PROFILE
KERRY MARTIN
By Megan Beam
Y
ou may not know him by name, but
chances are you’ve encountered
Kerry Martin’s work, whether it be
through CBC Music’s Searchlight
competition, his music columns
with CBC Radio, or perhaps even back in his
days at Radio 96.5 (now Mix 96.5) or 88.1 FM
CKDU in Halifax.
Martin is a producer and editor with
CBC Music, working out of the broadcaster’s
headquarters in downtown Toronto. But
what was life like for Kerry Martin before
moving to the big city?
Born and raised in Corner Brook along
the west coast of Newfoundland, Martin
says he had a fairly normal life growing up
alongside his three brothers and one sister.
Being raised in the ‘90s in Atlantic Canada,
he jokes that his surroundings seemed like
an echo of the ‘80s.
“I had hand-me-down brothers in terms
of what I played with and wore and all that
kind of stuff, so I feel like the ‘80s were around
a little longer at my house than they should
have been,” says Martin.
It was after moving to Halifax that life
began to pick up speed. At age 19, he at-
tended the University of King’s College and
later became a graduate of its broadcast
journalism program. It was
during his last three years
there that Martin devoted his
extra time to working in radio
broadcasting between several
different stations across New-
foundland and Nova Scotia.
Come the summer mo-
nths, Martin found himself
working longer, more full
time hours at the stations. He
quickly discovered that work-
ing in radio meant doing a
substantial amount of sound
mixing and that’s where he
believes his love of the audio
industry came to be.
“Over time, I became a
radio host in Halifax on a New-
cap station out there called
Radio 96.5. It’s now called Mix
96.5. I was the weekends and
evenings host there. I liked
having musicians in on my
shows, so I would have acts
like July Talk, Sam Roberts
Band, Phil Phillips, and pretty
much the classic Halifax breed
as well, such as Joel Plaskett,
Matt Mays – that kind of stuff,”
Martin recalls fondly, though
he was still working in other departments.
“As soon as you tell somebody you
know how to work an audio board, you find
yourself doing it a lot more often,” he says
with a laugh.
It was after moving to Toronto that Mar-
tin managed to land a job working with CBC,
where he’s been for the past several years.
“I focus on special projects that we do,
and then I’m also a music columnist for CBC
Radio 1 as well. Projects like Searchlight
I’ve worked on for the past three years, the
Canadian Music Class Challenge, which is a
partnership with MusiCounts, the charitable
arm of the JUNO Awards, and then I got the
chance to work on The Tragically Hip broad-
cast – not only the concert in Kingston, but
kind of documenting their journey across
Canada for CBC Radio 2 and CBC Music,”
he shares.
The 2017 edition of Searchlight kept
him very busy for the first few months of
the year, so the broadcast finale in early
April was a proud moment. The enjoyment
he derives from taking part in projects
like Searchlight comes from his passion
of not only getting to work closely with
and discovering Canadian musicians, but
being able to help other people discover
them, too.
“There are times when I find myself
working alone and kind of buried in my
own projects, but then you get those
moments where you feel like you’re in it
together in some way with the musicians
you’re covering and that you love so much,
and that’s by far my favourite part about
the job. And you can’t beat sharing new
music every day of the year.”
He also counts the night of The Tragically
Hip live broadcast as one of his personal and
professional highlights thus far, though it
certainly kept him on his toes. With relay of
the broadcast spanning over CBC Radio 1,
2, and 3, Facebook Live and YouTube, and
reaching places across the globe, even as far
as Japan, Martin had his work cut out for him.
“There was one guy who sent us a
picture of his set-up in his backyard in Ga-
borone, Botswana. I mean, we heard from
countries I knew very little about,” Martin
shares. “The magnitude of that event was
just beyond belief and even just thinking
about it now it’s hard to believe... Any jour-
nalist or producer would dream to have that
many stories flowing at them constantly.”
Outside of work, Martin is a diehard
baseball and hockey fan, but when the
weekend hits, he and his partner take to
the outdoors, off searching for every little
stream and lake they are able to uncover.
Sometimes, that means heading as far west
as Victoria, and others, it means returning to
Newfoundland, where there’s respite in the
overall pace of life being a little more relaxed.
Megan Beam is a freelance writer and former editorial assistant with Professional Sound.
20 PROFESSIONAL SOUND