Raised on radio

"Those who work with her call her God. She has a deep knowledge of the land, the people, the elders and their stories and this makes her a valuable contact for people in the station. She knows everything going on in the community and she makes sure the programmers know it too. She's an inspiration to her colleagues and a respected broadcaster in the community." - Mike Linder, Regional Director of CBC Radio congratulating Inuvik's Wanda MacLeod with 20 years of service.

Terry Halifax
Northern News Services

Inuvik (May 10/02) - People across the Beaufort Delta have grown accustomed to her voice and her employers have grown to depend on her ingenuity and ability to get the job done.

Wanda MacLeod just marked her 20th anniversary at CBC Radio in Inuvik - outlasting every employee at that station.

A Gwich'in originally from Aklavik, MacLeod and her family moved over to East Three with the first wave of residents.

She graduated school here and went on to study office administration and accounting, but got interested in radio from her sister Margaret, who hosted the noon show. Wanda started as a part-time receptionist at the Inuvik station in 1982 and became a full-time employee in 1983.

"I grew up with the Delta flavour of listening to the CBC Radio," MacLeod said. "It's always been unique to the people of the Delta."

Her duties included the usual front office business, but also took the requests and messages from the Delta people.

"I really enjoy passing along these really important little messages to so-and-so who is out on the land," MacLeod said. "Those messages mean a lot to the people that listen to us on a daily basis."

"Not everybody has those radio phones, so it was nice that we could help that way."

She worked as the receptionist and switchboard operator for about eight years and then was promoted to program support clerk, where she would help with the on-air schedule.

She was always eager to try new things and sometimes had to learn the hard way, but always managed to keep the listeners listening.

"Every second counts in radio - you don't want any dead air."

Part of her duties included cataloguing and filing music, scheduling programs and arranging outgoing and incoming feed.

"Now with automation, we don't have to be there, but before you would have to sit there and wait for the feed to come in from Toronto or where ever," she said.

In the old days, all the tape was spliced by hand, but now the sound is all digital and much easier to work with. Consequently, with less hands required and a shrinking budget, the corporation began to cut back at the Inuvik station and throughout the country.

"Downsizing was beyond our control and we all had to start doing what was necessary," she said.

With the cutbacks, automation and digital equipment the staff that was once 35 was reduced to seven.

"It's all teamwork now. We help each other out wherever we need it."

Now, MacLeod does the weather break announcements, news headlines and also fills in for the aboriginal language programs.

"It's an open opportunity for me to get on the air more often," she said. "I like to meet that challenge just to see if I can do it."

"I've always been eager to learn more and I don't ever want to stop learning," Macleod said. "Everyday you learn something new and I like that it's not the same routine everyday."