Vancouver Island Radio Pioneer Passes Away

A Vancouver Island and Comox Valley radio pioneer has passed away.

Norma Elizabeth Browne passed away peacefully on Tuesday, November 21st at the Views at St. Joseph’s in the Comox Valley.

Norma and her husband Billy Browne moved to Vancouver Island in 1959, often joking they “went on vacation and never came home.”

Together they decided to create CFCP Radio LTD. That outfit included CFPA Port Alice, CFNI Port Hardy, CFWB Campbell River, CHQB Powell River, and CFCP in the Comox Valley.

For 46 years, Norma Browne was an integral part of the broadcast industry and helped many young broadcasters get their start.

She was said to have many talents. Browne was a competitive swimmer, an excellent marks-woman, and an incredible angler, according to her granddaughter Roo Phelps.

Phelps says, “she was a force to be reckoned with and [our] family will miss her endlessly, but will always keep her keen wit, tenacious spirit and passion for broadcasting and storytelling alive.”

Norma Browne is survived by her daughter Charleen and son-in-law Greg, her grandson Ryan and his husband Kevin, as well as her granddaughter Roo.

Justin Goulet
Justin Goulet
News Reporter - If you've got a news tip, I'd love to hear from you. You can contact me at jgoulet@vistaradio.ca or call the news-line at (250) 331-4033.

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