Lisa’s Bio
Broadcaster. Writer. Voice Artist.
I’ve been lucky to have a wide-ranging career in radio. Talent and skill play a part, but don’t discount luck and networking. Along the way, I’ve met and interviewed some of the most famous and influential people in politics, music and other realms of entertainment. I’ve worked with some of the most talented and successful people in the business and learned valuable things from them. I have been lucky.
I can’t remember a time when I didn’t want to perform. When my brother and I were little, we would get out the bongos my parents brought back from their Jamaican vacation, and pound out original tunes for dinner guests. I was involved in little theatre and took professional acting classes. But when it came to the crunch, I chose not to put myself on the line as an actress. Instead, I made a compromise: radio. It’s performing but with a regular paycheque.
My first real on air experience, not counting the campus station, was CJRN in Niagara Falls. I would scurry over after classes at Niagara College and operate the board for baseball games. Later, I’d baby-sit music shows and even get to go on air a couple of times an hour to update sports scores and read the weather. I wish I could tell you I had “it’ from the start, but “it” eluded me and I was nervous and resplendent with errors. But it was a start.
After college, I headed west. I had been offered an unpaid internship at CKOC but I thought I could get a paying job, so I loaded up my Chevy Monza and headed for Alberta, where I heard the radio jobs were plentiful. Within a couple of weeks of landing in Calgary, I was sending for the rest of my stuff and moving to Red Deer to become the overnight all-request host. I stayed there for 8 months until I was hired away by my Red Deer boss who had moved on to Prince George, B.C. Both stations were country music based – my first experiences with that format.
After a year and a half in Prince George I came back to Ontario and took a swing shift at CKSL in London. The market was more competitive than anything I had known up to that time and CKSL was all-hits, and in the centre of the action. There was always some artist in the building – Gowan, Corey Hart, Platinum Blonde, Kim Mitchell. Working at CKSL was a whirlwind of concerts, parties and work. The on-air staff, except the morning team, worked “six and five”; six days, then five days. Every second weekend I had exactly 24 hours off. It was crazy but it was radio and it was a whole lot of fun.
After CKSL, I went to Wingham to get to do a variety of things including talk, live interviews, pre-produced features, television hosting as well as more jocking. I worked my way through the ranks until I became Program Director of CKNX-FM.
Paperwork and budgeting soon became too much like real work and I made the rare leap from Wingham to Toronto, to CKFM which quickly became MIX 99.9. Although the morning show was never my gig at the MIX, I did fill in regularly and got to work alongside everyone from Tom Rivers to Humble Howard. I also developed a love for the information and talk based radio of CFRB and began contributing entertainment reports to the afternoon shows. It was clear that my career was heading away from music and toward news and talk.
I left Standard for CHUM, to launch the new classic rock station in Kitchener-Waterloo, KOOL-FM and co-host the morning show. My next stop was CHML in Hamilton where I started out on mornings and moved to middays and my own talk show. After CHML, came the powerhouse of CHFI and morning news on the Don and Erin show. I was fortunate to fill in for Erin during her vacations and to get to co-host with Don. After 3 1/2 years with CHFI, in 2003, I accepted the co-host position on the 680 News morning show. With some wistfulness and a heavy heart, I chose to leave my friends and radio family at 680 News in the fall of 2008 for a lifestyle change; I moved to London, Ontario, the city I’ve long wanted to call “home”. In May of ’09 I became the midday host on The Greatest Hits, 1039FM. I’m loving hosting a music show again and I’m having a wonderful time!
I have several sidelines. I’ve taught at the Humber College radio course, on and off, for about 15 years. Mentoring young broadcasters is very important to me, and my goal is to help get them where they want to go. For more than a decade, my ex-husband Wray Ellis and I were partners in Davisville Productions, an award-winning jingle and commercial production studio that Wray now operates on his own, through www.davisvilleproductions.com. I do voice and on-camera work, narration and emceeing. I’m a coach-for-hire for broadcasters at all levels of experience and abilities. I’ve contributed to several magazines including Country Wave and Hamilton Magazine and for 5 years, I wrote a column called The Public Detective for the Burlington Post. My first book, Celebrity Tantrums, The Official Dirt, came out in May 2003. I also write the bi-weekly column House Proud for Sun Media and I’m part of the panel of “pop culture experts” on the TV show, Whatever Happened To.
Many causes are close to my heart. I wish everyone who is able would register in the Bone Marrow Registry, which I became aware of and involved with when my friend Joe was searching for a donor to cure his leukemia. I’ve been fostering a family in Honduras for many years, through Foster Parents Plan. Now simply called Plan, my new Foster Child is in Guatemala. My friend Richard and his family have raised money and awareness through the David Bloom Memorial Spring Sprint for the Brain Tumour Foundation. And I’ve been a Big Sister to the same terrific girl since she was 9. She’s in her 20s now!
Although I am currently pet-less I am an animal nut and you’ll find several pictures of critters I’ve lived with and loved on this website. My personal passions are home decorating (it’s actually a sickness, I believe!), painting abstract art and travel and probably a thousand other things I just haven’t discovered yet. I got my motorcycle license in the summer of ’08 and whenever the weather and time permit, you’ll find me out on “Bernice” exploring the many beautiful country roads just outside of London.
