Standard , Moffat , WIC, Southam, Rawlco, Corus?    Hands down the best and, sadly, gone, were the Mom and Pops.  The AM days, where you were treated and NURTURED like family. Trained, trusted, respected, and, yes, actually well paid.  The only problem was it was TOO comfortable, really inhibited your desire to move up and out to a larger market.  My memories of the Murphy's and the Dallins who owned CFQC will always be sweet.

Quoted from pave

I'm trying to come up with one. A lot of great individuals, to be sure, with many in management, but corporate entities.... nawwww. The bigger they were, the dumber they got.

I'd have to agree with Pave.  I too worked for several great managers/PD/ND over the years, but I'd have a tough time embracing any one company as "the best".  Wholeheartedly agree the corporate entities ruined radio.  The moment the mother corp thought the "music focussed" format was superior and starting cut-cut-cutting back on minutes of news and community focus stuff to fit in the next "10 in a row" ....

Quoted from MAILMAN

Standard , Moffat , WIC, Southam, Rawlco, Corus?    Hands down the best and, sadly, gone, were the Mom and Pops.  The AM days, where you were treated and NURTURED like family.  

Mailman, while I'm happy for your positive experiences with the "Mom and Pops" I can't say that they were all good. I worked for 2 of them, dating back to the early 80's. In the first instance I was the evening jock. I dutifully showed up for my shift one holiday Monday, rang the buzzer to get in (before the days of key cards) - the owner opened the door, looked at me and asked "Who the hell are you?". In the second instance the owner's wife and daughter were on the payroll, even though the former showed up only once every couple of weeks, and the latter but once a year, in a "Summer Job" capacity. I understand the tax benefits to the owner, but it was still somewhat demoralizing to the staff. In both instances the pay was lousy and the "nurturing" non-existent. Only by moving into corporate environments was I able to access the resources, human and otherwise, to be able to learn and hone my chosen "craft".

Here, here.  I worked for 2 independants.  One was absolutely attrocious and the other was good on some  days and horrible on other days depending on what cycle the PD was on his coke benders.  The first one was run by a very religious man and owned by an even more religious man who became very upset when I refused to attend his church.  My last 4 months there were a little tense, I finally quit just as he'd suggested I do.  Luckily for him he's now running a religious station in Saskatchewan where he's much more comfortable I'm sure.  Unfortunately an AC station with no religious ties isn't exactly the best place to force beliefs down the throats of impressionable kids.  And when the kids refused, the daily rants about us going to hell were a real treat!! The cokehead was in a major market.  Sometimes the place was really fun and sometimes it was absolutely terrifying.  We got bought by a major, and of course, there was a lot of change but over the years I think that it's an improvement.  With the big companies comes internal opportunities and more importantly, guidelines for professional conduct.

Some mom and pops I'm sure were great, but let's not romanticize it too much.  Just like some companies provide great environments, and some don't...the same is true of the indies.

My time at Standard in Calgary was my highlite. Bob Harris, Pat Holiday, Norm Edwards, Gerry Forbes, Bob Steele, Richard strobant, The Reaper, Beasley and Tom Peacock. All had a great influence on my development and made my close to ten years there an outstanding expierence.

The best company you worked for has disappeared.  That was the small operations in the old days of radio.  I only worked for Fraser Valley Radio and Rogers and y'know we had a lot of fun.  More so in the early days of the FVR family when the boss had his door open and you could walk in anytime and tell him what you thought.  

Those days are done.

You're so right, TommyD.  The only word that comes to mind is one I couldn't use on air.

Probably my fave was CJNB when the Dekker's owned it... second to that was the old CJDC Dawson Creek, back when it also was family-owned... lots of fun, if you avoided the boss's wife.

In Canada that would have to be Moffat for me.  Yes, some Mom and Pop stations were fun, but there were plenty of horror stories out there too.  In the US, Nationwide Communications trumps them all.  They were far and away the best radio company I ever worked for.

I am going to say from my experience so far, the best company I worked for was Peace River Broadcasting (CKYL and the other 2 stations).  

Longtime lurker, first time poster:

I worked part-time for a few years with Standard in Southern Ontario and they were great.

I currently work FT for NewCap in the Maritimes and it is absolutely amazing. The managment has a VERY open door policy and my co-workers are just amazing people with a drive to be the best. It may be a small market but after being here for just two years already I want to stay for as long as possible- I've learned so much and continue to learn from my bosses and the people around me. When you express ideas- hard work is put into making them work. From copy, to traffic to sales to on-air everyone appreciates each other, there is no drama or conflict like I heard there has been at other stations between departments. We work hard, we get to play hard and it's fun, it's crazy, it's awesome, it's RADIO!

My first inclination was to say Moffat.  Great free stuff, excellent talent, lots of great stories.  But the world has changed.  I'm older now, and appreciate the human resources things that I get with Corus.  While some of Moffats managers were a little nuts (in a good way), and kept you on your toes, there are definite perks to the professionalism at Corus.  

And despite the rep, upper management does care.  Hearing about a VP at the bedside of a dying employee - how can you say otherwise?  

Also - I'd say off-air talent - and we've got great support staff - get a much better deal and more respect now than they used to get.

Quoted from Peter Schaad

Hands down, the OK Radio group in Victoria.  

Or as we all used to say, "not good, not great...just OK".  

"You don't know what you've got til it's gone..."

I have to agree with you, OK Radio Group, no matter where the location.  Sure do miss the old days.....

CKYL, Peace River Broadcasting, when it was owned by John Skelly (who also owned NL in Kamloops, and Nl in Fort St. John)

Telemedia Radio

Ditto, Telemedia

Quoted from c_g_b

Telemedia Radio