He has one of the most soothing and assertive voices on radio, and it is perhaps the most recognizable in the Nicola Valley.

But tomorrow (Friday), Al Clarke is scheduled to say for the last time on Q101 Merritt, “And a very pleasant good morning. I’m Al Clarke with your Q101 news update.”

“It’s something I’ve been looking forward to with mixed emotions,” he said. “When you’ve done something for 50 years and you’ve been associated with the industry for that long, and all of a sudden you’re taking a turn into a different lifestyle, it can be frightening and it can be exciting at the same time.”

Clarke has started his day in the office around 3 a.m. to prepare for the 6 o’clock news. He writes his own local copy, receives satellite feeds from the Canadian Press, formats weather and generates sports copy.

Each newscast is under a different number – such as the 6 a.m., 6:30 a.m. etc. – and all require a different introduction each day.

“One of the things I’m looking forward to retirement for is to be able to go to a hockey game and get home at 10:30, 11 o’clock and not feel like I have to get up in four-and-a-half hours.”

Radio has been in Clarke’s blood since he was a toddler, and his career has brought him “never-ending happiness.”

When he was three or four years old, Clarke would sit on his grandfather’s knee and listen to short-wave radio.

“He was fascinated with it. He collected records and he’d let me play them on the old 78 player and I was just fascinated that you could get music out of a flat disc like that.”

Later, Clarke spoke on the HAM (amateur) radio with his father.

“He would get me on the microphone in the HAM shack – so I was on the radio and I wasn’t even in school yet. I’d say ‘Give me the mic dad.'”

And then in 1962, Al landed his first radio gig while in Grade 10 in Powell River.

“It was a radio station, CFCP in Courtenay, as a matter of fact, that called our school and asked if there was anybody there who wanted to be a high school reporter to feed stuff to their weekly show,” he said. “I volunteered for it and that is where I really got my feet into it.”

After high school, Clarke entered the Vancouver rock ‘n’ roll scene, playing for the ‘Playmates’ as the MC and one of the singers from 1965 to 1967. He was in charge of the microphone even then.

He later returned to his home town, Powell River, and worked construction.

But he was summoned by a couple of former school buddies who were radio announcers for CHQB, where Clarke would work from 1968-73.

“They convinced me I shouldn’t be working construction, I should be working radio and they would see to it that I would get a spot on the staff with them, which I did.”

Later, Clarke landed a radio job in Merritt, where he brought his pregnant wife and first child so he could work for the radio station that would later become Q101. But he initially only worked here for three years before being called back to CHQB in 1976, where he stayed as news director for over two years.

But the tug-of-war continued, and Clarke was called back to Merritt in 1978, where he would stay through to his retirement.

He would make Merritt his home, not only for the job, but because he is legally blind and can’t receive a driver’s license.

During his early career here, Clarke spoke on a morning show, performing sales calls and writing his own commercial copy.

“To have a town that is so compact as Merritt, I didn’t need to have a driver’s license because I could walk to everything.”

Clarke wasn’t always working for the radio station when in Merritt. He spent roughly one year as a sales manager for the Merritt Herald around 1990. He then developed his own company called Media Management, which produced everything from sport uniforms to ballpoint pens with a personalized name. He also managed advertising for CFJC in the area and produced sales ads. But the microphone called him back.

“Sometimes you have to refresh,” he said about leaving the station. “It’s just one of those things that people do.”

In his retirement, Clarke said he wants to travel, relax and work on a garden, which he hasn’t been able to do for a while.

“You know, the usual things that people like to do,” he said.

“Hobbies that are sitting dormant in the large basement room that looks like a junk pile might get some attention. I have a substantial number of records in the library that need to be taken care of.”