Every Thursday, we feature an image from the StarPhoenix archives, curated by the City of Saskatoon Archives. Today, we see two of Saskatoon’s pioneering female DJs, CKOM’s Debi Fougere and CFMC’s (now C95) Dani Eisler, from Jan. 18, 1980. (City of Saskatoon Archives StarPhoenix Collection S-SP-A12489-27 and S-SP-A12489-12, photos by Linda Holobuff)
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From the StarPhoenix Archives, by Heather Macdonald:
Debi likes the top 40 sound, while Dani is more into soft rock.
Both women, however, managed to channel their love of music into their daily routine as disc jockeys.
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It’s a hard business for a woman to break into.
Men “completely dominate the market,” said Debi Fougere, who is known on CKOM by her first name only.
And she has had problems because of this. …
Even when she first came to Saskatoon she found some radio people didn’t accept her role as a “jock.” At one station they didn’t listen to her audition tape, prior to offering her a job as a receptionist.
CKOM first offered her a job writing commercials. After listening to her tape they offered her on air work for the summer of 1979 and the job expanded from there.
Dani Eisler does not see anything odd about her job as a DJ on CFMC-FM’s midday program. She’s been there for about 2 1/2 years and admits that when she started, women on the radio was a fairly new concept. ...
Both women stress that other employees at the two stations have been very helpful. …
Both decided to try radio while at university. Debi did programs on the Dalhousie University air waves, then went to Prince Edward Island for a broadcast journalism course which, luckily for her, was more broadcasting.
Dani was finding it difficult getting into studying at the University of Saskatchewan. She turned to radio “just as a whim” and because she “wondered what it would be like.”
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Throwback Thursday is a weekly StarPhoenix series where we revisit photos from Saskatoon’s past.
Check out our entire collection here.
What moment in Saskatoon’s history from January would you like us to revisit next? Send suggestions to jbennett@postmedia.com.
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