The Rosalie Award is named in honour of Rosalie Trombley, renowned influential Music Director of the Top 40 powerhouse CKLW-AM “The Big 8” (Detroit/Windsor), and the first-ever recipient of the Rosalie Award in 2005.

The award recognizes Canadian women who have blazed new trails in radio.

Rosalie Award recipients are women who have had successful careers in the radio industry and are seen as leaders, mentors, and people making a difference in our business. Please visit our Past Winners page to learn about our distinguished Rosalie Award recipients.

Each year there are two high-profile events at which the Rosalie Award is presented: an exclusive cocktail reception as well as an award ceremony on the stage of Canadian Music Week’s Gala event with Canada’s broadcast industry.

Do you know a woman blazing trails in radio in Canada who should be nominated for the Rosalie Award? Please visit the Nominations page to tell us about her!

 More About Rosalie Trombley

Rosalie Trombley was music director at CKLW-AM in Windsor-Detroit, also known as “The Big 8”, from 1968 to 1984. During that time she became known as “the girl with the golden ear” who could pick the hits, and for creating music programming that appealed to a broad audience. In its heyday The Big 8 was the third- or fourth-most-listened-to radio station in north America, behind only stations in Los Angeles, Chicago, and New York — a significant feat for a radio station from Windsor-Detroit. In addition to ratings success, Rosalie is credited with launching the careers or having a hand in the careers of a number of amazing artists like Elton John, Bob Seger, Alice Cooper, The Guess Who, Gordon Lightfoot, Blood Sweat & Tears, Chicago, The Stylistics, and Aerosmith, just to name a few.

In fact, Bob Seger wrote a song about her called Rosalie from the album Back in ’72. The song expresses grudging admiration of Rosalie’s talent and power as one of the foremost music directors in radio, with lyrics such as this:

So fantastic
She’s everybody’s favorite little record girl
She knows music, I know music too you see
She’s got the power, she’s got the tower
Rosalie, Rosalie