MARKHAM, ON – The Ontario Association of Broadcasters will present the 2016 Ontario Hall of Fame Award to both Richard Costley-White and Chuck McCoy at the organization’s fall conference.
A Board nominated honour, the OAB's Ontario Hall of Fame is presented to individuals who have spent most of their careers working for private broadcasters and demonstrated a commitment to the highest standards of broadcast excellence.
Before his passing in 2015, Richard Costley-White (pictured left) was chairman and president of Blackburn Radio Inc., a small and mid-market broadcaster with 13 stations serving Southwestern and Midwestern Ontario. He was the 5th generation of the Blackburn family in the media business, after great-grandfather Arthur Blackburn was granted one of the first radio licenses in Canada in 1922. Family holdings have included the London (Ontario) Free Press newspaper, CFPL Radio and Television, and the PennySaver chain of free periodicals.
Costley-White was also a governor of the Stratford (Shakespeare) Festival, served as chairman and president of the Walter J. Blackburn Foundation and director for the Ontario Association of Broadcasters.
Chuck McCoy (right) has 51 years in the Canadian broadcasting industry after beginning his professional career on-air in 1965. His on-air hosting included stops at four stations, culminating with five years at the iconic 1050 CHUM. Over the span of his career, he crossed Canada to work as an on-air personality, program director, broadcast consultant, and has also held various executive positions, including most recently EVP of Rogers’ Toronto radio cluster. McCoy currently operates his own consulting company, Chuck McCoy International Media Services.
He was a founding director and board member of FACTOR, chairman of the board for Radio Starmaker Fund, a member of the CAB, CRTC Review of Radio Committees in '85 & '97, and served on the Numeris board of directors. He was also inducted into the Canadian Music and Broadcasting Industry Hall of Fame, receiving the Allan Waters Broadcast Lifetime Acheivement Award in 2008.
The Ontario Hall of Fame Awards will be presented during the OAB conference, Gala Awards Luncheon, on November 10 at the Marriott Toronto Airport Hotel.
