Nearly 35 years after his death and four decades after he last signed off the air on CJAD 800, Paul Reid has joined the pantheon of greats on the CJAD 800 Wall of Fame.
"Radio announcers like this do not exist anymore—and even when he was on the air they were extremely rare," CJAD 800 morning show host Andrew Carter told the audience, packed into the Bell Media Studio on Rene-Levesque St. E. for an open house and ceremony Wednesday night. "He was the best not only the best in Montreal but the best in the country and one of the best anywhere."
Paul Reid was born August 11, 1927. He was the oldest surviving boy in a family of 16 children, and came to be known as a young lad who could fix anything—a trait put to good use building toys for his brothers and sisters at Christmas during the trying years of the Great Depression.
He left school only finishing Grade 6. As a teenager he got his first radio job in Peterborough, Ont., at CHEX AM. According to his son Mike Reid, he pestered the station manager until he finally got an audition. It didn't go so well, and Reid says his dad was told to come back when he had learned how to read.
"My dad basically read the newspaper out loud every day for a period of about six months, he basically educated himself and went back, auditioned again, and he got the job," Mike Reid said.
He also met his wife June at age 18; they were married in 1947.
Reid made his mark in radio at CHML in Hamilton, a hotbed for talent at the time, before arriving in Montreal late in the fall of 1963.
His night-time show became an instant success with radio listeners. Long-time CJAD 800 newsman Tom Armour recalled Reid having a special connection with his audience.
"Paul worked in an era of personality-driven radio, and in that he excelled—he was unique in fact," he recalled.