Russell Bowers

Russell Bowers is a Canadian broadcaster currently living in Calgary, Alberta. He is the host of Daybreak Alberta, a local weekend program heard on CBC Radio One throughout the province of Alberta.
Biography
Born on 1 December 1968 in St. John's, Newfoundland and Labrador, he was given up for adoption to Steadman and Daisy Bowers of Bell Island, (who were in fact the aunt and uncle of his birth mother). Bell Island remained his home during his school years and he was educated at St. Augustine's Elementary and St. Boniface Central High. He graduated in 1986.
During his teen years, he developed a love for radio broadcasting and became a fan of CBC programs like The Radio Show, Night Lines, Morningside and Gabereau.
Upon attending Memorial University of Newfoundland in 1987, he became a volunteer at CHMR-FM. During his stint at the station, he did his first broadcast interviews with Canadian celebrities like Glass Tiger, Zappacosta, Nash the Slash, Ralph Benmergui, Valdy, Royal Canadian Air Farce, and Doug and the Slugs. He hosted a variety of late night programs like Signatures on the Glacier, Night Flight and Vox. His musical direction on the shows ranged from the outskirts of alternative campus radio favourites to misguided Canadian pop. He served briefly as production director for the station but left after making the station's ads and promos system too complicated.
On Tibbs Eve, 1988, he was given his first professional radio gig at VOCM in St. John's. Initially, he acted as a board operator for Christmas programming, playing recorded voice tracks, advertising messages and music during overnight shifts. He was given on air shifts as an announcer in January 1989.
In April 1989, Bowers was fired from the station for falling asleep during his shift. He was operating an early Sunday morning show that featured voice tracks and music and was not actually announcing himself. The station had dead air for eight minutes between 8:37 and 8:45am. He was let go at 9:20am.
Two weeks later he was hired back following a letter of apology to the VOCM's general manager. He returned to the airwaves and occupied a full-time gig hosting between midnight and 6am from Wednesday to Sunday nights.
In October 1990, he moved to CHOZ-FM and took up a part-time residency again as a late-night DJ. The format of OZ at the time was in a traditional form of album-oriented rock. There were no pre-determined playlists and DJ's constructed sets of music from a list of sanctioned songs. In addition to his on air duties, Bowers also served as a back-up production director producing ads and promos.

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