Elmer “Billy Bob” Phillips, 78, on Nov. 24. Phillips was the maintenance man at the iconic Queen Square Building in Dartmouth, NS, the home of Q104 (CFRQ-FM) Halifax at its launch in 1983. Morning show host Brother Jake Edwards decided to put him on-air propelling “Billy Bob” to become part of the “Morning Zoo,” alongside Edwards and Hal Harbour (Doug Barron). He went on to co-host the show into the late ‘80s with Bob Powers. Following his foray into radio, Phillips continued to head up maintenance at Queen Square. Billy Bob last joined BJ & The Q Morning Crew on-air in December 2019.
David Hammond, 77, on Nov. 23. Originally from Montreal, Hammond started his career in sales and marketing working for Geoff Stirling at CHOM-FM. He ultimately rose to the position of sales manager there before moving into radio syndication. An opportunity to help build the Blue Jays Baseball Radio Network motivated him to move to Toronto, where he remained for 25 years. With a longterm goal to produce and syndicate radio programs, Hammond went on to found TranSound, launching two long-format music shows including the popular, The Pringle Program. He went on to accept a position with the Air Miles loyalty program as part of the strategic development team that assisted with its launch. He left Toronto and moved to New Brunswick in the early 2000s to help start up marketing company, Vaka Strategic, before relocating to the West Coast to work as an international yacht broker. He later returned to Toronto and explored his fascination with the e-bike market at Gears Bike Shops.
Joan Anderson, 73, on Nov 9, with MAiD. Born in Nokomis, SK, Anderson was a competitive curler prior to starting her journalism career. Part of the team that won the 1970 Canadian Ladies Curling Association Championship (later inducted into the Saskatchewan Sports Hall of Fame), Anderson began working as a reporter and producer at CBC Vancouver. She eventually moved into hosting, going on to positions as a senior producer for The National in Toronto and Washington, DC Bureau Chief. She returned to CBC Vancouver in 1999 as Director of Radio and Director of Programming and was instrumental in seeing the bureau transition to integrating its news gathering across radio, television and the web. She retired from the public broadcaster in 2009.
Wayne Mock, 82, on Nov. 4. Born in Regina, Mock started his career with CKCK-TV. Over the years, his camera skills took him to Toronto, Vancouver, and Edmonton. Among the shows he worked on were The Pig & Whistle, The Irish Rovers, Mr. Dressup and Hockey Night in Canada. He also spent time behind-the-camera on iconic kids’ show, The Friendly Giant, and was known to speak about the challenging opening shot as the drawbridge was lowered and the front doors were opened…all on live TV. Joining ITV Edmonton in the late 1970s, he shot Oilers hockey, the In Concert series that was broadcast worldwide, and numerous episodes of SCTV. He was so well-liked on the SCTV set that the cast often mentioned “Mocker” as a character in their skits. In retirement, he moved back to Regina and dedicated himself to collecting coins and brass, which turned into a successful business.
