Chapter XI (Ask the Pastor) 2/01/23

Download PDF
 Played lots of gigs
but we partied too much
The Phantoms were over
cuz we were outta touch.

We became The Jury
with a whole new sound
And cut a few records
when Hal Ross came to town

Shortly before the British invasion, CKY in Winnipeg had the Yankee invasion.
The station had recently hired Jimmy Darin to be their new program director, and Jim, in turn, hired fellow Americans Gary Todd, Chuck Dann, and Dean Scott. (Gary, Jim, Dean, and me pictured on top)

I was just a part-time board op, but for whatever reason, Jim took me under his wing so I got to learn big-time radio from the get-go.
Before long, I was not only writing and producing promos and commercials, but I was also producing some radio shows.

One of the more interesting projects Jim assigned to me, was a Sunday night talk show called “Ask the Pastor,” which was not unlike “Dear Abby,” but with a religious twist.
The way it worked was simple enough, people would call in with some of their problems (mostly romantic), and the Pastor would offer up his advice.

Some of his solutions were religious, but interestingly enough, most were not.
However, before I got to produce my first show, I had to meet with Jim to discuss how he wanted it to go.

Jim told me that the reason he wanted me on the already popular show was that he thought that I could make it even bigger.
Then he explained that not all of the callers would be legitimate, but the “phony calls” would be hard to spot because they would be well-thought-out and scripted.

The caller, Jim, went on to say would begin his phone charade with an elaborate story about a love gone wrong.
However, as the pastor begins to offer up some advice, he’ll “punk” him with some very vile and disgusting language.

“Ah, I get it, Jim,” I said, “You want me to have my hand on the trigger and be ready to cut these jokers off before they even get started?”
“Not so fast, squirrel,” Jim answered, “You and I are programmers, and what a programmer does is try to get ratings.”

Then he said, “Now, the only way I know how to get ratings is by giving the listeners what they want and what they want is for you to leave all that filthy language on the air for as long as possible.
In fact,” he claimed, “The slower you fade out their disgusting phone calls, the faster our ratings will rise.”

Jim, who later went on to run a group and then also buy his own radio stations, now adamantly denies that our “Ask the Pastor” meeting ever took place.
He claims that it was only a figment of my imagination. Right, Jimmy, Right!

 

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *