By Taylor MacPherson

CKBI’s Don Mitchell puts down the mic after 49 years

Dec 23, 2016 | 5:00 AM

After nearly a half-century of broadcasting, a 900 CKBI radio personality is hanging up his headphones for the last time.

Don Mitchell, well-known for his Region at Noon program, will make his final broadcast today, Dec. 23, after 49 years working in TV and radio.

Growing up in Saskatoon, Mitchell remembered pretending to be a DJ as a child, using a turntable and a single two-song 45 record.

“I would play disc jockey, because I had seen these guys and heard these guys on radio, but I had to keep flipping the song over,” Mitchell said with a laugh. “I was always, for some reason, interested in radio.”

His first broadcasting job was with CKOM in Saskatoon. After badgering program director Arnie Stilling into letting him practice in the studio, Mitchell said his dedication finally paid off with the offer of part-time DJ work.

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Stilling, Mitchell said, told him he didn’t have a great voice for radio, but was willing to take a chance.

“I was forced to do news,” Mitchell said, “because the guy who was supposed to do news at the time, he liked to party and Sunday mornings he never showed up.”

Mitchell moved from CKOM to CKBI in Prince Albert in the 1980s, and in 1988 moved from radio into television when he hosted a noon show with CTV.

After working his way up to assistant news director at CTV, Mitchell was faced with a new challenge in 2006 – retirement.

“My first retirement age came along and I wasn’t sure what I was going to do. I had turned 65,” Mitchell said.

Luckily, Mitchell said a call from CKBI (then Rawlco) general manager Karl Johnston brought him back into the radio business after just a few weeks of retirement. “As they say, the rest is history,” Mitchell said.

“My last day on the air is today,” Mitchell said. “We’re going to do a show during the Region at Noon. It’ll be live and I’ll run some of my interviews from the past and people can phone in if they want.”

Mitchell said he has no firm plans for retirement.

“I’m just going to see what it’s like, because I’m not used to it after all these years,” he said. His second attempt at retirement will likely be for good, Mitchell he joked he might consider moving to a newspaper.

“I think I’m ready to retire and I think my wife is ready for me to retire,” Mitchell said, “so we’ll just fade away into the sunset as they say… unless something else comes along.”

Taylor.macpherson@jpbg.ca

On Twitter: @TMacPhersonNews