CIGM’s Scott Overton’s success comes naturally

BY LAUREL MYERS

Close to three decades ago, Scott Overton gave up the notion of the bright lights and the big city stages to follow a slightly different direction in life.

He pushed aside his dreams of becoming an actor, and approached his BA in drama and theatre from a different angle.

“I loved to perform and act and loved music, but when it came down to getting a real job, I didn’t want to be a starving actor with a family,” the 790 CIGM morning host said.

“I thought radio would combine performing and music and I was a fool like everybody else thinking you work four hours a day and make lots of money.”

However, the job turned out to be fulfilling enough to keep Overton on the air for 27 years, the last 20 of which he has spent in Sudbury.

“Twenty years on one radio show, one time slot, the same station, that’s pretty unusual in this business,” he admitted.
“Fortunately, the company still wants me here,” he added with a chuckle.

Overton’s show is on weekdays from 5:30 to 9 am, and he can be heard on the CIGM Great Country Oldies Show Saturdays from 9 am to noon.

He started his radio career in Lindsay, and worked in North Bay and Timmins before settling in Sudbury with his wife to raise his four children.

“In the radio business, if you want to build a career, you generally work your way up from market to market, but when I got to Sudbury, I put on the brakes and thought where do I want to go next,” said Overton, who recently became a grandfather.

“I really didn’t want to live in Ottawa or Toronto. We were content to raise our family here and that was the primary consideration.”

Digging his roots deep into the community, Overton admitted it was the people that have made the job so enjoyable.
“The fans at CIGM are so dedicated,” he said. “They love you being part of their life and you can’t find that everywhere.”

As for his success as a host for so long, Overton attributed it to just being “a regular person.”

“I give them (the fans) the information they want with a little bit of my own sense of humour and my own take, but I don’t put on any airs. I don’t consider myself any type of star or let it go to my head. I think people just take me as a friend on the radio and when they meet me in person, and that’s all I really want.”

One of the biggest perks of the job for the host is the opportunity to bump shoulders with celebrities.

“A great thing about the job is you can admire all these artists, and as the morning show host, I get to interview them or meet them back stage,” he said. “Not everybody gets that opportunity.”

However, with the perks come the pitfalls.

“The worst part of doing the morning show is having to get up at 4 am,” he said. “That’s just an ungodly hour when no one should be awake.”

Over the years, the CIGM personality has had to change with the industry and adapt to new technology.

“When I started in radio, I was playing 45s and album cuts from vinyl albums,” he said. Today everything is computerized.

Throughout his career, he has devoted a great deal of time to charities in the community, including the United Way, the CNIB, the Red Cross and the Easter Seals, among others.

“You have to give back to the community,” he said. “I think that’s incumbent on anybody who’s in a job like this where your whole job depends on the community support you have.

“I’ve always believed that and thought it was part of my duty as a human being.”

As for his future in radio, Overton admitted he has no immediate plans for any changes.

“I guess at some point I’ll decide I’ve had enough or I can afford to retire, but I haven’t set a time for that,” he said.

“As I said, 20 years is a long time in this business with one show and sometimes I can’t believe it’s still going after all this time.”