For those living or driving in the Sea to Sky area in the early 1980s, there were few, if any, FM radio stations to choose from. Plans for a station covering from Squamish north to Pemberton began in 1978, but it would be another few years before the first broadcasts hit the air (including very useful road reports).
Louis and Carol Potvin officially founded Mountain 99 in 1980, though Louis was thinking of a radio station in the area for years. After installing radios in military planes during the Second World War, Louis spent the next few decades selling radios and working on radio equipment along the coast of British Columbia and in the Sea to Sky region. In March 1981, the station received its licence from the Canadian Radio and Television Commission and it was expected they would be broadcasting by March 1982.
Jeff Vidler, the station’s first operations manager, arrived in July 1981, the same month the station’s name changed to Mountain FM. Mountain 99 referred to Highway 99, which connects the communities served by the station and would be a focus of regular road reports, but the number caused confusion, as some assumed it referred to the frequency of the station.
Early programming plans called for roughly seven per cent of air time to be devoted to news, about six per cent to community services, and 60 per cent to music, leaving plenty of time for advertisements and other programming.
Mountain FM officially began broadcasting on Nov. 30, 1981, but was only available from around Horseshoe Bay to Brandywine to start. Whistler- and Pemberton-area residents had to wait until February 1982, when the transmitter to rebroadcast signals was installed and Mountain FM became available on 102.1 from the Cheakamus Canyon to the Pemberton highway junction.
On Thursday, Feb. 25, 1982, Mountain FM arrived on radios in the Whistler area, just in time to report on the World Cup downhill race on Saturday, Feb. 27. With the expanded reach, the staff at Mountain FM grew to 13, including salespeople looking for advertisers from around the region. Programming included newscasts, in-depth sports coverage, interviews with various people, weather, ski and road reports, and lots of music. Though at first leaning towards Squamish audiences, Vidler reported this would shift to include more Whistler content, and there were even plans to operate a part-time studio in Whistler. According to Vidler, there was a lot of programming of mutual interest to both communities, as “there’s a lot going on in Whistler that people in Squamish are interested in. Many Whistler residents shop and conduct business in Squamish, and we hope the station can bring the communities closer together.”
By May 1982, there was still no specific Whistler program on Mountain FM. Though a two-way system was set up between the studio in Squamish and the rebroadcast tower in Whistler allowing for live programming from Whistler, tough economic times meant the station put its plans for a part-time studio in Whistler on hold in order to go ahead with the installation of a rebroadcast tower in Pemberton that would expand its reach in the area.
Over the 1980s, Mountain FM became an established source of regional news and up-to-date highway reports, especially important to those travelling along Highway 99. The Potvins sold Mountain FM to Selkirk Communications in 1989, but residents and visitors to the Whistler area will still find the station at 102.1 today.
