If you remember the name Bill Welychka, you may have been a fan of MuchMusic in its heyday. But did you know he also spent a good chunk of his teenage years in Barrie?
Welychka was a mainstay on the Toronto-based television station from 1992 to 2005. And while it's much different now, the channel was known for its new and popular music videos, as well as thought-provoking interviews with musicians and actors alike.
Welychka, who was one of those video jockeys, or VJs as they were called, has a new book coming out titled Bill Welychka: A Happy Has-Been, which tells all about his time in the entertainment industry, not to mention his formative years here in Barrie.
“It's certainly self-deprecating and I’ve had friends upset by it asking me why I would call myself that. It's tongue-in-cheek,” Welychka said during a phone interview with BarrieToday. “That said, when I left MuchMusic, on my own to pursue other things, I might as well have fallen off the face of the Earth to some people.
"Right after graduating college, I started at this national level market, and then I disappeared. So, to some I am a has-been, but I am definitely happy where I am working on TV in Kingston," he said.
While he lived in Thornhill for a while, he spent some formidable years at a local secondary school in Barrie.
“My last couple years of high school were at Innisdale. I was living in Thornhill and my mom wanted to retire and buy a house in Barrie, so halfway through high school I moved there,” Welychka said. “Barrie means a lot to me. My mom is buried there, so yeah, it means a lot.”
Living in Stroud, just outside Barrie, one of his early jobs was at the old Barrie Raceway, where he broke both elbows after falling off the grandstand when cleaning windows.
“I used to do maintenance there and some of my old college projects featured videos with me in casts covering both elbows,” he said.
According to Welychka, he was living in Barrie when he fell in love with one of the bands he would admire and then interact with in his entertainment journalism career.
“It was actually in Barrie that I fell in love with The Cure,” he said. “The Cure come up a lot in my book. It was one of those perfect circles where I had posters in my locker and on my walls, patches on my jean jacket and then, years later, I’m interviewing (lead singer/guitarist) Robert Smith, which I did a few times. It was pretty surreal.”
Welychka, 55, admits there was a time when he tried to ignore and move away from his MuchMusic fame, but he later realized it was a part of who he was and now embraces it.
“At least once a week, for years, I'd get people recognizing me from those days. I don’t shy away from it,” he said. “There was a time I wanted to reinvent myself — I didn’t want to be known as only a music journalist.
"I tried to get away from it, but I have since learned to embrace it and be grateful for it. Those were amazing days.”
Still working in television, Welychka is currently an anchor at Global News Kingston and said he loves it.
“I kind of went backwards, in a good way. I started off at a major market at a national level and slowly wound down to a smaller market with a smaller audience. But it's connecting with that smaller audience that I love. I love connecting with them," he said.
While he has been on several podcasts and written articles for many publications, Welychka will also be featured in a new documentary about MuchMusic titled 299 Queen Street West, after the building's famous address. The documentary is slated for release in September.
Welychka's book, meanwhile, is slated for release at the end of August. More information can be found at his website by clicking here.
Partial proceeds from the book are being donated to the White Ribbon Campaign and various women’s shelters across Canada.
