A bona fide Prairie home companion
The Gift: $7-million and climbing
The Cause: Health care and arts causes in Saskatchewan
When Gordon Rawlinson was growing up in Prince Albert, Sask., he wanted nothing to do with his father's radio business. "I was dead against it," he recalled.
His father had bought Prince Albert's CKBI in 1946 and also owned a handful of other stations in Saskatchewan and Alberta. While Edward Rawlinson hoped his son would join the company, he never pushed, leaving Gordon to go off to the University of Saskatchewan and then to Montreal to seek his fortune. His father kept gently pressing, telling Gordon about a newly acquired radio station in Regina and asking for suggestions on how to run it. Gordon finally gave in, promising to work in radio for a short time.
That was in the mid-1970s, and he never left. He ended up running the company, Rawlco Communications Ltd., with his brother, Douglas. Gordon laughs when he recalls how his father, who died in 1992, managed to lure him in, adding: "He was a very wise man."
Along with running the company, Gordon Rawlinson also became an advocate for various causes in his home province and started donating to several organizations.
"Everything that we have has come from our base in Saskatchewan."
His gifts have included $1-million to the University of Saskatchewan to help recruit first nations students to the business school, $1.5-million for mother-and-baby care at the Regina General Hospital, and $1-million to the urology centre at St. Paul's Hospital in Saskatoon.
He also provided $2.5-million to several arts and recreation programs in Prince Albert, Saskatoon and North Battleford.
His latest gift is a $1-million contribution for Project 10k20, a program that will provide support to 20 Saskatchewan musicians each year for four years. The 80 artists will get $10,000 a piece and receive professional help to produce and market a compact disc.
Mr. Rawlinson helped finance a similar program several years ago and it proved to be a huge success.
"This is something that really works," he said, adding that many recordings end up being played on Rawlco stations.
More than 40 years after he rebuffed his father's business, Mr. Rawlinson still runs Rawlco with his brother and has no regrets.
"Radio is a wonderful business to be in."
