They’re a popular read in our newspaper – and apparently, over the airwaves too. Flin Flon’s weekly RCMP reports have spawned a popular radio segment out west.
A pair of radio personalities based in Kelowna – Brad Karp and Alysha Williams – have turned the weekly police reports printed in The Reminder into on-air fodder. The pair, currently hosting the morning show at K96.3 FM, have taken a long-term idea dating back to their time working in northern radio.
Both Karp and Williams are former Arctic Radio employees, with both working working at The Pas' CJAR and CHTM in Thompson. During his time on radio in Fort McMurray, Karp found The Reminder’s website and was immediately drawn in to the report, both to the nature of the offences shown in it and the way they were presented.
“There was a story in The Reminder, I think it was about the Bombers, and I saw there was a weird headline in the RCMP report that week,” he said.
“I started reading through it and I thought, ‘This is hilarious,’ just how incredibly odd the writing is for the crime report. I just started reading it every week on the air in Fort McMurray.”
The reports became an on-air feature for him in Fort Mac, starting off a weekly feature he called “Flin Flon Friday”.
“People loved it there. They absolutely adored it. There were a couple of Flin Flonners who didn't appreciate it because we thought that we were poking fun at the town,” he said.
“I guess I can understand where they're coming from, but really it was just an appreciation for how the stories were written. They were all true, so it's not like we were lying.”
Even former ‘Flonners living in Fort McMurray were fans, Karp said.
“The legend of it kind of grew. If there was a week where we’d run out of time or we’d miss it, people would call in bitching about missing Flin Flon Friday,” he mentioned.
“There’s a guy named Joe at the Great Canadian Brewhouse wearing a Thomas Steen Winnipeg Jets jersey that harassed me one day. He said, ‘Are you Brad Karp?’ I said yes, he said, ‘F***in’ Flin Flon Friday! I love it!’ and we talked about fishing.”
Now, Karp and Williams have brought the feature with them to Kelowna, where they bring in a distinguished guest to read some of the reports on-air – their former boss, Flin Flon resident Maureen Kozar.
“Getting her on, she’s hilarious and she just makes it sound super friendly and funny,” Karp said.
“I think it might be the highest-rated radio segment in Flin Flon, actually.”
“We have her on and we got a Facebook message being like ‘You guys do this every Monday? Was that Maureen Kozar? I know her husband,” Williams said.
“We actually get comments from people who used to live there and still live there. We posted one of them on our Facebook page and it just got great reach and it was great content. That was hilarious,” Williams said.
“The way that it’s written, you can tell they’re like, so exasperated and they want this to be funny.”
In Flin Flon, the reports are submitted to The Reminder each weekend and receive only basic copy editing. The idiosyncrasies and occasional notes of sarcasm come straight from the RCMP.
When asked for a comment for the story, the officer who writes and submits the reports declined to comment, saying they would "rather let the air of mystique linger a little while longer."
“It was the notion of, ‘This is what makes news in a small town. They actually print this in the paper,’” Karp said.
While the subject is played for laughs on the air, Karp and Williams both said the segment is not about mocking Flin Flon specifically.
“We’re certainly not making fun of it. We both loved going to Flin Flon because you guys had the Walmart. That’s a real important economic centre of northwestern Manitoba,” Karp said.
“You go say hi to Flinty and you go get your groceries,” said Williams.
Karp said he’s proud of the segment and will continue doing it as long as possible.
“‘Til the day I die,” he said.
“I’m never going to stop. This is the bit that made my radio career. If we go straight to number one, it’s only with Flin Flon to thank and we’ll fly up there and throw a big party for everyone. We’ll throw a social.”
