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Series on childhood in Sask. wins Toronto broadcaster a podcast award

"I believe that everyone loves a good story," says Larry Fedoruk.

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Larry Fedoruk got into podcasting when he realized the stories he wanted to tell would be better shared out loud.

The childhood stories that became his first podcast series started out as a writing project for the Toronto broadcaster and published writer. He already had 52 stories written by the time he decided to turn them into a podcast.

Proofreading the stories out loud one day, a trick he learned in broadcasting, Fedoruk discovered they sounded like they could be a podcast.

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“It was just that simple,” he said in an interview.

Fedoruk’s first podcast, I Was 8, is a series of stories from his youth in Wakaw. It started in January 2020 and ran for just over a year, with 65 episodes.

“The stories are about one kid in one town, but I also try to make them relatable, so that if you grew up somewhere else, it’s still a relatable story,” he said.

Coming up with the title for his first podcast, I Was 8 made sense to him. It was the phrase he would use as an excuse for making foolish decisions as a child: “Well, what do you expect? I was eight!”

Fedoruk grew up in Saskatchewan, spending his youth in and around Wakaw, and the later years of his childhood in Saskatoon.

His broadcasting career began in Saskatoon, at the U of S campus radio station.

For 20 years, until 2019, he told both personal stories and stories relating to current events on his radio talk show in Toronto.

He said his strength on the talk show was storytelling, so it just made sense to keep telling stories.

“I believe that everyone loves a good story.”

Fedoruk won the 2021 Canadian Podcasting Award for Outstanding Personal Series for I Was 8.

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The recognition “warmed my heart and it meant a lot to me that way,” he said, adding that it inspires him to keep going and gives him a feeling of validation from a group of his peers.

Fifty years in broadcasting and a few years in standup taught him presentation and maintaining a sense of self, he said.

“It’s an exaggerated version of me that is on the air or telling a story, but it is me.”

For him, the main difference between broadcasting and podcasting is that podcasting is not live. His radio talk show put him instantly on the air, with no opportunity for corrections or do-overs.

Taping a show that can be edited doesn’t have the same element as live shows — if something doesn’t sound right, you can do it over, make it better. It makes it more challenging to sound spontaneous, he said.

When he decided to turn his childhood stories into a podcast, Fedoruk was working full-time on his talk show. That made it hard for him to find the time to get the podcast started.

In late 2019, he lost his job. Then COVID-19 hit and people were encouraged to stay home. It was exactly the opening Fedoruk needed to start his podcast.

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“What else are you going to do? You’re at home,” he said.

While taping the stories he had already written, Fedoruk ended up writing 13 more. At that point, he decided it was time to stop and move on to a new variety of stories.

With I Was 8 concluded, Fedoruk is now working on a second podcast series, Later That Same Life. He chose the title to tie it in with the first podcast, but also to let people know it would not be more stories from his childhood, he said.

This new series is more like the talk show he did for 20 years — stories from his own life and stories about the world around him. He plans to continue this podcast for as long as he can.

Fedoruk ended up in Toronto to pursue a standup career. Standup didn’t pay off for him, but he did find a lasting career in broadcasting.

Though he found his place in Toronto, Saskatchewan is still important to him, he said.

“That small town, that prairie, that city … I miss it. It was something special.”

It was where he grew up, where everything started for him, and he wouldn’t change it for the world, he said.

“I’m so happy that I got a chance to form my base where I did, because it was really solid.”

jbennett@postmedia.com

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