The late Gord Leighton's dream has officially come true.
Leighton, longtime radio executive in Prince George and at Vernon's SunFM (now Pure Country), had the original vision to begin a community radio station, and began working on his dream prior to his death in 2023.
That dream was carried on by a number of volunteers and on Wednesday, Aug. 20, Valley FM 97.9 announced on its Facebook the station is officially on-air.
The station had been running via the Internet.
"Special thanks to the original driving forces that started and sustained this dream, especially Gord Leighton," said former Vernon Community Radio Society president Marv Machura in a post on Facebook. "I am sure that he is looking down right now on our city and new radio tower with a huge smile on his face."
To be clear, the station is not yet broadcasting its programming. But the station's signal tower is now operational and going through a few weeks of testing.
"The long-anticipated and hard-won battles to get 97.9 Valley FM on-air over the airwaves of Vernon, British Columbia is now ending, and the future of the best community radio station in Canada is just beginning," said Machura, who admitted to getting emotional sitting in his car and hearing the station's call letters, CFAV, and music coming out of the speakers of his car's FM radio.
"It was like magic," said Machura who resigned from the society position a year ago. He had praise for all the volunteers, donors, supporters, and sponsors that helped bring the dream to fruition, including the likes of Paul Bielby, Dave Weatherill, Melanie O'Hara, Garry Molitwenik, many others, and the current president of the society, Ken Hardie.
The society is asking for people to check out the station and to leave a note on the Facebook page as to how far it is reaching in the Vernon area.