YORKTON - Local radio listeners, especially those with an interest in agriculture, will know the name Jack Dawes.
For decades he has been on radio where his primary interest has been the farm sector, with air time on stations in Prince Albert, Dauphin and Yorkton.
Now Dawes near forty-year career is being recognized as he is one six individuals who will be inducted into the Saskatchewan Agricultural Hall of Fame is during its 50th anniversary celebration this fall.
It’s an honour Dawes said he certainly did not see coming.
“It’s always unexpected, but much appreciated,” he said in a recent interview with Yorkton This Week.
Dawes said he has known about the selection for several weeks, time he has taken to reflect on his rather long career.
“It’s given me a month to think about it. It’s given me pause thinking back over my career,” he said, adding the reflection led him to one very basic realization – “how fortunate I’ve been.”
Dawes said over the years he has of course covered previous hall of fame inductions, former Premiers such as Allan Blakeney and Grant Devine, the sort he called “highly accomplished public figures” and producers such as Zenith Faye, and he said he had to ask himself “do I really fit in with that crowd.”
Dawes didn’t start out expecting to be a farm reporter. In fact, his background was not particularly related to agriculture. He said as a youngster his family was on his grandfather’s farm near Portage la Prairie, MB. for a few years, but he was not at all knowledgeable about farming.
And, he hadn’t started out thinking radio in terms of a career either.
Dawes only came to radio and then the farming circles after a seven-year career in teaching, followed by about eight years in radio, television and newspaper (regular news) reporting, including tine with the original incarnation of this newspaper.
“I have a liberal arts undergrad degree (BDN University) and a bunch of “learn-by- doin'” experience,” he wrote at saskfarmwriters.ca
But then fate took over and he was drawn into farm reporting.
That path was aided by Norm Roebuck, a well-known farmer in the Yorkton area.
Dawes related how Roebuck a farmer, businessman and community builder in Yorkton proved a sage advisor in his early years of covering agriculture.
“At CKOS TV in Yorkton he took me under his wing and quickly taught me how to relax in front of the cameras,” he wrote at saskfarmwriters.ca “At the time I had no inclination that ag reporting would become a career, but one day – on short notice (10 minutes) – I was handed an assignment to interview then federal ag minister (and minister in charge of CWB) Otto Lang! The lesson learned was, of course – keep calm and chive on!”
The next step was a move to radio.
“At CJGX Radio, Yorkton, I was the (somewhat reluctant) news director for several years. A local farmer, Doug Sherwin, had been the voice of agriculture to east central Saskatchewan before I came here in about 1972. I was intrigued by how he went about his radio work with a laid back and casual approach that very much suited the material and his audience, I thought.”
So, when Dawes was offered the opportunity to ‘do ag’ in 1987, he said he was eager but as was typical of most people in the media, wondered how would you “fill” a 30-minute slot with ag material.
“I very quickly realized ag journalism really is no different than regular “news” reporting. The show (and interviewing farmers) became a passion to me and quickly expanded to an hour daily. The biggest challenge, learning to ask the right questions, is still a work in progress,” he said.
Dawes said in realizing early on he didn’t know much about many aspects of agriculture he took a rather simple approach to interviews, asking questions he believed his producer listeners would be interested in hearing the answers too.
Dawes said he recalled being asked early on what made him so passionate about agriculture, he said it came back to the people he was interviewing. Their enthusiasm for the diverse industry that is agriculture simply showed through in his interviews.
In fact, Dawes said he believes all the people he has talked to about farming “are worth a number of university degrees” in terms of what he learned over the years.
Dawes said he also realizes that he has been fortunate in terms of having a radio show which allowed him to create a full story, not just a sound bite like big city press is often relegated too.
“I was never satisfied. I was always digging for more details,” he said. “. . . I never liked just looking for the quintessential clip.”
There have been times Dawes moved away from radio and ag reporting, but he stayed connected to the sector, including several years in the employ of the Prairie Oat Growers (2002 to 2011).
“I learned a whole new side of agriculture helping set up the first oat commissions in Saskatchewan, Manitoba and Alberta,” he said. “The job also gave me experience in newsletter writing. The directors were of course all farmers and were the best people I have ever worked for.”
Now Dawes, 81, is back on the air again, this time with The ROCK 98.5 FM.
So through all the years, what is the most memorable story?
Dawes said he recalls the debates over the early safety net programs such as GRIP and NISA, but ultimately he had to say the years-long fight over the eventual fate of the Canadian Wheat Board, admitting he leaned toward change.
“I thought if I was in business I didn’t think I’d want the government telling me how to do that business,” he said.
And, Dawes has always loved music too, from his days playing with the MG Stillbridge Band playing the old Moustache Lounge in Yorkton, to still playing his saxophone with the adult band, but it is his farming reporting he will always be best known for.
Dawes, who lives in Saltcoats with wife Jeanette, will be formally inducted to the Hall of Fame at a ceremony in Saskatoon Saturday, Nov. 12.
