your life. 

See every relationship as a situation you can grow from and help contribute to someone else's growth.

Realize that we never really know when life will change.

Amen.

Another shot of, Steve Jones and I talking with , Jim Leek at Scott Jackson's place. (We are in the center, around the fireplace.)

Jim loved ALL kinds of Christian music!  Including AFT!