Working backstage at the 1990 JUNO Awards was the most exciting reporting event I was part of early in my career.

At that point, I was at least two years in radio news. The only reporting assignments I attended in person were school board and the occasional city council meetings. While the local issues were and are still important to the taxpayers in the community, those meetings didn’t have as many famous people as one would find at a national music awards show.

My media accreditation application was accepted, my first ever, as a radio reporter for a small market station in Orangeville, Ontario called DC 103.5 FM. I was so excited! To be clear, I went purely because I could, as a reporter, get accreditation. I self-assigned myself to this event, working on the project on my own time. I drove my own car and did not file for overtime or even get paid for that matter. It sounded like it would be a good experience, and I was hoping for the best.

As the reporter, I was going there to gather audio that would be used in a feature I would produce for a noon-hour magazine show that aired on the station called “DC Digest”. As a fan, I was hoping to get a photo with actor/comedian Rick Moranis, who was hosting the JUNOs that year. While there, I was also going to ask him if he could record a station ID for the radio station’s morning man.

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