Most of you know Terry McElligott, one of the more established SOSA members but this is what Terry looks like when at work as a radio host – pretty much the same as his towing togs but different earphones.
Terry can be heard at Jazz FM introducing the world of Jazz in the 10:00 am to 3:00pm slot – just turn the dial to 91.1 FM and you too can listen to his soothing tones. Last week Terry invited me down to the cool new studios at Liberty Village in the Toronto King / Dufferin area and gave me a fascinating tour. Terry’s favourite music is pretty much all Jazz styles except Big Band or Vocals although he mentions the traditional blues of Charlie Parker, and the modern style of Philip Glass played by the Kronos Quartet. The Jazz fm web site http://www.jazz.fm/ has the following background on Terry.
Growing up in Montreal , Terry tapped into the music and art of many cultures. Sometimes he'd stay up late listening to strange radio signals beaming in from distant cities. By the time he was in high school he'd developed a serious interest in the medium of radio.
One of his first on-air jobs, running an overnight jazz program on radio, was a step toward a long and highly successful radio career on some of Canada's most popular radio stations in the 1970s and 1980s. In the 1990s he moved on to teaching at Toronto's Humber and Centennial Colleges while applying his long media experience to the Web. Little did he suspect that his early jazz program experience would lead, decades later, to a return to radio and a fascinating stint as an on-air host and webmaster for JAZZ.FM91. But it did … and he's forever grateful to have been given the chance to play jazz on the radio.
After his radio host duties Terry also designs web pages as a professional and in fact he originated the SOSA web page.
At SOSA Terry flies his DG 200 and logged about 60 hours last year as well as his duty as tow pilot. Terry is Mr. Nice Guy around the club – always an encouraging word to say. Terry started gliding in Montreal when he was 17 and now is just as enthusiastic. He tries like many to balance SOSA with a family life; married to Joanne Thomas and one (non-flying) child. Joanne, Terry says, did take a flight once upon a time but having exclaimed “that was very nice dear” she has not ventured near SOSA since. We now have a welcoming clubhouse and so …. you never know.
If you don’t know Terry just tune in or say hello to him on the SOSA field. Hint – he is also partial to a (WBBT) worlds best butter tart, baked and sold near SOSA.
