JUNO Awards to Honor Rosalie Trombley

She’s credited with making the careers of Canadian music icons like The Guess Who, Gordon Lightfoot, Paul Anka, Bachman Turner Overdrive, and Burton Cummings — and now the “Girl with the Golden Ear” is being recognized with a Juno award.

Legendary local radio figure Rosalie Trombley, music director during the “Big 8” era of CKLW 800 AM, will receive a special achievement award at the 2016 edition of the Juno awards. The 2016 Juno awards ceremony is on April 3 in Calgary, Alberta. The 76-year-old will not be attending due to health, but family representatives will be at the event to accept the award for her.

“Rosalie Trombley’s remarkable intuition and influence in the Canadian music industry are extraordinary,” said Allan Reid, President & CEO, CARAS/The JUNO Awards and MusiCounts. “Not only did she distinguish herself as a radio trailblazer, her passion for music has heightened the careers of some of the legendary artists we know and love today. On behalf of the CARAS Board, we are very pleased to recognize Rosalie Trombley with the Walt Grealis Special Achievement Award for her exceptional contributions.”

When Trombley joined Windsor-based CKLW in 1968, it was already a dominant force in Detroit radio and also highly-rated across midwestern U.S. markets like Ohio and Pennsylvania.

But as music director, Trombley’s song choices for airplay shaped a generation of listeners. Her knack for picking ear-pleasers made hits out of tunes like These Eyes by The Guess Who, If You Could Read My Mind by Gordon Lightfoot, and Taking Care of Business by Bachman Turner Overdrive.

Trombley’s tenure as a music director and one of the few female executives in radio at the time stretched over twenty years. Her decision to give records exposure led to the rise in popularity of countless talented artists, while also solidifying her position as one of the most powerful forces in the industry. Trombley is particularly credited for the breakthroughs of Canadian artists into the United States, including Gordon Lightfoot’s, “If You Could Read My Mind”, The Guess Who’s “These Eyes”, Paul Anka’s “You’re Having My Baby”, Bachman Turner Overdrive’s “Taking Care of Business”, and Burton Cummings’ “Stand Tall” amongst many others.

“I am deeply moved and humbled by this tremendous honour, as the recipient of this year’s Walt Grealis Special Achievement Award. The BIG 8 was a powerful force in broadcasting, with a signal that reached millions of listeners,” said Rosalie Trombley. “I will always consider myself fortunate to have played a role in such a significant era of music and proud of the exposure CKLW afforded many, now legendary and superbly talented, Canadian artists.”

“Rosalie Trombley’s remarkable intuition and influence in the Canadian music industry are extraordinary,” said Allan Reid, President & CEO, CARAS/The JUNO Awards and MusiCounts. “Not only did she distinguish herself as a radio trailblazer, her passion for music has heightened the careers of some of the legendary artists we know and love today. On behalf of the CARAS Board, we are very pleased to recognize Rosalie Trombley with the Walt Grealis Special Achievement Award for her exceptional contributions.”

Trombley began her career at the AM Top 40 powerhouse, CKLW – The BIG 8 in Windsor, Ontario as a switchboard operator, but before long her talented ear for discovering hit songs led her to become one of the most influential individuals in radio history.

Although CKLW was based in Windsor, it programmed for the Detroit market and the station’s 50,000-watt signal beamed across the American Midwest. In addition to being the #1 rated station in Detroit for many years, the station routinely rated in the top five in multiple Midwest markets in Ohio, Indiana, Pennsylvania and Michigan.

With Bob Seger

Having a profound understanding for the unique Windsor-Detroit market, Trombley is celebrated for playing what she believed to be ‘crossover’ hits – songs that appealed to both black and white audiences. Particularly, she persuaded Elton John to release “Bennie and The Jets” as a single, because she instinctively knew it had tremendous potential to ‘crossover’.

Recording artists, both established and aspiring, visited Trombley to promote their latest single releases, and the walls of her office were lined with gold records. Among other artists she is credited with breaking onto the Top 40 CHR charts are: Bob Seger, Kiss, Alice Cooper, The O’Jays, Chicago, Earth, Wind & Fire, Parliament–Funkadelic, Queen, and Aerosmith. In addition, Bob Seger immortalized Rosalie in his 1973 song “Rosalie” from his Back in ’72 album.