Radio legend remembered fondly

Staff at K1037 were saddened to announce the death of Jim Hum last week, a legend whose voice was the first heard on the station’s airwaves when it went live on March 30, 1981.

Had it not been for Hum, the radio station as it is known today might have never come to fruition. Back in the early 80s, the aging equipment it had acquired from the Montreal radio station CJAD 800 broke down often.

Some feared the station might close as a result, but Hum always seemed to find a solution.

“He was our engineer without the title. If anything broke, he would fix it. And believe me, in those early days, there was a lot of fixing,” said Joe Delaronde, a longtime friend and chair of K1037’s board of directors.

“He was a historical figure,” he said. “He kept it going with baling wire and duct tape. It could have easily closed within those first couple of years, but he kept it going.”

Hum, a frequent host, also served as the station’s programming director in the 1980s. He also hosted its first-ever radio bingo show in the winter of 1982. 

His business partner Joel Peterson was the one that shared the news of his passing with the community. Hum, an Abenaki from Odanak, passed away at around 6 a.m. on Thursday, July 18, at a hospital in Shawville, Quebec. He was 81.

Peterson learned about what had happened after an unexpected call came in from Hum’s partner that morning as he was driving to work. For the last 24 years, Peterson and Hum had been running a popular booth at the annual powwow used to raise awareness about the origins of the Mohawk warrior crest.

“It honestly broke me,” Peterson said. “I was always telling him, ‘It's not going to happen anytime soon, you’re still strong.’”

Hum’s booth there dated back to the inaugural powwow in 1991, which came shortly after the Siege of Kanehsatake the year prior. Over the decades he used it to sell posters, t-shirts, and temporary tattoos of the famous emblem – a crowd favourite. 

At the powwow on Saturday, Hum shared with Peterson this year would be his last.

“I had to take care of him. He had a fall early last week, and so his arm was hurting. He was in a lot of pain,” Peterson said.

“He was always full of energy. He never let his age get to him. It was just that his body wasn’t allowing him to be able to do what he loved.”

Though he had long been in poor health, his death came as a surprise to longtime partner Sandy McCreight, who shared a home with him in Shawville for the last 13 years.

She was the one who brought him to an emergency room at around 8:30 p.m. the night prior to his passing, out of concern he might go into a diabetic coma.

She left after midnight. By 6 a.m., a call came in from a doctor. He died of kidney failure.

“I said, ‘I'll be back in the morning,’” she said. “It was pretty quick for him, but hard for everybody he left behind.”

He didn’t want a funeral, she said, adding a gathering to celebrate his life is in the works.

Hum didn’t have any children. He's survived by three nephews and three nieces from his sister Mary Hum, who has also since passed.

“I was very fortunate that I had him for as long as I did,” said McCreight, who had been with him since her early 20s. “He lived his life larger than life.”

Hum had many hobbies, those close to him said, and was an avid collector of film cameras, knives, typewriters, fountain pens, and old sports cards. 

“He was an avid fly fisherman. He built his own lures and his own flies, and he was very proud of that,” said Delaronde. “He was a photographer, an artist, he did all kinds of things. He was a really well-rounded, great chef. He made the best wonton soup I’ve ever had in my life.”

Peterson meanwhile described him as a jokester. 

“He liked cracking jokes, inappropriate jokes at times. He was a person who was stern, but he was also very caring,” he said. “The guy was wise.”

Dave Bush was also among the five in the studio as K1037 went live on the air for the first time in 1981.

He had been fresh out of high school when he met Hum at the station. He called him a mentor, one who was always eager to share his knowledge with those around him. 

“If I had questions, he would answer them, but more than anything he would show me,” said Bush, still a host at the station. “I think he was underappreciated in Kahnawake for the work that he did in getting the radio station started.”

He especially remembered Hum’s perseverance over those years. 

“There were a lot of naysayers,” Bush said about the station’s founding. “People would say, ‘It’s not going to work. It’s never going to get off the ground.’ One thing I learned from Jim was don’t listen to negative people. If they’re not encouraging you, they’re not helping you.”

Delaronde kept in touch with Hum over the years and also got the chance to reunite with him back in 2021 for the 40th anniversary of the station.

“He really, truly had a heart of gold,” he said. “He was very creative. He loved what he did, and he was good at the things that he did.”

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This article was originally published in print on July 26 in issue 33.30 of The Eastern Door.