Throughout his close to 40-year career working in radio, Larry Rode sought to be a part of his community.
The voice of CKBX for 31 years, Rode is well-known for his community involvement and love for interviewing people on the radio. While he has since had to pass the torch on due to health reasons, he still has a deep love for his work and the community.
"It is so important to be one with the audience because you can just sit there in the morning and spin tunes and be boring as all hell and you aren't going to get much of a response from the audience," Rode, 65, said. "If you want an audience to tune in you need to be informative and tell them what's going on."
Growing up as the son of a pair of globe trotters Rode lived in several counties before his parents settled in the Lower Mainland in 1970. As he entered the workforce Rode said he was working at a marina in late 1979 as a yard manager and was tired of working nine-to-five jobs wearing a sweatsuit, as he called the rubber rain gear he had to wear at the marina.
"Those days I used to smoke and I remember coming home and I took my cigarette pack out of my pocket and it was so wet everything fell apart on the floor. I turned on the TV and was picking up the mess and someone said 'ohh yeah you can open thousands of fan letters and be a radio guy," Rode recalled. "I ended up signing up with Waterstreet Studios, I did a two-year course in six months and then did my first shift Father's Day in Fort Nelson."
Rode started his career in radio on June 21, 1980, arriving in Fort Nelson just as it was being evacuated due to three nearby wildfires. That's when he found out the radio was deemed an essential service and he would be staying to cover the fires, a task the rookie radio man applied himself to.
In 1981 Rode moved to Quesnel to work for CKCQ News where he learned the importance of becoming involved in his community from Terry Shepherd. Rode said Shepherd was a real mentor for him and the years he spent in Quesnel were among the best of his career.
"Terry was a proponent of you are a community leader on the air, you should get out there and enjoy what other people are enjoying."
Moving to 100 Mile House in 1988, Rode said he was looking for a better quality of life. In Quesnel, he was working the afternoon shift but in 100 Mile House, he would get to do the morning show. Moreover, as a rustic winter camper, he relished the chance to have access to the great outdoors.
"I always remember when I first walked into BJs and the boys around the table asked 'what did you do wrong, why are you here in 100 Mile?' It wasn't that at all, I loved the charm of living in the outdoors and 100 Mile is so aesthetically beautiful, (it is) the gem of the Cariboo," Rode recalled. "I said to my girlfriend at the time 'hey, you want to move to 100 Mile and get married?' and she said 'Sure!"
The appeal of radio for Rode was that every day was different and he got to meet and talk to different people. A joke around the CKBX office became asking Rode how many songs he played in a shift, with Rode quipping he averaged one song an hour, rather than the 12-song average of most hosts.
"I would always be loaded up with so many people to talk to in the community about what was going on that only once in a while we spun a tune," he recalled.
Outside of the radio booth, Rode soon began getting involved with other aspects of the community. On the weekend he would volunteer his time to emcee various community events like the 100 Mile House Relay for Life, the 100 Mile House Kidney Walk, the South Cariboo Idol competition and the first iteration of the Interlakes Outhouse Race, to name a few. Even when the causes were serious, Rode said he enjoyed seeing the community come together to support one another.
In the late 1990s, Rode joined the board of the 100 Mile House Food Bank Society during a time when they were struggling. He'd go on to help out in any way he could until 2015, serving as the food bank's Santa Claus every Christmas.
"That was my payoff for volunteering at the food bank. Every year having those little kids coming up on the lap saying 'Santa I love you' and giving you hugs and kisses. They would get toys donated from the community and you saw the sparkle in their eyes and you'd know those kids are going to have an awesome Christmas just because of the generosity of every person in town who helped out the food bank."
During the 2017 wildfire season, Rode and his wife Gladys were one of the few community members allowed to stay when 100 Mile House was evacuated. Rode recalls watching the Gustafsen Wildfire start on July. 6, 2017 before later being told to evacuate by South Cariboo Search and Rescue on the evening of July 7. Hopping in his car Rode and Gladys drove to the radio station with their dog, covered up the windows and then went on air for the next two weeks.
"The first night was 24 hours and after that, I cut back to 22 hours. Once the fire was getting settled after about a week I cut back to starting at 6 a.m. and wrapping up around 6 p.m.," Rode said. "It was certainly a test of the strength of me and my wife's relationship. We slept on this little couch in the studio for 13 nights and it was an amazing experience."
Rode said it was important for him to stay on the ground and provide reliable reporting during such a stressful time for the community. While he received a lot of praise after the community was able to return, he remarked he was just the messenger.
"People were calling me a hero and that made me very uncomfortable because I'm no hero. I'm just a guy who cares about you," Rode said.
Rode's career in radio came to an end suddenly on air in 2019 when he suffered a stroke. He recalled that Chris Adams, CKBX's current morning host, heard him slurring on the air and came into the booth and, after conducting a few tests, realized what was happening and rushed Rode to the hospital.
Over the last four years, he has largely recovered but still has issues with his memory and partial paralysis in one leg. Other health complications like arthritis and vertigo have further limited what he can do. These days he looks after his family's dogs, goes out with his wife and watches the world go by.
"It ended quick but it's better to be looking at the right side of the roots, right? I miss it so badly and I have a hard time listening to the radio sometimes when a certain song comes up or when Chris is (interviewing someone) because I want to be there doing that, but I can't any more," Rode remarked. "Then I realize I had a good run and it's time to give up the candle. I laugh because Chris still has my slippers under the desk for memory's sake. So I guess when I go in for a turkey day in the future I'll be able to put on my slippers for the first time in five years."
