My first radio hire
was a hippie named Gar
He helped me a lot
as we gathered our stars.
Sebastian & Woody
became part of the gang
Then we added Ron Doc & Alfie
and came on with a bang
When my daughter Candis was born, and CKY made me their Music Director, I left The Jury to concentrate on becoming a radio guy.
Not long after that, I was named the Program Director of CKOM in Saskatoon.
Not long after that, I was named the Program Director of CKOM in Saskatoon.
Upon my arrival in Saskatoon, I soon discovered that it was even colder here than it was in Winnipeg.
Management’s plan was for me to listen to the radio station for a few days before coming in to discuss my findings, so I spent my first couple of below zero days hunkered down in a motel room.
Management’s plan was for me to listen to the radio station for a few days before coming in to discuss my findings, so I spent my first couple of below zero days hunkered down in a motel room.
However, after listening for less than two days, I was just crazed, and even though I didn’t know much about programming, I knew this would never work.
They started the day off with some middle of the road music (MOR), you know, folks like Frank Sinatra, Tony Bennett, and Perry Como. Then a piano player who the morning man obviously hated showed up at nine and played some sing-along stuff.
At ten, they switched to Country, followed by CHR at four and back to MOR in the early evening before doing some talk shows.
Whew, I had my work cut out for me, so with notes in hand, I headed into the station to get started.
After first being introduced to the staff, I then sat down with my immediate boss to discuss my findings.
When he asked why I came into the station days early, I told him I was afraid to listen anymore.
However, when I proceed to tell him what has to come off the air immediately, I hear nothing but crickets so I stop and look up.
There sits my boss red-faced and trembling with rage. Until that moment, I had no idea that I was talking to the guy who’d put all that sh*t on the air. Oh-oh!
There sits my boss red-faced and trembling with rage. Until that moment, I had no idea that I was talking to the guy who’d put all that sh*t on the air. Oh-oh!
That meeting cost me at least six months, so I decided to take fix the production first and because we were short an announcer, based on J Robert Wood’s recommendation, I hired Gary Russell. (pictured on top with me)
When Gar arrived, he only had one question, “What the f**k is all this?”
My bosses loved our new production sound so much they gave me a raise.
However, when I tried convincing them that my fixing production, wouldn’t fix the ratings, my warning fell on deaf ears.
However, when I tried convincing them that my fixing production, wouldn’t fix the ratings, my warning fell on deaf ears.
Sure enough, when the ratings come out, they’re a disaster and management panics because the owner was heading home from Palm Springs soon.
Now all they wanted was to know how quickly I could change the sound. They wanted to be able to say they could say, “Yes, the ratings are terrible, but as you can hear, we have a brand new sound.
As they say, luck is when preparation meets opportunity, so Gar and I hadn’t been idle.
We had most of the replacement staff already lined up, and Gary, who was familiar with the mechanics of CKLW in Detroit, had our format clock ready to go.
We held on to Ken Sebastian Singer from the old crew, brought in Keith Elshaw from Toronto and Doc Harris from Vancouver.
Next, we got Ron Andrews from Regina, Woody Cooper from Omaha, and Dylan Thomas from Albuquerque and we were all set.
Not only did we sound completely different, the owner told me that he liked the sound.
I think though, what he liked the most was that something had finally changed.
Even though our new sound scared the sh*t out of our sales staff, we could tell that we were attracting some fans.
One of them turned out to be Joni Mitchell (pictured above) who was home visiting her family in Saskatoon when we launched our new sound.
She and a friend surprised us with a visit to the station when they brought us her new album and while there, agreed to do an interview.
When we took a short break she introduced us to her companion who turned out to be Graham Nash of the Hollies. Wow!
When we took a short break she introduced us to her companion who turned out to be Graham Nash of the Hollies. Wow!
Graham told us that he had just popped into to see Joni for a couple of days before heading to LA to record an album with his new group, Crosby Stills & Nash. (pictured below)
When the new ratings camr out, they were killer! Everything was beautiful or so I thought until the owner popped into my office to ask if I was ready for the big meeting?
When I just laughed and said that I didn’t need to do much prep for a celebration meeting, he shocked me with, “It’s not a celebration, it’s quite the opposite.”
The sales department, he claimed, was getting resistance from some of our old clients, so they want to return to the old ways.
The sales department, he claimed, was getting resistance from some of our old clients, so they want to return to the old ways.
I sure wasn’t ready for that and was in total shock, so I called my mentor, Jim Hilliard, who said, “Go into the attack mode.”
Knowing that I was about to rain hell on everyone, I called my wife, who was back in Transcona visiting, to tell her that I might not have a job come supper time.
Instead of panicking, she told me to do whatever I had to do because if worse came to worse, we could always live with her folks.
It’s easy to be brave when a man has his family backing him, so when I walked into that conference room, I was walkin’ tall and loaded for bear.
Strangely, even though I’d arrived a few minutes early, everyone was already seated, which pissed me off. Hey but that’s not all bad; I give better meetings when I’m pissed.
The GM began by congratulating me on our great showing in the rating book.
However, when he got to the part about our having a few issues, I interrupted him by saying, “No, what you have, is a few problems, and they’re all sitting in this room.”
I then said, “Someone should have anticipated that there’d be some resistance and formulated a plan on how to overcome it.
We should be out there right now, explaining to our clients how they can take advantage of all our new listeners. Instead, it looks like our crack sales force was asleep at the wheel.
We should be out there right now, explaining to our clients how they can take advantage of all our new listeners. Instead, it looks like our crack sales force was asleep at the wheel.
Not only do we sound good, but we now also have statistical justification proving that we’re on to something.
If you’re here to tell me that you want the old ways back, I can assure you that it won’t be me doing it, and with that, I walked out.