Driven by desire to live a life of purpose, he is fighting to ensure Dougall Media survives
By Amanda Oye
THUNDER BAY – Hector Dougall is committed to making sure Thunder Bay continues to have a local voice at a time when local media across the country are struggling.
In an important milestone enabling him to do this, late last month he received approval from the CRTC to take over sole ownership of the licences for Dougall Media’s four radio and two television stations, which were previously owned by his late mother.
“If I hadn’t taken over Thunder Bay would have lost its local voice and I feel that very keenly,” Dougall said in an interview with Cartt.ca
While there was emotion behind his decision, Dougall, who owns a consulting firm that specializes in management consulting and First Nations economic development, made sure it was realistic.
“I’ve worked with my partner, Derrek Lennox for almost 15 years and together we really dove in and did a big due diligence on the company and the city,” Dougall said. “We really believe that we can keep it going and keep it together and we do believe that there’s actually a bright future for the organization and for the community of Thunder Bay.”
It is not surprising Dougall is taking this on. He cares deeply about Thunder Bay and broadcasting is in his blood.
His family has been in the business since 1931 when his grandfather bought a transmitter and a radio station and brought Thunder Bay (which was Fort William at the time), its first radio station and later in the 1950’s, its first television station.
In 1963, after his grandfather had passed, Dougall’s grandmother took over the family’s stations. Dougall’s father took over the operations when he was 21, eventually buying out his siblings to become the sole owner of two radio stations and the television station and going on to build the company into what it is today.
Dougall’s father passed away in 2015, after which his mother took over the broadcast licences and was in charge until she passed away in 2019.
When his mother passed, Dougall decided that in lieu of any financial inheritance from her, he would take over the family radio and television stations. He said it was more important to him to “live a life of purpose” than to live “a life of luxury.”
“I wanted to take a good shot at continuing our family legacy,” Dougall said.
Now that he has sole ownership of the family’s broadcast licences, Dougall is focused on the future and making sure Dougall Media is a viable organization.
“Success here in Northwestern, Ontario really means staying alive,” he said.
While he acknowledges the importance of financial success, what is important to Dougall is “keeping the voice of the people of our region and telling their stories and keeping them informed and keeping us all connected with what’s happening locally.”
He wants to see Dougall Media’s traditional broadcast stations change enough to survive, although as he points out, the company is more than just its broadcast licences. “We also have a weekly newspaper and the digital product and our digital newspaper, which is tbnewswatch.com,” Dougall said.
While not wanting to give too much away, Dougall said the company is “really going to look at how we can create the biggest impact in our market for our advertisers and so we’re going to be embracing new technology.”
The plan includes reevaluating Dougall Media’s businesses to see where they can work together more effectively and reaching out to make new partnerships, Dougall said. This will involve “approaching things with a bit of an open mind in terms of looking at things that are non-traditional things that we haven’t done before.”
Dougall, who has a brother who works at Google, jokes “my brother’s the Google Dougall and I’m the frugal Dougall.” He said because of this, he is going to be as effective as he can.
“I really want to keep things going for our employees,” Dougall said. “Many of them have been with the organization for a very long time and… there really is a sense of responsibility to be able to have that continuity for them and the only way we can do that really is if we earn a profit.”
The community of Thunder Bay in general is of great importance to Dougall – his family members have “sat on every charitable board that you can imagine in the city,” he said. “They have done a lifetime of service work, and our broadcast organizations have been involved in virtually every major charitable promotional activity that’s gone on in this city.”
One of the major contributions Dougall Media has made to the community since Dougall took over management of the company in March, is what he calls a digital rescue package.
“I knew most of our customers were really hurt,” Dougall said. “People were closed… it was really tough.” So, Dougall Media put together its digital media rescue package and gave away free airtime to businesses impacted by Covid-19 in a weekly raffle.
The company estimates it gave away over $70,000 in inventory across their platforms, Dougall said. “In that way, we really tried to partner with the local community in order to say that, yes, we’re with you, we appreciate you.”
Not one to take all the credit, Dougall was quick to mention he is thankful for the support he has received from his siblings Scott Dougall and Kristen Dougall, his business partner Lennox and the community of Thunder Bay, which has rallied behind him.
“I’ve had just an absolute ton of support,” he said. “And it’s important that I acknowledge that it’s not just something that I’ve done, it’s something that we’ve all done together as a team.”
Photo supplied by Dougall Media.
