Jim Cox - a play-by-play pioneer
in BC Sports
Born James William Cox, August 7, 1928 in New Westminster, B.C.
In 1944, Bill Rea opened a new radio
station in the Royal City and during the summer invited teenagers to watch the
proceedings. Jim Cox was one of that crowd. Three weeks after CKNW went on the
air, Jim, at the age of 16 was hired as an announcer.
Radio at the time was an evening
entertainment source and he contracted to start the programming at 6 o’clock before school. After
classes he was back at it doing the High School Jamboree show until 5 pm. “If
anyone could string a guitar and play three chords” Jim Cox said, “we’d put it
on the air.” All that work for $13.85 a week.
The original location of the
station was the 2nd floor of the Windsor Hotel at 732 Columbia Street, New Westminster above the well known Fraser Café. A year later, Jim left Duke of Connaught high school and took
up this thrill of a lifetime. “I had always been a radio nut, listened from the
time I was seven,” Cox was quoted as saying.
Jim’s long association with sports
started in the mid 40’s as a statistician and between-periods interviewer for
lacrosse broadcasts, the most popular sport in the Lower Mainland. When the
regular broadcaster Leo Nicholson died, Jim was recruited to do play-by-play
for the New Westminster Salmonbellies. In those days sports broadcasts not only made
money, but it met the requirement of providing a prescribed number of hours of
live programming. When the Pacific Coast Hockey League and, later, the Western
Hockey League were formed, Jim did broadcasts of both the New Westminster
Royals’ and the Vancouver Canucks’ home games.
Between 1945 and 1956 CKNW did
play-by-play of 14 different sports, broadcasting everything from stock car
racing to weight lifting. Jim Cox was appointed as the station’s news editor
and sports director in 1953 at the age of 25.
The next year the station covered the British Empire Games with Jim
handling the bulk of the work. His call of the Roger Bannister-John Landy
miracle mile was a career highlight.
During all of this, Jim married
station receptionist Louise North of Maple Ridge and welcomed children Keith,
Colin and Cheryl into his home. He was active in his community with the New
West Concert Band society and the Hyack Anvil Battery.
For thirty years Cox handled the
microphone for all BC Lions football games. He was the voice of the
Lion’s. Jim retired in 1989. He was
inducted into the Football, Lacrosse, and BC Sport halls of Fame.
He passed away on Thursday, January 29, 1998 at age 69.
In the garden of Saint Mary’s Hospital is a gazebo dedicated to Jim who died of cancer.
The memorial structure was built as a legacy with funds from the city of New Westminster and from the 1997 BC Senior Games.
He is buried in the Fraser Cemetery with a symbolic "microphone" on his gravestone.
BC Radio History