On Sept. 6, 1987, Good Lookin’ STV launched simultaneously in Regina and Saskatoon – a Canadian first – and Lisa Ford was part of the team that made it happen.
Fast-forward 30 years and her last day in the business as she retires from Global Saskatoon on Friday.
Ford has served as news director at the station for close to 27 years and in 2012 was named station manager.
Community is the heart and soul for her.
“To do what she accomplished in Saskatoon was just miraculous and it was miraculous because of how she did it,” said Kenton Boston, vice-president of news and information for western Canada at Corus Entertainment, the parent company of Global News.
“She did it through great content and really reaching deeper into the community.”
Long before the Jim Pattison Children’s Hospital broke ground in Saskatoon, Ford was advocating not only for a hospital, but also for equipment.
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“We were part of the Children’s Hospital Foundation when it was the Children’s Health Foundation,” Ford recalled.
“We did telethons in the studio for a whole weekend trying to raise money at that time for equipment and the dream that there might be a children’s hospital in Saskatoon someday.”
Ford has also been the driving force behind TLC@Home, one of many charities Global Saskatoon supports.
“Lisa has a huge heart. I think anybody who’s ever met Lisa knows that about her,” TLC@Home founder Shelley James said.
Ford said helping the community will be one of the biggest things she will miss when she retires, but said she will continue to be involved in a number of projects, including TLC@Home.
She added that she will miss the people she works with the most.
“I will miss coaching people, mentoring people, helping people achieve their dreams and their goals, that is what is most important to me and what I’ll miss the most,” Ford said.
Ford was recognized with a lifetime achievement award in 2015 by the Radio Television Digital News Association of Canada (RTDNA) for her work in advocating for women in the broadcast industry and her continued excellence and outstanding service to the industry.
She was also recognized by Lethbridge College at its Honouring Excellence Awards as the 2016 Career Virtuoso recipient.
Ford originally started her career at a Swift Current radio station before moving on to television in Red Deer.
She joined the original STV on-air team two months before the station went on the air.
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