Pat's story: CBC Nunavut station manager retires after 33 years

In Iqaluit, a blizzard is news. So in the '80s when the roads were snowy to drive, CBC Nunavut station manager Patrick Nagle would often pick up staff on his Yamaha Bravo snowmobile.

On one of those stormy trips, carrying former broadcaster Kootoo Onalik, Nagle recalls the Bravo's windshield breaking from the bumpy ride — but says they made it in time to run the morning show. The city's mayor was calling in to tell people about the roads, the plows and power. 

"How the hell did you guys get to work?" the mayor asked, live on air. 

Retelling the tale to staff during a goodbye lunch, Nagle remembers saying, "We take our job seriously here at the CBC." 

And in an Interview with Igalaaq producer Pauline Pemik, Nagle said radio was the only way for people to get their information. 

"It was really important that the radio be there whenever something was going on," he said. "People are expecting us to be there, expecting us to have answers to 'When's the power going to come back on?' or 'When is school going to open again?'"

Nagle says when things get tough Nunavut's front line workers show up, and the CBC should be no exception. That's the legacy the station manager of 33 years is leaving behind as he retires on Thursday.

While he grew up in Winnipeg, Nagle came to the Eastern Arctic from Labrador where he was working for an Inuit communications society. When he got a call to come work in Iqaluit, he said no at first, but after a trip up changed his mind. 

"It was and is a dynamic place and a dynamic time," he told Pemik. "The first boundary plebiscite had happened, the land claims agreement was nearing completion."

Then would come the creation of the territory.

But, like the many young reporters he would go on to mentor, Nagle said he had a lot to learn.

Early into the job he remembers being pulled into a Christmas show by then staffer Solomon Awa. It wasn't until the live phone greetings were about to start that Awa told him, the show was all in Inuktitut. Nagle knew a little from living in Labrador.

"I got through it and one of the people who lived here in town for a long time called up and said 'You did OK' and I thought, 'All right, this is a good place,'" Nagle said. 

Three decades later he says he's honoured to have played a role in building Nunavut radio.