Vancouver Radio: Dean Hill Hanging Up Headphones

Dean Hill

CFMI Rock 101's Dean Hill didn't plan to be on the air for nearly 50 years when he was younger.

His route to radio first took a detour through a sawmill on Vancouver Island. One day, he had a bit of an accident.

"The paramedic in the back of the ambulance, looked down on me bleeding in the back and said 'Maybe this isn't your line of work,'" Hill tells Vancouver Is Awesome.

Once he recovered, he followed that advice, and his interest in music and record players, and showed up at CKDA, a radio station in Victoria. They liked his stuff, hired him and he spent the next 47 years on air, with stops in Calgary and Toronto before returning to the west coast.

"The only job I ever begged for was to get out of Toronto," he says; that led him to CFOX in Vancouver.

Over a few years he moved to Rock 101.

"It's kinda freaky, it's scary, it's kinda exciting, it's also time," says Hill of his approaching retirement. "It's been 26, 27 years at Rock 101."

"I just accidentally figured out the other day I've been doing radio for 47 years."

Hill's last show will be on Rock 101 (101.1 FM) in Vancouver on Friday, July 15, 2022.