Canadian Music Week has announced that Nevin Grant of CKOC is to be inducted into the Canadian Broadcast Industry Hall of Fame, and will be the recipient of the Allan Waters Lifetime Achievement Award.
Music director of CKOC from 1968 until his retirement in 2003, Grant is recognized as one of the top music programmers in Canada. He is an avid record collector, with his massive collection containing over 15,000 45 RPM singles alone. “I became a serious collector of 45 rpm recordings in the mid-fifties. I tried to collect every hit single... I’d also buy any recording I really liked, whether a hit or not."
His reputation as "The Hitmaker" was solidified over his 37-year career at CKOC. He was known for breaking new hits, and his knack for finding the latest and greatest in pop music was a huge part of CKOC's success. After graduating in Radio and Television Arts from Toronto's Ryerson University, Grant started at CKOC in 1966 as a copywriter and became Creative Director, Music Director, Assistant Program Director then Program Director.
Following his retirement from CKOC in 2003, he also became an author, offering his recollections on the music, times, books, movies, fads, fashions and pop culture icons of 1955-1989 in his book Growing up with the Hits!: Reliving The Best Time of Your Life - 1955-1989.
Grant helped launch many broadcasters' careers over the years—DJs like Roger Ashby, Ronald J. Morey, Gord James, Dave Charles, Brent Sleightholm, Bob Steele, Mike Jaycock, Peter Jaycock, Franklyn Cooper, "Rock 'N'" Ray Michaels and Bob Bratina, who would eventually become mayor of Hamilton.
Grant joins the ranks of previous recipients including Marilyn Denis, Roger Ashby, Chuck McCoy, John Donabie, Bill Evanov, David Marsden, John Derringer, Paul Ski, Don Shafer, Bob Laine, and J. Robert Wood.
Nevin Grant will be honored at the 2020 Canadian Music and Broadcast Industry Awards on May 21, 2020 at the Bluma Appel Theatre (St. Lawrence Centre for the Arts.)
Tickets are available for purchase now.
