Walter Gray
Walter
Gray, Mayor of the City of Kelowna, and retired radio
station owner, was born in Victoria, BC on September
4, 1940. His family moved to Kelowna in 1946 and in 1957
he graduated from Kelowna Secondary School. In 1966, he married Doreen and together their
family grew with a daughter, Brenda, and three sons: Dallas, Stuart and Rodney.
Walter
Gray began his radio career at CKOV Kelowna in
1957. He worked as on-air staff member
at CHBC-TV in Kelowna in 1964 and then he
and his business partner, Bob Hall, established radio stations in Salmon Arm
and Revelstoke in 1965. In 1971, he established CKIQ Radio and The
Bullet in 1995 in Kelowna.
As
well as managing both stations, Walter Gray was President of Four Seasons Radio
Ltd. which owned and operated five radio stations in the Okanagan
and Kootenays.
In 1993, Walter Gray was named Broadcaster of the Year by the British
Columbia Association of Broadcasters. He
sold his interests in his radio stations in 1996. He is currently a Director of Sun Country Cablevision
Ltd. with stations in Salmon Arm, Enderby and
Armstrong.
Walter
Gray’s service for his community began in 1975 when he was the Founding
Director for the Kelowna Snowfest
Committee. Between
1975 to 1998, he served as President of the Okanagan
Neurological Association.
President of the BC Association of Broadcasters, President
of the Kelowna
Chamber of Commerce, President of the Kelowna/Kasugai
Sister City
Association, Director of Telefilm Canada,
Chairman of the Okanagan University College
Bold Horizons.
Director of the Okanagan Film Commission, and
currently as Director of BC Transit, Member of Premier Campbell’s Task Force on
Homelessness, Mental Illness and Addictions, and Member of the BC Achievement
Awards Advisory Panel.
In
1986, Walter Gray was elected as City Councillor for
the City of Kelowna and served until
1990. In 1996, he was elected Mayor for
his first of three consecutive 3-year terms, being re-elected in 1999 and 2002.
BC Radio History