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There was a time in Vancouver, a time when radio was king and disc jockeys were media stars and when Fred Latremouille was the prince of the airwaves, an engagingly glib and honey-voiced broadcaster whose loyal followers stayed with him throughout a career that lasted nearly 50 years.

When Latremouille died Thursday at the age of 69 at his vacation home in Scottsdale, Arizona, following a brief illness, he left a legacy unmatched in the business, charming listeners of all ages and introducing them not only to rock ’n’ roll and adult contemporary music but, later in his career, his trademark “Latremorning” radio shows.

Latremouille, like many in the business, seemed forever to be changing spots, moving from station to station, but always taking with him the listeners who couldn’t imagine starting the day without his energetic yet laid-back approach.

When Latremouille signed on, it was as if he landed in the broadcast booth every day sporting shorts and a Hawaiian shirt, sipping a mai tai and preaching the gospel of chill. He was smart and funny, a thinker but also a joker, and if he bristled at authority, he still brought in the numbers for the bosses, his love of leisure and his quick wit an infectious combination.

Frederick Bruce Latremouille started in radio in the early 1960s in the Peace River, still a teen and before he even graduated from high school, an upstart lad from Nanaimo who would go on to persuade management at CJOR in Vancouver to let him play this new-fangled rock ’n’ roll music, instead of the station’s country and western lineup, as a means to attract a younger audience.

“I hung around the lobby of the station,” he recalled in an interview in 2000, “and basically badgered Vic Waters (the station manager) until he gave me a job. I absolutely haunted the poor man.”

He eventually found his way to CFUN, then the Top 40 giant in town, lured by program director Red Robinson, but would soon be fired because, ever the rebel, he simply stopped playing commercials, saying, “I figured the kids didn’t really want to hear them anyway and they were getting in the way of some great records, so I just let them pile up.”

But the kids loved him no matter what, especially the girls who swooned over his rock star good looks and curly blonde mop. In the mid-1960s, he took a busload of young CFUN contest winners (including this writer) to Seattle to see the Beatles perform live, sitting at the back of the Greyhound bus surrounded by giggling teenyboppers and stacks of complimentary box lunches.

It was at CFUN that Latremouille would meet fellow broadcaster Cathy Baldazzi, calling it the best thing that ever happened to him. They married in 1986, and would eventually move on to KISS-FM — where their show included weatherman and fast friend Wayne Cox.

It was at KISS that the couple redefined talk radio, marrying their candid to-and-fro conversations with listener calls, news of the day and the obligatory backdrop of contemporary music, even though Latremouille would often throw out the playlist and insist on some old-time rock ’n’ roll.

The couple also took hundreds of listeners on group tours all over the world, courtesy of their hugely popular “Wake Up” contests, broadcasting back to Vancouver from places like Hawaii, Mexico and Asia.

In 2000, drawn by the lure of the golf course and the blissful silencing of the early morning alarm clock, the pair retired.

It was, of course, to be a relatively short-lived retirement — or, as Baldazzi put it at the time, there were only so many crosswords to be done in a day. So, in 2006 the laid-back team with the easy banter was back on the air, broadcasting a morning talk show for Clear-FM out of a purpose-built studio in their waterfront Tsawwassen home.

But always, the lure of leisure beckoned, and when the couple finally retired for good a few years back, they switched their tropical home from their long-time roost in Maui to Scottsdale, spending winters in the sun and summers on their quiet waterfront property in the Maritimes.

Latremouille once joked that he had 20 “starts” in his career, starting with radio station CKYL in the Peace River. Those “starts” included CKLG, a stint at the Georgia Straight, Hourglass, and years as the cheery, cheeky weatherman at BCTV. From 1964 to 1966, he hosted CBC TV’s Let’s Go.

Despite his legendary joie de vivre, Latremouille’s contribution to the industry was recognized in 2007 with his induction in the Canadian Association of Broadcasters’ Hall of Fame. He also received a star on the B.C. Walk of Fame.

“Fred was, without a doubt, the best communicator this city has ever seen,” Cox said Thursday from Scottsdale. “He was fun, creative, smart, bright. He wasn’t always a saint, but he always did it Fred’s way. Working with Fred and Cathy were the best times I ever had on radio.”

Latremouille leaves his wife Cathy, his mother, stepfather and many friends and family members.

sfralic@vancouversun.com

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