The Radio Host

Kimberly Tulloch is an on-air personality with her own show on 102.9 K-Lite FM. She’s also a radio broadcasting and journalism professor at Hamilton’s Mohawk College.

Kimberly’s grandfather Joe Van Poppel was an on-air personality on the radio in Toronto and Hamilton in the 1960’s, and her grandmother had a collection of vinyl records which she encouraged Kimberly to listen to.

“Those inspired me, and got me interested in the idea of theatre of the mind—and radio,” says Kimberly. As a tween, she had a little music studio at home, and staged her own pretend radio show.

Kimbery’s father, Graham Tulloch had a music studio for more than 40 years in Hamilton called the Tulloch Studio of Modern Music. She worked there part-time for 9 years as a vocal and piano teacher from high school on.

“I wanted to go to a really great broadcasting school so I went to Mohawk College,” says Kimberly. “I had the opportunity to go on-air for the campus radio station (101.5 FM The Hawk), and learn all the aspects of production as well as sales and PR.”

CKLH-FM

Kimberly has been with 102.9 K-Lite for just over a year now. “I think first day of any job you get butterflies,” says Kimberly. “Even after nine years in the industry, I ran on nerves for a bit the first day here then after a while I got comfortable, and into a flow.”

102.9 K-Lite plays More Music Variety in an adult contemporary format. Located on Hamilton Mountain, the studios are on Upper Wentworth Street, sharing space with Funny 820 AM, and TSN 1150—formerly CKOC.

CKOC’s pioneering first radio engineer was Les Horton. When CKOC launched their new FM station (102.9) in 1986, they chose call letters CKLH, for Canada Knows Les Horton.

Synergy

Wanting to return to her alma matter in a teaching role, Kimberly had started networking with her former professors. Her timing was impeccable, with one of them retiring just as she was making her availability known. Kimberly was asked to replace the outgoing professor, and started in her first semester teaching journalism classes. She also teaches radio broadcasting.

Kimberly currently has some of her college students on internships at K-Lite. “It’s a great experience taking them from the classroom and into the real world so they can see how everything really works,” says Kimberly.

“I’m learning all the time too, not only how to communicate differently to different learning styles, but also how to look at things from the students perspective, so we learn from and inspire each other.”

Pilot of the Airwaves

What Kimberly finds most rewarding about being an on-air personality is the impact that she has on the people around her in the community. “When you are alone in a room, behind the microphone you don’t always realize how many people you are affecting, so you have to keep that in mind,” Kimberly says.

“When I get a chance to get out of the studio and go to community events it’s really nice when someone comes up and says ‘I listen to you every day at work,’ or ‘I have you on at home and I make dinner while I’m listening to your show.’ It’s like you have friends around you in the community that maybe you are not aware of.”

Outside of work Kimberly enjoys being active going to the gym, getting out in nature, and visiting local shops and restaurants around the city. “Westdale has some really neat places, and they are doing a lot of renovations on their historical Cinema.”

Kimberly fills in as host for the Midday and Afternoon Drive shows on 102.9 K-Lite as required. She hosts her regular show K-Lite Weekends with Kimberly on Saturdays 9am – 3pm, and Sundays 12pm – 6 pm.

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