For those living or driving in the Sea to Sky area in the early 1980s there were few, if any, FM radio stations to choose from. Plans for a station that covered from Squamish north to Pemberton began in 1978 but it would be another few years before the first broadcasts hit the air (including very useful road reports).

Louis and Carol Potvin officially founded Mountain 99 in 1980, though Louis had been thinking of a radio station in the area for years. After installing radios in military plans during the Second World War, Louis spent the next few decades selling radios and working on radio equipment along the coast of British Columbia and in the Sea to Sky region. In March 1981, the station received its licence from the Canadian Radio and Television Commission and it was expected that they would be broadcasting by March 1982.

Jeff Vidler, the station’s first operations managers, arrived in July 1981, the same month that the station’s name changed to Mountain FM. Mountain 99 had referred to Highway 99, which connects the communities served by the station and would be a focus of regular road reports, but the number caused confusion as some assumed that it referred to the frequency of the station. Early programming plans called for roughly 7% of air time to be devoted to news, about 6% to community services, and 60% to music, leaving plenty of time for advertisements and other programming.

Mountain FM officially began broadcasting on November 30, 1981 but was only available from around Horseshoe Bay to Brandywine to start. Whistler and Pemberton area residents had to wait until February 1982, when the transmitter to rebroadcast signals was installed and Mountain FM became available on 102.1 from the Cheakamus Canyon to the Pemberton highway junction.

On Thursday, February 25, 1982, Mountain FM arrived on radios in the Whistler area, just in time to report on the World Cup downhill race on Saturday, February 27. With the expanded reach, the staff at Mountain FM increased to 13, including sales people looking for advertisers from around the region. Programming included newscasts, in depth sports coverage, interviews with various people, weather, ski and road reports and lots of music. Though at first leaning towards Squamish audiences, Vidler reported that this would shift to include more Whistler content and there were even plans to operate a part-time studio in Whistler. According to Vidler there was a lot of programming of mutual interest to both communities as “there’s a lot going on in Whistler that people in Squamish are interested in. Many Whistler residents shop and conduct business in Squamish and we hope the station can bring the communities closer together.”

By May 1982, there was still no specific Whistler program on Mountain FM. Though a two-way system had been set up between the studio in Squamish and the rebroadcast tower in Whistler allowing for live programming from Whistler, tough economic times meant that the station put its plans for a part-time studio in Whistler on hold in order to go ahead with the installation of a rebroadcast tower in Pemberton that would expand the station’s reach in the area.

Over the 1980s, Mountain FM became an established source of regional news and up-to-date highway reports, especially important to those traveling along Highway 99. The Potvins sold Mountain FM to Selkirk Communications in 1989 but residents and visitors to the Whistler area will still find the station at 102.1 today.