Dick Peplow

Birthdate
1944

Deceased
July 13, 2007

First Media Job
CJIC AM


Dick Peplow was on the airwaves in the early- to mid-1970s at CKSO AM. During part of his time here, Dick was also Program Director for the AM side.

Dick’s on-air radio days were right in the main stream of adult contemporary, Top 40, Drake format days of AM radio.

He, like so many of today’s veterans, started early in his teens spinning records part-time for CJIC AM while he attended Grade 12 at Sault Collegiate Institute. He was full-time at CKCY in 1963. He also made stops along the way in Thunder Bay at CKPR, Dawson Creek, St. Thomas, Kirkland Lake, Sudbury, Yellowknife and Winnipeg.

In Yellowknife, Peplow even found himself wearing another kind of hat when he was elected into municipal politics as a city alderman. If there was a particular issue of significant importance to him, he would often bravely stand alone in an effort to see it through. For instance, he would fight against secret meetings of Yellowknife City Council in a battle that eventually resulted in a precedent-setting territorial court decision forcing the city to end the practice.

More recently Dick Peplow was President and General Manager and founder of a successful online news and information website, SooToday.com. Independently and locally owned, it competed with local printed newspaper in the publishing of Sault Ste. Marie news. The site included sports, classifieds, police reports, editorials, columns, business directories and more. The website started up on September 25, 2000 under a different domain name primarily to distribute discount coupons. At that time the website was identified as SooCoupons.com. Although the venture got off to a great and promising start, Algoma Steel’s subsequent bankruptcy hit the local economy badly, negatively impacting the website’s bottom line. That’s when Peplow reinvented the online business turning it into an online newspaper. The site grew in popularity and became one of Canada’s most popular online community news services. Peplow acknowledged the efforts and support of former broadcast colleagues including Randy Russon, John Campbell, John David Cameron, David Helwig and Russ Hilderley. On the heels of the success of SooToday.com Peplow then launched BayToday.ca in North Bay on October 1, 2003. Like its forerunner this site grew to become most successful before he retired from it all at the end of October, 2004.

His retirement ended a 41-year career in broadcast, print and online media. It’s a career that began and ended in Sault Ste. Marie.

In recent years, Peplow was a loyal volunteer at Sault Area Hospital.

Sadly, on July 13, 2007, Dick Peplow passed away following a lengthy illness. He was 63. He was survived by his wife Joanne Peplow and his children Candice (Jake), Jason (Pam), Christine and Lindsay and many relatives. He was also a proud grandfather of three. Dick himself was one of eight children in his family.