Shortly after being hired as the new Program Director of CFTR, Lana and I headed to Toronto to house hunt. While there, Ted Rogers (shown above) graciously invited us to his home for Sunday brunch. When we arrived at our destination, we found ourselves in front of a beautiful old mansion where we were greeted at the front door by a butler and I remember thinking, this is sure a long way from Transcona, Toto.
Just before we sat down for brunch, Ted proudly showed me the radio tube that his father had invented. (shown on top)
The ancient tube, which was encased inside a wooden cabinet with a glass top, which Ted explained, allowed radios to be plugged into an electrical outlet for the first time. Before then, he said, “They had to be hooked up to a battery.
As I stood there admiring the display, Ted said, “George, what you’re looking at is from the past, after brunch, I’m going to show you something from the future.”
Once we were done with the brunch, Ted led me to his den, where he sat me down in front of the TV and handed me a brown plastic box. The box contained rows of buttons, and as he turned on the TV, he told me to push every one of them. Damn! Each time I pushed one of the buttons, a different TV show would come on.
“What you’re watching George is Cable TV,” Ted explained, and in the not too distant future, this will be the way that most of us will watch TV.”
Then when he asked what I thought about his brand new toy, I told him that even though it was mind-boggling, I couldn’t help but notice that every fourth button had the same TV show. Ted responded by saying, “That’s your problem, George, you’re the programmer; I’m just an engineer.”
Sometimes to save time, you’ve got to let somebody be wrong.
Understanding is more crucial than knowing.
Only in America do we call it lobbying, it’s called bribery everywhere else.
Seeing is believing, but all things aren’t what they seem.
The less you know, the more opinionated you become.
As I have many times, I have no idea where Geo’s Life-Lines come from, so I decided to run them through a plagiarism service. The response was, “You stole them all from GeorgeJohns.com.”
Good enough is never quite good enough.
Luck never happens when you need it.
My life wasn’t easy, but it was a hell of a lot easier than what my kids and grandson face.
I keep hearing that I’m a privileged old white guy, but how old do you have to be before the privileges start showing up?
The only not so good thing about the young ladies who are early developers is they continue developing.
Neil Young is now as old as the “Old Man” he was singing about, back in the day.
Life only begins to get good when you start taking all the risks that scare you.
When my Dad was teaching me to drive, occasionally, he’d say, “Son, you’re over correcting.” America needs to listen to my Dad.
Why is it when a few people die from something, it’s immediately pulled from the market place, but cigarettes and guns are still around huh?
Is it true that the tobacco industry is fueling the vaping scare?
There is nobody more sensitive than me, but unfortunately, I don’t what that the ladies are longing for is my type of sensitivity.
COMMENTS
Jennifer Sue Randall: I really appreciated you putting this article into your blog. I have nothing against Trump. I was just on a cruise, and several people brought up Trump’s name and then went into a rant about how much they hated him. It’s a beautiful practice to stay quiet. You can’t change anyone’s mind. Even with this blog, you probably won’t stop the negativity towards him. I voted for Donald, and I don’t mind saying it. I could not vote for HC, and I’m still happy that I voted for “the Donald.” Being president is a thankless job with tons of criticism. Kenny met Donald Trump a couple of times and liked him as a person. Most of us have not met him, but yet choose to hate him and everything that he does. However, that’s what makes the world go round. (Unthinkable Trump)
Shaun Holly: What a great piece of historical creative entertainment! From the clever contests and promotions to the jingles and the jocks! I remember it so well…we could sure use it today. Thanks for sharing George! (Retro Radio In Dallas)
Peter Zolnowski: What other product can make the claim that 93% of all Americans use it? I’m guessing toilet paper. (Making Movies)
John King: George, my favorite Ron Chapman story: he gave away the prize of a 240Z to the wife of a contestant, who called in because her husband, who had entered the contest, was on the flight line and couldn’t respond to call within the required time. Ron asked me, KVIL’s FCC lawyer, if that was okay. I said, “Well, no, because the contest rules required the person who entered the contest to call personally.” What did Ron do? He took it to his audience, asking, “Should we take the car away from her?” Then he did the classiest thing: he let them keep it, and did a do-over: he gave another car away! No one ever out-classed KVIL. (Sales Promotions)
Geo: You’re right John until CBS purchased KVIL, every other radio station in town was only playing catch up. KVIL owned the promotion category. Mike Bader, as you know, was our counsel at Fairbanks, but unfortunately, he said no to every one of my promotion ideas. Finally, I blew up at Mr. Fairbanks (how ballsy was that?), and the next thing I knew, I got to deal with you. I’ll never forget the very first promotion I ran by you. In the middle of my passionate presentation, you interrupted me and said, “George George, are you planning on giving away the prize?” When I answered yes, you said, “Then stop selling me, sell it to your listeners.”:-)
Dann Shively: Gordon and I grew up in Vallejo, and both started working at a 250-watt daytime, KGYW/KNBA, when we were 12 and 13. I was more interested in on-air work; he was more interested in engineering, although he did on-air work as well. Even at that age, he built a carrier current station at home, and we broadcast to the neighborhood from his bedroom. No one deserves the Hall of Fame induction more than Gordon. (Gordon Zlot)
Geo: I couldn’t agree more, Dann.
There are a hundred KVIL promotions I remember well. One of my favorites was the “6 pack of Chevettes” we gave away on 1 day during a ratings book. I remember at the meeting when Ron was giving the details of the promotion. He said, “..now understand, a Chevette is not exactly a Mercedes, but I don’t think anyone will turn down a new car!” So with that on a Thursday, (of course), we started on his show in the morning and on each jocks shift throughout the day and night, we gave away a car. I even gave on away at 11:20 p.m. on my 11-2 night shift! WHO gives away a CAR at 11:20 p.m. at night??!! KVIL did.
Wow!
I was expecting you to show a time machine.
A great story!
hanks for allowing me the privilege of seeing a piece of radio history.
My father was a radio operator in the Korean war. I would had loved to see that electronics in person.
Duane Zimmerman
West Palm Beach, Fla.