Longtime media personality Fin Anthony addressed a crowd of about 70 at Chatelech Secondary in Sechelt on Oct. 3 with interesting and funny anecdotes from his life.
“Bill got a request one day – it was from a little six-year-old girl, Betty, and she wanted him to play a song,” Anthony said. “So Bill gets into this: ‘Today we have a request for Sweet Lorraine going out to little Betty Firkin and it’s from her mother and father Agnes and Bill Firkin and from her uncle and aunt, Frieda and Percival Firkin, and from her brother Billy Firkin and from the whole Firkin family.’
“In those days radio was nothing other than trying to make somebody else laugh,” Anthony said.
Anthony has been a Sunshine Coaster since the early days. He organized one of Canada’s largest fishing events, the BC Salmon Derby. He also ran a fishing show on the KVOS television station.
Anthony has held many jobs in his life – entertainer, author, teacher, creator and the voice of over 20,000 commercials. Anthony was the Voice of Woodwards from 1962 to 1987.
Anthony said he got to know Charles Woodward – “Chunky” to his friends – after Woodward couldn’t afford to get his car out of the parking lot and had to borrow the two dollars from Anthony.
“If you know millionaires,” Anthony said, “you know they never carry money around with them.”
Woodward invited Anthony out to lunch after the second time that he had to ask Anthony for two dollars to get his car out. The two became friends from that point on.
The talk – titled Thanks for Listening – was part of the annual Clifford Smith Memorial Lectures presented by the ElderU of Capilano University, Sunshine Coast Continuing Studies & Executive Education Division.
