Loran Fevens

Loran was born in 1944 in Yarmouth, Nova Scotia, the third of six boys, to Les and Helen Fevens. In January, 1963 he began his career in broadcasting at his hometown radio station, CJLS, which has spanned more than half a century.

He accepted a position with Annapolis Valley Radio in Kentville, Nova Scotia in January, 1964. For most of the next 11 years, he was host of the early morning show on the Valley network and program director of the network’s FM station, CKWM in Kentville..

In the autumn of 1974, an invitation to join the staff of a new radio station, CHTN in Charlottetown, Prince Edward Island, led to a 28 year residency on the Island that included uninterrupted part-time radio work and nineteen years with the Communications Division at the head office of Veterans Affairs Canada in the Island city. His primary work there was as head of the Department’s audio/video production facility.

In January of 1985, Loran launched The Music Box, a weekly two-hour program of music written before 1800. The show was a replacement for a similar program he had produced since 1965—Osborg’s Choice—with host Dr. Bernd Osborg of Upper Clements, Annapolis County, N.S.. Osborg’s Choice was heard on about twenty FM stations in Canada and the United States. Half the stations that had carried Dr. Osborg’s program added The Music Box to their schedule in July, 1985.

Loran decided to end The Music Box at the close of 2010 after 26 years on the air in Canada and the United States. He continues to produce Christmas specials of the program for WITF-FM, a National Public Radio station in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania.

The collection of compact discs and vinyl recordings—some collector's items—which he has donated to Acadia University were his main source of music offerings on The Music Box.

Loran retired from Veterans Affairs Canada and returned to his hometown of Yarmouth in October, 2002 and keeps busy as producer and host of Sentimental Journey, a syndicated two-hour weekly radio program of popular music of the 1930's, 40's and early 50's which he created in 2002. It is currently heard on 13 radio stations in Canada and one in the state of Maine.

Loran's gift to Acadia is in memory of his late brother, Dr. Stanley Fevens, who was also an alumnus of Acadia University: he earned his B.Sc. in 1970 and his M.Sc. in 1977, both in Psychology. In 1988, he graduated from the California School of Professional Psychology with his degree of Doctor of Philosophy (Organizational Psychology) and went on to become an internationally respected business psychologist. He died at his home in San Diego, California in November 2009.

Acadia University Library's digital bookplates recognize the many benefactors whose generous gifts enrich our collections for the entire university community.