Welcome to JJ-365 Salutes. Over 2018 we pay tribute daily to one of “The Good Ones.” Today, we are shining the light on Jim McLaughlin.

Jim describes himself as "a little more private than many in radio and certainly not a seeker of recognition." That can't be more true. He is so humble and always puts the limelight on others. 

I know he will be a little uncomfortable with this. But, so many have told me that he wholeheartedly deserves this, and of course I feel the same way. So I write this with great pride Jim, and ask you to please bear with us. It's not our faults that we all owe you so much-:).

The late and great Steve Young brought me into CITI-FM Winnipeg in '81. I had heard so much about the org from many but especially fellow CFTR mate 365'er Gerry Forbes whose dad was a legend in Moffat. It didn't take me long to find out that everything I heard was true and it was a super company to work for. They liked to promote from within and that allowed me to become Morning Man when 365'er Bro Jake Edwards left, then APD at CITI, PD at CHAM, PD at both LG 73 and CFOX, and then National PD. Jim from some crazy reason believed in me and I couldn't be more grateful.

Jim started in radio at CHED Edmonton in 1966. A good friend was the News director and he used to meet him for coffee after his morning talk show. The news department at the time was 2 people and he asked Jim to do a few favours (go to a news conference and hold the mic in front of whoever was speaking etc.) He didn’t know anything he says, but Edmonton was a small town in those days and almost everyone had been at the dinner table at his mother’s house during his growing up years, so he knew them all and it was fun. After a month or so 365’er Keith James Sr. the Program Director (soon to be legend) left word that he wanted to see him. His first question was “do you work here?” Jim had never met the man, but he assumed he was going to tell him to stop hanging around his radio station but his answer “no sir” was met with “would you like to?”

He said a very surprised yes, and Keith bestowed the sum of $225 a month on him.

In regards to Keith James Jim says: “I owe my career to him. Very early on he and I became friends outside the station through a mutual interest in motorcycles and their use to attempt to kill ourselves. We rode dirt bikes on every trail and mountain goat path we could find. Through that process and his exposure to various departments in the radio station over time he saw to it that I got my Doctorate in radio. I owe him big time for that career enhancement and wonderful friendship.”

Jim is such a modest guy and goes on to say to readers that he was abominably bad on air (not what I heard!), so he felt if he was to stay in Radio which he grew to LOVE he had to get into management/admin. He was at the CHED powerhouse in Edmonton for 10 years holding various jobs and titles. He started in news and rose to News Director, spent time as national sales assistant, installed the second Columbine traffic computer system in Canada, eventually became the assistant to Keith James and took over a good part of his job when he became National PD stationed in Calgary. He played a key part in the station’s growth from number 6 in a 3-station market to a dominate number 1 (32 share) over his time there.

Throughout his years at CHED he got to watch and work with real greats in our industry. Much beloved Jerry Forbes was their General Manager, he feels Wes Montgomery was the best most natural morning man ever, and then there was the Super talented Bob McCord on afternoon drive. At a personal level one favorite to this day is 365’er Don Kay who he says could be counted on to keep everyone calm if Keith or he did something too out there.

This was the time period when he came to a couple of conclusions that served him well during his career. First, he saw that radio was an industry where 'Talent' (both sales and on air), of which he was in awe, wasn’t treated very well. Because of that, most talent didn’t care about anything other than their careers; certainly not the company! Next, he saw that most companies were not investing in their employees by providing training and opportunities for them to improve their skill sets. He had grown up in a family business and understood that if the overall business didn’t do well, they wouldn’t be able to eat at their house. He made a vow to himself that he would work to look after the company and hopefully treat employees better along the way. And he did, and did.

In the late 70’s Moffat communications was growing and the worker bees at head office (2 people at the time) needed a little help. Particularly in Radio which operated across multiple time zones in 8 cities. Most of the Radio Managers felt they had a good thing where they were in what he calls to this day “the best jobs in radio.” Keith James was National Program Director and a slam dunk for the new position, but Jim says tongue in cheek that obviously Keith was mad at him for some real or imagined slight because he recommended that the President should look at him for the job. Presto! Off to Winnipeg!

His more public career really started shortly after taking over the Radio group when it became necessary to replace two general managers. They immediately established that they would always promote from within and move around people who were entering or growing in the senior management levels. He felt strongly that if they wanted the best most creative people to come to work with them and entrust their future and careers to them, they had to provide clear and obvious career progression to them.

He needed a manager for Calgary and Keith James while working for head office, was living in the city and was an obvious choice. He also soon needed a manager for Vancouver and had already asked the legendary late-and-great Vern Traill (one eye 2 ll’s) to take on that group. At the time they saw CKLG AM/FM as the stations with the most potential for explosive growth. The staff of the station was super talented and screaming to be let run, and Vern was the guy to make/let that happen. 

Roy Hennessy got the call letters and launched CFOX while the late and great Gary Russell moved over from Winnipeg and got LG going again. There was so much talent in that building you had to have someone behind you to push you in the front door he says. 

The Management shuffle meant he lost his National PD. Keith had done such a great job of building bench strength throughout the company in programming and Jim didn’t want to drop the ball. By a great stoke of luck Chuck McCoy was available and agreed to join Jim back in his hometown of Winnipeg. Chuck started in Edmonton for a few months as CHED needed a little attention. Roy Hennessy soon moved over to fill that spot and Jim finally had Chuck and the functioning National PD with him in Winnipeg.

Jim states: “It is important that people understand that while I obviously had input into promotions to the level of Program Director, Sales Manager and General Manager during my 15 years as VP Radio at Moffat I only hired Chuck McCoy and Brian Minton in Marketing and Sales. I make that point for 2 reasons, first, so everyone can be in awe at my brilliant hiring of 2 absolute stars in the industry-:), but also so that everyone understands that all the fabulous and creative people we were lucky enough to have work with us were hired and molded into great broadcasters by other fabulous and creative members of the team. I had input into the platform we all worked from, but many other far more creative people built it and nurtured it to the success we had.”

Early on they had established using outside consultants to bring fresh ideas and criticism so that they were always working to improve. Moffat was among the first clients of Joint Communications. 365’ers Dave Charles and John Parikhal were an amazing source of ideas and support for their group. Dave became a close friend (ask him about Maui Clause Jim says-:) and to this day he says he remains in awe of John's bright, quick mind. Later they were among the launch clients for McCoy/Bohn when Chuck and Pat left the nest to form their super successful consultancy. 

Jim was unhappy when Chuck moved on because he had been so supportive and they had spent a lot of time together. Beside the internal work of licence re-newels, personnel issues, programming meetings etc. Chuck and Jim worked on the formation of FACTOR. Getting three separate and competing Broadcast Companies and a gang of record people to agree on the time of day was a challenge. The idea for FACTOR came originally from the record folks but as soon as they saw its potential, the radio industry was a supporter. Jim says Chuck and all the guys they worked with deserve a lot of credit for FACTOR and what it became and still is.

Things ticked along nicely and until the radio group was sold, Jim lived his life in seat 3C on Air Canada. His group of managers met regularly to plot their overall course and the one area they felt they were lax in was their support for industry organisations like the Canadian Association of Broadcasters (CAB), the Radio Bureau and the Bureau of Broadcast Measurement Ratings company (BBM as it was known then and now Numeris). Vern Traill took on the Radio Bureau involvement and their reward for that eventually became Brian Minton who joined them as Marketing Director and made a major contribution over the years. Jim got involved with both the CAB and BBM ultimately serving 2 terms at each as a Director and Chairman of the radio side.

I asked 365’er Roy Hennessy, a master storyteller, for some thoughts and tales: “Jim defended his managers up/down/inside/outside. It was a team and he stood by them, and when one of your 5 managers is Vern Traill, that is a challenge!

Example:… Suddenly and surprisingly, Ron Mitchell, the President, who had been with the company for a short few years (he came out of CIBC) to help restructure and organize the company into a more centralized and manageable organization, with the newly appointed Jim as the head of the radio division, took his sons to Florida for a golfing getaway and to christen his new townhouse. He had a heart attack and died on the golf course.

Jim contacted the management group, not just GM’s but OM’s, PD’s, SM’s and asked everyone to come to Winnipeg for his funeral to salute him for what he had accomplished. (NASA had invited Mitchell to a shuttle launch at Cape Kennedy – because he was dealing with them about launching a Moffat Satellite to get us into network programming and the future! He was a forward thinker.)

So we all booked our flights and flew in arriving in or around the same time, and we flew Canadian Airlines at that time (proud western boys). Something got badly screwed up…BADLY..

And Jim's eyes became bullets!!

Sooo, Jim tried a couple of times to deal with the folks at the check in counter and got nowhere…so he demanded to speak to the Canadian Manager.. (his voice could get loud when necessary and he didn’t need the PA system).

The manager showed up, listened to Jim’s issues and offered a typical airline scripted response. NOT good enough!...Jim pressed him..and got nowhere.

Jim asked him if he could borrow a pair of scissors.. he then motioned to those of us that were there to join him at the desk…he took out his wallet…and took out his gold/platinum/black whatever colour 'I am King' credit card and said to us 'Guys – get out your Canadian Cards please'… he then turned around and chopped up his card and then took each of our cards and one by one cut them all up. 'Say goodbye to Moffat Communications – my friend!' And that was it… we stopped flying Canadian… but we also saw what he was prepared to do to support the team.”

Jim has a unique way of doing things, always interesting and humorous. It’s no wonder so many people claim Moffat as the best company they every worked for. 

365’er Don Kay tells the story of how he got his first GM job: “One September afternoon in the CHED building in downtown Edmonton, Jim called a meeting with Jerry Forbes, General Manager of CHED, Bill Sysak - Sales Manager, and me. I had no idea why he would want me in a meeting with Jerry, Bill & himself.

Jim told us that Moffat Communications was making it's first move into broadcasting in Ontario and was going to acquire 1280 CJJD in Hamilton.

As Jim was praising the great successes of 630 CHED, he handed me what looked like a brief to the CRTC and told me to open it and read page 3. There, in black and white, it said: 'The General Manager of Moffat's new acquisition in Hamilton will be Don Kay who for the past 18 years has been in Programming, On Air, and in the Sales Department at CHED, etc. etc.' I was completely stunned as this was the first time I had ever heard anything whatsoever about Hamilton.

Jim stayed around for about 15 minutes and then I remember him saying: ‘When I leave this room, these two gents, Jerry & Bill are going to try to talk you out of accepting the new position’, and they did try for an hour!!! 

Later, I was still a bit stunned and in shock when I went to my car in the CHED parking lot. Tucked in the driver's side window of my vehicle was a note from Jim saying: "TAKE THE JOB" -......... AND I DID.....and CJJD later became 820 CHAM.

When Moffat Sold the Radio group, Jim immediately started looking for a Radio Managers position. He says he was tired of being that ‘asshole from Head Office’ (to be clear no one ever used that word when describing this self deprecating and cool man) and missed the people and fun that you have at a great station. They were now in the era of the really big chains and he says none of them wanted an old broken-down group manager (again, he is so modest. Fact is he still had a ton in the tank!). Fortunately, a few of the remaining independents did recognize the talent and experience Jim would bring.

His first day at Z-95 and CISL was January 1, 1993. Brad Phillips was the PD and they were soon joined by Glenn Chalmers to run Sales: “To say that those two guys were good at what they did would be an understatement of epic proportions. When we arrived, the stations were doing $4 million in sales and loosing money. When we sold 3 years later, we were doing $12 million in sales and the owners took half home.” Jim had an office in the far corner of the station and tried to stay out of the way. The entire staff were so good it was amazing to watch.

Over the years since Jim has made a few attempts at ownership which is always a crap shoot and those tries didn’t come his way.

Jim sums up: “Were I to make a list of all the people that made a major contribution to our radio group I would likely forget someone important? So many great radio people spent at least part of their radio career with us. In addition to the people mentioned above I need to recognize Ross Winters, JJ Jim Jj Johnston, Wayne Bryant, Brad Phillips, Steve Young, Gary Russell, and 365’ers Don Shafer and Sharon Taylor all from the program side. In sales we had Ron Kizney, Christopher Grossman, Chris Pandoff, Herm Harrison, 365’er Glen Glenn Chalmers and so many more."

Roy Hennessy and Chuck McCoy both have said similar things that sum up what Jim brought to the table: “It was an incredible kind of spirit that he brought to the entire organization. Everything was possible, everyone was encouraged and rewarded for their contribution, and everyone mattered. That spirit was one of the fundamentals the built that amazing company.”

356’er Sharon Taylor loved her time working for Jim McLaughlin: “Obviously, he was super smart and had a great sense of humour. Can you imagine wrangling execs like Steve Young, Gary Russell, Sandy Davis, Vern Trail, Alden Diehl, Chuck McCoy, Kevin McKenna, 365'ers Don Shafer, Roy Hennessy, Pat Bohn, and others I'm forgetting at the moment? Jim was able to do it and was benevolent at the same time. Once when I was the PD in Moose Jaw, I was talking with Jim and told him that every single time I was making big decisions I was terrified that I was making a mistake, or not reading the situation right. I clearly remember Jim recoiling in surprise and saying, ‘but you are the most self-confident person I know!’ Jim was one of those big, important people that believed in me back when I certainly DIDN'T have the confidence I projected. What a great guy, I loved working for him.”

Here’s another one who loved working with JIm, Stan Ravindahl, who he had promoted to GM in Moose Jaw and later Edmonton: “He had such a dynamic effect in shaping the lives of so many successful broadcasters. Jim’s success can perhaps be attributed to his ability to spot and hire ‘high end’ talent and then mould that talent into ‘super star’ qualities that permeated through the Moffat organization. Many of the upper echelon department heads within the Moffat fold went on to be some of the most respected and sought-after leaders by other broadcast companies in Canada and US because of their unique abilities to ensure success wherever they were allowed to utilize their skills to the fullest. I hope most of these very successful people realize their achievements may have been the result of a very humble man, Jim McLaughlin, finding them through his network of sources and convincing them to join the Moffat group.”

Like the rest, I am one of those who he helped let the talent out of the bottle. He supported me wholeheartedly, sometimes perhaps to a fault. Like the time Z953 FM was getting close to coming on the air, competing against LG 73 on AM. We knew we were going to have a tough time and our competitive spirit ruled the day. We found out that it was entirely possible that the new station could be called 'Energy 95.3' and in two days we re-imaged and re-positioned LG 73, to “Energy LG 73.” I will never forget the call I got from Jim. He said ‘JJ, tell me about Energy LG 73’. I immediately turned red, stammered and hawed realizing (oh shit) that I had forgotten to tell him, the guy running the organization, about it ahead of time which was a bad mistake. As I fought for words, his words rang out: ‘JJ, brilliant move, I applaud it. Make sure you let your major supporter know about these things first next time!’ and then we hung up. What a break for this young and foolish lad at the time.

Jim had a knack of making people want to work for him and the organization. Smart, intuitive, hard working, generous, funny, supportive and a solid leader. Like many others, Not sure where I’d be if I hadn’t had the chance to work for and get to know him.

Thank you, Jim McLaughlin for being one of “The Good Ones”. Feel free to like and share Jim’s positive story. Who is the subject of tomorrow’s JJ-365 Salutes? As they say, stay tuned.

Jim JJ Johnston is the CEO, President and Chief Programmer/Talent/Content Coach for JJIMS INC. and works with talent in many different industries worldwide. He can reached at JJ-IMS.COM.