Year Born: 1915
Year Died: 1981
Year of Induction: 1984
Pioneer – Member of CAB Hall of Fame
Blick, John Oliver “Jack” (1915-1981)
Jack Blick was the founder of CJOB Winnipeg. After a brief experience as a commercial writer at CJCA Edmonton (which was curtailed by WWII and four and a half years in the RCAF) Jack was convinced that his future lay in broadcasting. Back on Civvy St., he decided he would like to have his own radio station. He selected Winnipeg thinking that it was a city that needed and could support a third station. In search of backers upon his arrival in Winnipeg, Blick approached E.B.Osler, an acquaintance from his air force stint. Impressed with Blick’s plans for a station, Osler proved more than helpful in setting up the company. He recruited several prominent Winnipeg citizens and found the $125,000 support that would be needed to establish and launch the station. CJOB went on the air March 11, 1946. Two years later, Blick applied for and received the first FM licence in Western Canada. The original members of his staff were required to be ex-service men and women.
Blick brought several innovations to Western Canada among them, block programming, news-on-the-hour, and the use of news cruisers. During his broadcasting career, he served as President of the Western Association of Broadcasters and as a Director of the Canadlan Association of Broadcasters. He was described as a man of vision, a good Canadian and an outstanding broadcaster. In leaving broadcasting, Jack Blick sold CJOB AM/FM to Frank Griffiths, the owner of CKNW New Westminster and thus the stations became members of the WIC group of stations.
In 1984, Jack Blick was named posthumously to the CAB Broadcast Hall of Fame.
Written by J. Lyman Potts – October, 1997