Pete Dalliday Radio Broadcaster Extraordinaire!

Pete hard at work at FRESH Radio

Photo by Karen Irvine

Pete Dalliday is on radio at FRESH Radio 100.5, Fresh Mornings with Pete and Dani. Radio is nothing new to Pete - he’s been in the business for the past 25 years. His father, Gary Dalliday, was a staple on CHEX and announcing for the Peterborough Petes hockey team. When Pete was young, he would go to work with his dad at CHEX.

Pete attended Adam Scott High School, went on to co-op at CHEX and after that to Loyalist College in Belleville where he took Broadcast Journalism.

During his last year of college, he did his internship at Country 105 and then at CKPT radio, where he started with News Sports and the Peterborough Petes Colour Commentary. Pete says, “I ended up with the Colour job and never missed a game for about 12 years. (he laughs) I did over 1000 games without missing one. Sometimes I wasn’t feeling my best after a few pops up North in the Sault or you just get run down on the road with a junior hockey team, but you work through it. Then after 1000 games they gave me a plaque and made a big deal of it. Two weeks later I missed my first game to do a couple of Toronto Rocks (lacrosse) games. Looking back at 25 years of it, I got paid $50 a game in the beginning. I should have asked for more. (he laughs). But I was just happy to be in the game at the time. Now I’m on full time on Fresh Radio doing mornings and still do the play by play for The Pete’s on YourTV for the home games only and Lakers Lacrosse in the summer time.”

Pete has aspirations to take his career to bigger heights. He says, “I never really wanted to do the Sports Anchoring per say but thought about it early on in my career. I did have a brief stint with TSN doing The Toronto Rock games and that was a thrill to be a part of the big production. I have always wanted to get to the next level with my play by play and get to the NHL. Whether it’s still possible, I apply for jobs in Boston, Montreal, Ottawa, and Vegas when those jobs come up and I’ll probably throw my hat in the ring for the Seattle job. You never know. Just keeping that dream alive. Don’t get me wrong; I have a great job in my hometown and doing The Petes games.”

Pete has a cottage on Buckhorn Lake. “I love the Kawarthas. My cottage is 25 minutes from the house and it feels like I’m hours away. I love that Peterborough is not too big and people help each other out as a good community. The area is so beautiful. We have Little Lake in the middle of Peterborough and the Kawartha Lakes. Just a gorgeous area. The restaurants are just incredible with so

many choices. We are very lucky”, says Pete.

Pete announcing with his father, Gary Dalliday in Maple Leaf Gardens

Photo courtesy of Pete Dalliday

Pete and his dad calling the game at Maple Leaf Gardens

A memorable moment in Pete’s career was when The Peterborough Petes hosted the Memorial Cup. He says, “You had Sebastain Bach (Bierk) swinging the microphone around and his brother Zak, our star goaltender, in net with their father’s (David Bierk) painting of the Queen at the end of the rink. Other great memories would be doing The Rock games in Toronto and my father and I did a few Petes games in Maple Leaf Gardens.”

There are some Spinal Tapish moments as well. Pete says, “There was a few not so pleasing moments when I was doing news on the video side with stories that I wasn’t excited to really do and didn’t feel was a good mix with the sports side. Some hard news stories with disturbing stuff and I didn’t love doing those, as I didn’t think I was the guy for that really. Also being the MC at a gig in a bar when the band didn’t go on until 1:15 AM - for a band that literally had seen better days. (he laughs). I did a Wolf road show one time and it took a long time to get the people in the mood on a Saturday Night. It just started getting rocking about 12:30 AM and we’d been there since 9 PM. Now they’re dancing and drinking and we were packing up at 1 AM. Having to go up and say ‘thanks for coming out we have to get going’, and they just started freaking out and booing. I told the driver to get the van ready - we have to get out of here, I’m feeling a riot coming on.” (he laughs)

Yup. Pete is a very happy guy!

Photo by Karen Irvine

To stay in contact with Pete, Twitter is his go-to more than Facebook or Instagram, but he always tries to reply to people that have a question or just a shout out. “On the morning show we are always texting to interact and the same with the play by play on YourTV.”

For those of you thinking of broadcasting as a career, Pete offers this advice; “Podcasting is huge. Just be you. Don’t try to be any-

one else. Volunteer at Trent Radio or YourTV to get more experience. I was spinning 80’s tunes years ago on Trent and funny enough, now I’m spinning 80’s tunes sometimes here. The difference is now it’s called Classic Rock then it was Hits.” (he laughs)

Listen to Pete - 1005freshradio.ca/show/ fresh-mornings-with-pete-and-dani/ Instagram - @PeteDalliday77 FaceBook - Pete Dalliday Twitter - @petedalliday