Geo’s Media Blog. (CKY Reunion) 5/07/18. #7 in 2018

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 A few years ago I found myself flying back to Winnipeg with Jim Hilliard for a long overdue reunion at CKY. (Jim pictured above with Deno Corrie, me, and Burton Cummings) When I began my radio career as a board op at CKY, not only was Jim the station’s Program Director, he was also the afternoon drive guy known as Jimmy Darin.
Unfortunately, as exciting as the reunion promised to be, I’m afraid that we’d waited too long because most of the first team we’re already gone. How sweet it would have been had I been able to come home and thank Daryl ‘B’, Chuck Dann (Riley), Jack Wells, Frank Roberts, Jim Coghill, Bill Trebilcoe, George Dawes, John Pierce, and Mike Hopkins, for all that they had done for me.
When our plane touched down in Winnipeg, we still had a few hours before the big event so we decided to revisit some of the places we used to hang out at. This included the drive-in movie theatre where along with Barbara and Lana, we discovered James Bond. Now some 50 years later Jim and I continue that tradition by seeing the latest James Bond flick together.
When our reminiscing tour of Winnipeg was done, we cleaned up and headed for the reunion and once there we got to reunite with the few folks from our era who were still around. This included Em McDermid, Deno Corrie, Warren Cosford and even some of the guys from the Jury. Ray St Germain who was Winnipeg’s first rock star was there along with Burton Cummings who sang a chorus of our first record “Until You Do” which he claimed he bought with the money from his paper route.
When I worked at CKY I was just starting out as a board op, but as I look back, I now realize that those days were probably the most fun I’ve ever had in radio. At some point, Burton asked me if Jimmy Darin was there? When I told him that he was, he excitedly asked if I would introduce him. When we caught up with Jim he was talking to a few folks, and when there was a lull in the conversation, I said, “Jim, you remember Burton Cummings don’t you?” He said, “Of course I do” and after shaking hands, Jim said, “Hey Burton I don’t want you to think I’m a star-fucker or anything but my wife Barbara made me promise to say hello to you if I saw you. She still remembers when we picked you up years ago when you were hitchhiking in the rain.” Burton responded with the line of the night when he said, “I understand you’re not being a star-fucker Jim, but perhaps Barbara is?”

GEO’S LIFE-LINERS.

I recently learned that when the Irish came to America, they were slaves too but were much cheaper than their African counterparts.

Speaking of slaves, how about the Chinese who built the railroad across our great land?

Life is a yin and yang thing; sometimes you give sometimes you get.
 
I guess PC is still alive and well in America, I’ve heard nothing at all about John Legend playing Jesus in the rebooted “Jesus Christ Superstar.” I doubt very much though that the same would be true if Michael Buble were cast as Martin Luther King in a musical.
 
Great men weren’t usually known as great fathers.
 
I wonder how many trees the internet has saved?
 
Wouldn’t it be wonderful if they gave us some decent political candidates to vote for instead of who to vote against?
 
Do you find it as weird as I do that everybody talks about and believes in local radio but nobody does it?
 
Wow, now Pope Francis says that his words overrule the Bible, how Trumpesque of him.
 
The perfect combination you need to succeed on the radio is a mature mind with an immature vocal delivery.
 

Almost anyone can learn how to play guitar but unfortunately, you can’t learn to play like Eric Clapton or Lenny Breau.

The peaceful majority have always been irrelevant.

If I were a pedophile, I would think that becoming a priest would be the perfect job.

Radio’s real problem is the fact that it has no “afterlife.”Films, plays, and songs can be sold over and over and over again whereas radio needs fresh product every day.

Recently a friend was offered a job in San Diego which paid three times what she’s currently making which was very exciting until she realized that she still couldn’t afford to live there.

Even if you tax the shit out of the rich, you still won’t have enough money to fix America. Ask Canada.

Why does it seem that the people most concerned about the environment leave a mess wherever they go.

Going against the flow may be the most heroic and difficult thing you’ll ever do.

Some loyalties last only as long as the money does.

Being an addict should give you fewer rights, not more.

Gas in Canada in some places is running at $6.00 a gallon. This, in a country that has more oil than we do with only 36 million people to use it compared to our 325 million. So much for the scam of supply and demand.

You don’t get over things you get through them.

As I told my grandson Nathaniel, “The secret to life is first figuring out what you love to do, then find somebody who’ll pay you to do it.”

#Geo’sBlog above is about a reunion for #CKY, #Winnipeg #TheJury, #JimmyDarin and #BurtonCummings. My #LifeLiners deal with #Slaves, #Radio and #Music amongst other controversial subjects. For sneak peeks at upcoming #Geo’sBlogs, go to GeorgeJohns.com. On Twitter @GeoOfTheRadio. Sharing and commenting is appreciated.

 

5 thoughts on “Geo’s Media Blog. (CKY Reunion) 5/07/18. #7 in 2018

  1. Hey! Just a terrific blog. I grew up with you guys and Burton Cummings back in those great days. We lost you to the states but got now have you back again via your blog but witty and smarter. Great on the Canadian shit, keep it up, my friend. Rob Woyna. Transcontinental.

  2. Thanks, George. Winnipeg’s loss was our gain when Daryl B relocated to Vancouver and became a CKLG boss jock. Listening to his show was the highlight of my day!

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