Year Born: 1953
Year of Induction: 2009
Member of CAB Hall of Fame
Braide, Robert “Rob” (1953- )
Born April 4, 1953, in Montreal – Rob wanted to get into radio the first time he heard Dave Boxer play the Beatles on CFOX in 1963. His parents were huge jazz fans and he grew up listening to Theloneous Monk, Art Blakey and Charlie Parker.
After going through high school and CEGEP in Montreal, where he has lived all of his life, he spent five (5) years at Carleton University studying electronic and computer composition at Carleton’s faculty of Music. The reason Rob attended Carleton was because they had a great campus radio station and you had to be a student to be involved. Along with a team of dedicated volunteers, he was involved with launching Canada’s 1 student commercial radio station, CKCU-FM, Radio Carleton.
All he ever wanted to do, however, was to be a disc jockey at CHOM in Montreal. After several tries, he finally landed the all-night show in September 1977 and left his Masters Degree program behind him. At CHOM he worked his way up to Music Director and Program Director and then in 1981, was also given programming responsibilitiesat CKGM.
In June 1987, his long-time friend, Gary Slaight, called him and asked him to take over the General Manager position at CJAD and MIX 96 which had just been purchased by the Slaight family. 21 years later Astral Media bought the assets of Standard Radio. After the transaction closed Rob was approached by Astral Media Radio’s Jacques Parisien and asked to take on a group vice-presidency looking after branding, communications and industry relations. Rob has now formed a consulting company with Astral Media as his lead client.
Rob Braide is President of Braide Media, a multi-media consulting company based in Montreal.
He’s a proud Montrealer and has been involved in directorships of many community and para-municipal organizations including the Montreal Board of Trade, le Palais des Congrès, The Saidye Bronfman Centre for the Performing Arts and St.Mary’s Hospital. He is immediate past Chairman of the Canadian Association of Broadcasters, Chairman of the YMCA’s Kamp Kanawana Capital Campaign, on the Board of the Montreal Children’s Hospital Foundation, President of the annual Taste of the Caribbean fundraiser and sits on the board of the Trevor Williams Foundation providing support for inner city kids and continues to be involved in a variety of other community organizations.
He loves to ski and drive fast cars!
Robert “Rob” Braide was inducted into the CAB Hall of Fame in November, 2009.
Written by Ross McCreath – November, 2009