Bill Welychka

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Bill Welychka is a Canadian television personality, best known as a VJ for MuchMusic and its sister station MuchMoreMusic from 1992 to 2005. [1]

Born and raised in Welland, Ontario, Welychka first joined CHUM Limited in 1988 as a video editor for MuchMusic before transitioning to an on-air role as host of the channel's country music series Outlaws & Heroes in the early 1990s. In 1995, he became host of the world music show ClipTrip, as well as taking on regular duties as a general videoflow host. [2] He stayed with Much for five more years until moving to MuchMoreMusic in 2000. [3]

In 2005, Welychka moved to CKEM in Edmonton to take on hosting duties with Breakfast Television when the station was rebranded as Citytv. [4]

In September 2006, Welyckha moved to A-Channel in Ottawa, as the new weather anchor, [5] remaining in this role until 2011. The following year he joined CKWS-TV in Kingston. He also writes a column for the city's Kingston Whig-Standard , and is a contributor to CKWS's sister radio station CFMK-FM. In 2023, he wrote the autobiography A Happy Has-Been: Exciting Times and Lessons Learned by One of Canada's Foremost Entertainment Journalists. [6]

His job with CKWS was eliminated in January 2024 in a round of cutbacks to Global News's local morning newscasts, although he remains a host on CFMK-FM. [7]

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CKWS may refer to:

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Mark Potter has been a well-known sports broadcaster in Eastern Ontario for over thirty years. Born and raised in Portsmouth Village in Kingston, Potter has worked both hockey and baseball broadcasts on TV & radio spanning four decades. His sports broadcasting career began in 1981 when he replaced Chris Cuthbert as the colour man for Jim Gilchrist on Kingston Canadians Ontario Hockey League radio broadcasts for seven seasons. Potter began his television career in 1981 at CKWS TV in Kingston, Ontario working alongside the legendary Max Jackson. Max retired in 1982 and Potter became Sports Director at CKWS TV & Radio. He anchored the nightly sports reports on the six o'clock and 11 o'clock evening newscasts on CKWS-TV for eleven years. He built a reputation as a colourful, outspoken commentator and his favourite target was the hapless Toronto Maple Leafs teams of that era. Potter left CKWS in 1992 to start a new career as an Investment Advisor, but has continued working as a freelance broadcaster with TVCogeco in Kingston. He hosted a weekly one-hour local sports interview show called 'SportsMark'. It ran for five-years and after a brief hiatus he returned hosting a weekly 30-minute sports interview program called 'Sports Profiles'. Potter has been the TV play by play voice of the Kingston Ponies Senior baseball team on TVCogeco since the late 1980s and for the past ten-years has hosted Kingston Frontenacs OHL broadcasts on TVCogeco. In addition he hosts a weekly OHL intermission feature called 'The OHL Roundtable" that is shown in several OHL cities. Potter began his career as a radio announcer at CKWS/CFMK radio in the late 1970s after graduating from Loyalist College in Belleville, Ontario from the Broadcast Journalism program. He anchored TV sports in Kingston starting at the age of twenty; the youngest anchor in the history of CKWS-TV, a station that goes back to the mid-1950s. Potter also does radio work as the occasional co-host of the 'Big G & Mathews' morning drive show on KIX Country 93.5fm in Kingston. In 2005 he won a prestigious TVCogeco STAR Award for being named the top broadcaster in Ontario for Cogeco stations. A dedicated longtime community volunteer Potter has been a finalist for Kingston's Citizen of the Year award and a recipient of the Paul Harris Fellow; the highest honour given by Rotary International for community service. He is in his tenth year as President of the International Hockey Hall of Fame in Kingston, Ontario, Canada and has been on the Board of Directors since the early 1980s. In 2003, he co-authored a book with Bill Fitsell "Hockey's Hub-Three Centuries of Hockey in Kingston," that chronicles Kingston's rich hockey heritage.

References

  1. Christopher Waters, "Bill's excellent adventure". St. Catharines Standard , March 15, 2002.
  2. Ted Shaw, "MuchChange". Windsor Star , January 5, 1995.
  3. Alex Strachan, "Much ado about Much: Against a backdrop of changing tastes, expanding audiences and the occasional cry of employee exploitation, the nation's music station continues to reinvent itself". Vancouver Sun , February 5, 2000.
  4. Rick McConnell, "Citytv rebrands in bid to boost audience". Edmonton Journal , August 3, 2005.
  5. "A-Channel gets new weatherman from Edmonton". Ottawa Citizen , August 5, 2006.
  6. Nicole Stoffman, "Celebrity broadcaster signs memoir in Timmins". Timmins Daily Press , February 2, 2024.
  7. "Revolving Door". Broadcast Dialogue, January 24, 2024.