Monthly Archives: December 2018

Geo’s Media Blog. (Sales Promotions) 3/05/18. #2 in 2018

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When I left CFTR in Toronto to join Fairbanks Broadcasting in Indianapolis as their National Program Director, I didn’t have a good relationship with many sales departments. (I mean how many times can you be slimed before you say, “Fu*k it?”)
Anyway, years later, CFTR hired my brother Reg to be their new Program Director, and when they were introducing him to everyone on his first day, I found out that my reputation was still intact. After meeting the sales manager, he said to Reg, “You’re not related to that prick George Johns are you?” Hell, even after just barely arriving in America, the entire WNAP sales staff marched into Jim Hilliard’s office and said, “It’s either him or us?” Jim thankfully said, “Don’t let the door hit you in the ass on your way out.”
Doing radio in America was very different than doing it in Canada. Everybody was a lot more aggressive, and the sales folks were also very driven. The big difference between American and Canadian sales folks is in America the sales managers control the promotion money whereas, in Canada, the CRTC (FCC) controls it. In fact, by law, you were only allowed to give away $5000 each month thus making it a budget item. In America, there was no limit to how much you could give away; you just had to figure out how to get sales to pay for it.
It didn’t take me too long to discover that all the money that I needed was already in Dick Yancey’s office in Indy, (pictured above) and Jerry Bobo’s in Dallas. (pictured on top) All I had to figure out was how to tie their clients into my latest promotion, and they were all over it.
How the chain of command worked at Fairbanks Broadcasting was, not only was I the National Program Director of the company, but I was also the local PD of WIBC. My counterpart Dick Yancey was the National Sales Manager and also the local SM of WIBC where we loved to run commercials because Mr. Fairbanks loved to pay cash for the stations he bought. Now the only way you get away with running a ton of spots they better be good, so we hired the best voices in the country to do them. You also needed a lot of rules like no remotes, no yelling car dealers, and if you needed a live read, you better come with a boatload of money. Oh, and did I mention, absolutely no remotes.
Dick Yancey and I didn’t agree on everything, so sometimes Hilliard would have to flip a coin to solve what he thought was a ridiculous argument. What Dick and I did agree on were the promotions that the sales folk thought were sales promotions and the air-staff thought that were programming promotions. The best one we ever came up with that both the air people and the salespeople loved may have been the “Magic Ticket.” In fact, it was so successful that the FCC investigated it and when it received a clean bill of health, Dick syndicated it nationwide which bought me my first Mercedes.
When Jim Hilliard bought KVIL in Dallas for Mr. Fairbanks, and I met Jerry Bobo, (pictured on top) he quickly became one of my favorite Sales Managers.
Unfortunately for Jerry, when we launched the new KVIL, he had absolutely nothing to sell. We didn’t have any ratings; we didn’t do remotes, we didn’t have any air talent, so no live reads. All we had was a shi#load of rules about what he could not do if he were lucky enough to find someone who even wanted to buy a commercial. Oh did I mention, absolutely no remotes and oh yeah, we were doing a brand new format which had never been on the radio before? C’mon Jerry, there’s no crying in radio, and we did keep Ron Chapman around for you, maybe he’ll catch fire, ya never know.
What made Jerry stand head and shoulders above most SMs was that when he discovered that the only thing he did have to sell were promotions, he became the best in the world at it. He also didn’t sit around waiting for me to bring him things like the “Magic Ticket,” “The Checks In The Mail,” “The Prize Catalog,” and “The 50% Off Free Fair,” he’d just head down to Ron Chapman’s office. Once there he would ask Ron if there was anything that he wanted to do that he hadn’t done yet? There was always something, and once Jerry found out what it was, he would scurry back to his office and package it up. I was never against any of this because if Ron wanted to do it, it never failed.
Once KVIL was cookin’, Hilliard would use Jerry to help out at our other stations. One of my fondest moments occurred when he visited Boston to do a “Magic Ticket” presentation for F-105. (WVBF) We did it a fancy Boston hotel for the executives, managers and their spouses of a restaurant chain called Friendly’s. Right in the middle of explaining how it worked, Jerry said, “Hell it’s impossible to explain how excited your customers are going to be when this promotion hits the air, so I’m just gonna show you.” With that, he reached into his briefcase and started throwing money at the startled Friendly’s folks who soon were not so friendly as they began to shove each other out of the way. It’s hard to explain how ridiculous the scene looked as they all crawled around on their hands and knees as they tried to gather up as much free money as they possibly could.
As George Harrison once said in a song though, “All things must pass,” and even though I was still having fun, after being at Fairbanks for eight years, it was time for me to move on so I left to start my own consulting company. However, I soon discovered that being a consultant was very different than being a V/P of programming. When you’re the V/P, most of your ideas make the airways; when you’re a consultant, you’re lucky if half of them do.

Thankfully, when I left Fairbanks, they became one of my clients, and I’ll never forget my first visit to Dallas as their brand new consultant. When the clock radio went off the next morning, Ron Chapman was doing his show from the parking lot of a shopping mall which was bad enough but the fact that it wouldn’t be open for hours made him sound lonely. What the fu#k? Upon investigation, I found out that Jerry had found out that Ron had lusted after a tricked out RV with a studio in it for years. Ron wanted to do his show once in a while from the towns that surrounded Dallas as a sorta, thank you for listening thing. Jerry came through with Ron’s dream studio but of course, needed a little help. He needed Ron to do a few trial runs around town before he took that beautiful tricked out RV on the road. C’mon Jerry!

GEO’S LIFE-LINERS.

I wonder if Jews, Hispanics, Muslims, Native Americans, and Asians in America feel better treated than black folks?

When you’re young, you worry about what people think of you. When you’re middle-aged, you don’t give a damn, but as you grow older, you realize that they were never thinking about you.

My nephew Jamie Boychuck who is an executive with CSX Railway got to ring the bell to begin trading on Wallstreet last Friday. How cool is that?

Your destiny isn’t about your getting lucky; it’s about your ability to choose what it is you want it to be.

Each dumb mistake you make gives you another opportunity to become smarter.

Is there anything louder than the crickets suddenly stopping?

Defeating the enemy inside your head is tough.

The time to start worrying about the stuff that you don’t control is when what you do control is perfect.

Following the well-worn path leads to nothing of any consequence.

It’s not the all the great things that you do now, and then that makes the difference, it’s the everyday things that you do.

As sophisticated as Shakespeare’s writing appears to be, it was written for the common man as were all the Beatles compositions.

The difference between winners and losers is, the winners are the ones who got back up one more time to give it another shot.

Unfortunately, we only get to elect our presidents but not our kings who are the wealthy big business guys.

The rest of the world may not like America, but they sure love our benefits.

Why is it so much harder getting the generic medicine out of the container than the original?

In this politically correct world that we live in, people only want to communicate with those who agree with them thus leaving the planet running in place.

What if Mother Nature intended us to screw up the planet. Maybe she’s hoping that we’ll eliminate ourselves and then she could get on with whatever is next without her having to send another comet.

Why do politicians once elected work on everything except what we elected them to work on, “The economy and jobs?”

Having enemies is a good thing claimed Winston Churchill because it means that at one time in your life you stood for something.

The only thing more irritating in South Florida in the winter time than a person from Quebec is an even ruder New Yorker with a horn.

Any person who is not a little wiser today than they were yesterday is on a fast train to nowhere.

Since deregulation began, can anyone point out anything good? All I see are radio groups going into bankruptcy, and people losing their jobs.

I dislike negativity so much that I get excited whenever anything positive shows up like waking up and realizing it’s Friday. Even though the days of the week stopped being a big deal to me when I got into radio, Friday still feels special.

Isn’t it weird when somebody quits smoking they immediately start lecturing even we non-smokers on the evils of smoking? Sometimes it gets so bad that I begin praying for them start smoking again.

How do we free our politicians from the chains of lobbyist money so they’d be free to do what’s right?

When I got a record deal, I thought the dealin’ was done. Little did I know that the dealin’ had just begun.

Have you ever noticed that everyone except the Democrats and Republicans criticizes the evil money that flows from lobbyists to politicians?

Listen up ladies, what most men want from their woman is unconditional adoration.

The sales side of #KVIL, #LifeLiners about #Winners and #DeregulationLosers, plus #Radio are above. Comments about many other things are @ GeorgeJohns.com. On Twitter @GeoOfTheRadio. Sharing & Commenting is appreciated.

 

 

 

Geo’s Media Blog. (Music & Sex) 1/29/18. #3 in 2018

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When I was in my late teens, I used to follow a band around called Johnny Lauzon and the Big Boppers. I loved the band mostly because a couple of my friends were in it. Peter Proskurnik (pictured right above) played sax with Gordy Duke was on drums. In fact, Peter was the one who got my musical career started, so I owe him a lot. Every Thursday night I would travel to the Normandy Ballroom on Sherbrooke street in Winnipeg to watch the Big Boppers in action and on one of those nights, I spotted a beautiful girl with gorgeous jet black hair which was in direct contrast to her pale white skin and her name which was which was Sandy. As I said, The Big Boppers played on Thursday, and every Thursday there I was trying to get her to dance with me. She’d occasionally throw me a bone and dance a couple of fast ones with me, but never anything slow, mostly, she just ignored me.
 
Eventually, I learned to play guitar and formed my own band called the Phantoms which later became The Jury. Then when the Big Boppers moved on, we replaced them as the house band, at the Normandy. Surprise surprise, on our first night, Sandy was all over me, and when I offered to drive her home, she excitedly accepted. Not having a car of my own yet, I was driving my Mom’s Nash Metropolitan which looked just like the one pictured above. On our way to her place that very brisk January night, we stopped in a remote location to listen to the radio and make out a little. Before long she started whispering in my ear that she wanted me and she wanted me right now. 
Ok, visualize this, here we are in a tiny two-seater, her skirt hiked up to her waist, my pants around my knees and there’s a whole lot of panting and moaning going on. It was 35 below outside, so there was no “Doing It In The Road” as Paul McCartney once sang. If this were ever gonna happen, it would have to happen here in the car because even opening the door to get a little leg room was out of the question. However, knowing that there is no rain check for this sort of thing, I was determined to complete my mission.

Unfortunately, I guess it wasn’t meant to be because the only thing that was happening was that we longer needed the heater to stay warm. Finally, I gave it up though when I realized that as close as that sweet prize was, it was still so far away.

GEO’S LIFE-LINERS

Instead of bitching about Trump non-stop, it would behoove the Democrats I would think, to spend a little time figuring out who they’re gonna run against him?

Is it fair to say that the shine is off the NFL as we wait for New England and Philly to play each other in the Superbowl? I think they may have seen their best days.
 
The world doesn’t owe you a thing; you owe it because after all, it was here first.
 
You can’t demand respect; you have to earn it.
 
Can you even begin to imagine how much money must have passed through Mr. Amazon’s hands during December?
 
I spent most of my youth wishing that I was older which came true much too quickly. However, now that I’ve come to my senses and wish to return to my youthful times, apparently, nobody is listening.
 
The thing I find amazing about millennials, as smart as they think they are, they’re just as dumb about drinking as we used to be.
 
One of the differences between men and women is that men waste a lot of time thinking about getting laid. Women just do it.
 
Hey ladies, I think even you may agree that it should be a lot tougher for a woman to collect millions of dollars from a superstar athlete other than just talking him into not using a condom.
 
I wonder if Man would have ever attempted flight had he not seen a bird first?
 
The real reason radio is in trouble is because accountants don’t have ears.
 
If you need to know what a man is made of,  give him a little power.
 
I wish the folks on the right instead of just laughing at the left would throw out a few caustic one-liners themselves.
 
Only one person is listening to the radio at a time, and that stops the moment someone else walks in the room.
 
Blonde women earn 7% more, how dumb is that?
 
I think it may be time to stop talkin’ and start doin’.
 
Beauty is costly.
 
If the civil war like my friend Bobby claims was fought over the freeing of slaves, how come black folks don’t mark the victory with a celebration?
 
Speaking of the civil war, a lot of white people gave up their lives, so I don’t buy that we’re all bad.
 
There can be no progress without change.
 
I don’t wanna marry the right woman; I want to marry the one I can’t live without.
 

When you shake hands with the devil, you know it ain’t gonna end well.

I wonder why the people who spent most of their early lives in a basement learning how to play guitar think that we want to hear their opinion on how to vote?

Do kids today that they’re much smarter than their parents were at the same age?

I think they should hold the Pro-Bowl and the Superbowl in the same city which would make everything bigger for everyone. 

Geo’s Blog above is about #Sex and #Music with a few “LifeLiners about #Trump and the #Democrats thrown in. Much more @ GeorgeJohns.com On Twitter @GeoOfTheRadio. Sharing and commenting is appreciated.

 

Geo’s Media Blog. (Retro Radio In Dallas) 6/04/18. #4 in 2018.

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Back in the day when FM wasn’t cool, Jim Hilliard the CEO of Fairbanks Broadcasting, paid almost two million dollars for KVIL-FM in Dallas which local broadcasters at the time thought was exorbitant. It later sold for eighty-five million, but long before that we had to figure out how to get the folks to come over to the FM band.
What we came up with was so unique that within a few short years, some version of it was heard all over America. What was so special about KVIL was its special jingles, the likes of which Dallas had never heard before, it’s outstanding aggressive air personalities, the locals claimed we overpaid them but seeing as most of them are in the Texas Radio Hall Of Fame, I think not. It did giant promotions which had the whole town buzzing, including one that had the listeners giving us over a quarter million dollars. Mostly though, KVIL simply played classy music for the beautiful ladies of Dallas whp we adored. (to hear our first year as America’s first Adult Contemporary radio station, simply click on the link at the bottom.) On air, we treated the lovely ladies of Dallas like they were potential candidates for the Dallas Cowboy Cheerleaders.
The way we promoted our new creation was by using spectacular billboards that made our on-air staff at KVIL look bigger than life. All of our billboards were created in Indianapolis by Norm Wilkens with a great artist named Lotsy. Lotsy not only did our boards in Dallas but he also did some award-winning ones for our stations in Indy, Philly, Boston, and Palm Beach. However, in Dallas, our first big billboard campaign consisted of one billboard. Not to worry though, we placed that billboard right where it would do the most damage, outside the studio window of KLIF so that whenever KLIF’s morning man looked out at the sunrise, what he saw instead was Ron Chapman staring back at him with a shit-eating grin on his face. (1st billboard below)
Of all the billboards we put up though, some of which are shown below, none of them were more controversial than the one promoting our Elf in the afternoon, Mike Selden. (pictured on top) Who could have predicted that his billboard would end up across the street from a nunnery? I mean what were the odds of that?
The Church, of course, was very upset with us and demanded that we remove the offensive billboard immediately. However, KVIL’s mandate was only to do what our listeners told us to do so we asked them for their thoughts which necessitated them driving by the board before being able to comment on it which caused some problems leading to the newspapers and TV covering the situation. Eventually, due to popular demand, we finally moved Mike’s board to another location which the Church was nice enough to publically thank us for doing.
However, the billboard that was the most fun of all was the one that upset all the other radio stations in town. This one appeared in full color on the front page of The Dallas Times Herald with a headline that read, Mayor, Moonlights on KVIL. The billboard featured Ron Chapman and Wes Wise with the slug line, Wise with Ron. On the board, Ron was toasting the Mayor with a KVIL cup of coffee, and the Mayor was handing the keys to the city to Ron.
Oh and don’t get me started on the insurance nightmare we had with our billboard at the freeway exit to downtown Dallas. This one read, “The Big Swing is to KVIL” and featured scantily dressed young ladies taking turns swinging several stories high above the traffic. This was happening during Ron’s morning show, and It turned the exit into a parking lot. The bad news was that before long the police were yelling at us and demanding that we bring the girls down. The good news, however, was that once again we were on TV and in the papers.
Then, there was our billboard that inflicted a lot of damage on one of our fellow broadcasters. In the quest to get the folks to get the folks to move from AM to FM, KNUS were doing their part with the younger crowd, but shortly after KVIL became #1, they made the mistake of putting up a bunch of billboards claiming that they were the Top Banana in Dallas. This pissed off our owner Richard Fairbanks who retaliated by buying up all the locations in front of their billboards to post what you see in the black and white photo below. Sing along with me now or better yet, click on the KVIL jingle link at the bottom of the page to hear ’em all…

“It’s a shame
what’s happened to radio
but they can’t afford
to do it anymore.”

“It’s a shame
they can’t hire
a section of brass
be so much class
on KVILLLLLLLL”

“But they can’t afford
to do it anymore
It’s a shame.“

GEO’S LIFE-LINERS

Perfection is the only unattainable goal worthy of your pursuit.

Great acts may go out of style but great songs seldom do.

I wonder what America would be like if we had as many political parties to choose from as we do radio stations and cars.

Nobody ever talks about how easy it was to become rich, they only whine about how poor they were when they started out. I guess they’re hoping that we won’t notice them not sharing their good fortune.

If females are wonderful, why won’t mothers let them anywhere near their young sons?

I loved that 15-year-old Brynn Cartelli won The Voice. I was beginning to think that I’d I lost it because the judges only seemed to like the singers who howled and did runs.

Speaking of The Voice, I wonder if Ed Sheeran would have any chance of making it through the blind auditions?

I wonder who it is at the networks who decide what we see and hear on the news and maybe even more importantly what we don’t? I’d like to tell them about how Walter Cronkite would do it because I believe he’d kick their ass.

The smartest thing a good director can do is stay away from the spotlight.

Laws aren’t about doing what’s right; they’re just laws.

All that counts is who gets to call the shots not who gets the credit.

Jim Hilliard once told me something that is very evident today. “It doesn’t take any brains to buy a radio station, just money.”

Does it offend you as much as it does me to subscribe to something only to discover that they’ve automatically jacked up the price because you had the special introductory rate which you were never aware of?

Just because you don’t understand something doesn’t make it bad.

One of the realities of consolidation is that when you add up the ratings of the radio stations a company may own in a given market, more often than not they don’t equal what one of their stations used to have.

I see that the Red Sox still have the best record in baseball. Go, Sox!

As KVIL ends, may I present the beginning.

A short story about #Billboards in #Dallas, #JimHilliard, and a few #LifeLiners about radio are above. Comments about so much more @ GeorgeJohns.com. On Twitter @GeoOfTheRadio. Sharing and commenting is appreciated.

 

Geo’s Media Blog. (Making Movies) 1/22/18. #5 in 2018.

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A few years ago, I got a call from old friend Ermanno Barone (pictured above with me) who wanted me to become involved in his new filmmaking project. He wanted to build some movie studios back in our hometown of Winnipeg because more and more Hollywood filmmakers were looking at Canada to shoot in. Unfortunately, as Ermanno explained it, they only had Toronto and Vancouver now.
He figured Manitoba would be a perfect place to make movies what with its flat prairie look that was also surrounded by lots of lakes. He planned to build a huge soundstage surrounded by smaller buildings that he would lease to those companies who supplied the filmmakers with everything that they needed to make movies. Ermanno’s plan looked so exciting to the city fathers that they sold him some government land which was right across the river from downtown Winnipeg for a dollar.
What Ermanno wanted from me was a little help with the showbiz part and to sit on his board, but unfortunately, before the project even got underway, he suddenly passed away from pancreatic cancer.
However, before Ermanno’s untimely death, I did get to travel back to Winnipeg to meet with him about the project and to also visit the faux western town he’d already built a few miles out of town to shoot westerns in. Along for the ride were fellow board members Wilson Parasiuk and Ed Schreyer.
Willy (pictured right above with me) like Ermanno, is another longtime Transcona friend who also is the brain of our bunch. In fact, Willy is the only Rhodes scholar ever to come out of TCI and before returning to the private sector to build hospitals in places like Dubai, he’d been the Finance Minister of Manitoba.

Ed Schreyer, (pictured above Willy and me) on the other hand, was Canada’s longtime Governor General after being Manitoba’s Premier for a few years. After walking the streets of Ermanno’s town and feeling like we were in the movie, “High Noon,” we all sat down to lunch. There was no doubt who the lightweight was in this crowd, so I planned to stay quiet and learn. However, when I was introduced to Mrs. Schreyer, and she discovered that I used to play for the Jury, she became very excited because she claimed that she had danced to us at many of the community clubs where we’d played. At some point, she asked me what had happened to all those community clubs and the bands that used to play at them. I explained to her that when the drinking age was lowered to eighteen in Manitoba, it brought an end to the community club era because the kids went to bars instead. She immediately turned to her husband and said, “Ed, you killed the music industry in Winnipeg.”

GEO’S LIFE-LINERS

The reason some people would rather text than talk is so they can think about their answers making them appear more intelligent than they are. I wonder why that hasn’t worked on Facebook yet?

73% of Americans would prefer a benevolent dictator ’cause the voting thing just ain’t working out for them; they’d rather stay home and watch TV.
 
How does a person who qualifies for food stamps, afford a thousand dollar iPhone?
 
The longest distance you’ll ever travel is going from how it is, to how you want it to be.
 
When a woman dumps you, it’s not in your best interest to be her friend.
 
The only way to get a raise is to make management afraid that you’re going to leave. Don’t look now but they don’t appear to be nervous. 
 
Getting free money from the government should be just as difficult as it is getting it from other sources. 
 
If considering a move to Canada, you may want to consider this … The far right is just a little left of center. 
 
I guess you’re really f**ked if you’re out of whack, whatever whack is?
 
As in life, the only way to become a good sailor is by sailing the rough seas. 
 
When you live in the past, your future becomes nothing more than a sequel.
 
Women who are treated as sex objects are usually dressed as such.
 
Mysterious women are only exciting if you don’t love them.
 
The only way you can see your future is by imagining it.
 
Just as women aren’t as innocent as they appear to be, men aren’t as dumb as they appear to be.
 
When a woman picks out the man that she wants to be the father of her babies, I wish him luck on his not becoming a father.
 
Doctors are just like car mechanics; there is no way that they are allowing you to leave their office without finding something wrong with you.
 
After just coming off a train ride from LA to Chicago and having ridden trains all over America, my fellow travelers and I all agree that Chicago is where the attitude of the Amtrak employees begins sucking.
 
I think the first lie I ever heard was that we were all created equal. The truth is that some of us are gonna have to work harder than others instead of just whining about it.
 
Fame unveils who we were all along whereas political correctness hides it.
 
With only one original member still in the band and with some ticket prices going for a couple of grand, has got to make the Eagles the most expensive cover band of all time. Hell, even the Guess Who from Winnipeg are outed, and they have two sometimes three originals still in the band. 
 
You can never make enough money to make up for the fact that you despise your job.
 
When the guy who lives next door to you makes as much from welfare as you do working for a living, how long do you suppose it will be until you finally say, “The hell with it?” 
 
The method used to harvest rating data more determines what radio station is #1 than how many people may be listening to a particular radio station does.
 
The good thing about rednecks is that at least most of them have a good work ethic.
 
I wish that I didn’t know now what I didn’t know then about women.
 
Speaking of women, just like with men, a lot of what they know is simply not true.
 
Why must we be for all things that are left, can’t we be for some things that are right?
 
The problem with ideas is that everybody has them.
 
Just because a bunch of accountants paid too much for radio stations and are unable to keep up the mortgage payments, doesn’t change the fact that according to Neilson, 93% of all Americans listen to the radio. What other product can make that claim?
 

Speaking of listeners, the folks spend almost 60% of their radio time listening to the stations they love, 30% with the ones they like and 10% with those they just kinda overhear. The trick is to turn the likes into loves, the people who love you have no more to give.

You may have to win the last battle to win the war.

What causes a blind person to be racist.

I wonder what the Queen thinks of the Netflix series “The Crown?”

So it’s Philly and Boston in Minneapolis on the 4th huh.

Stuff about #Canada’s GovernorGeneral, #Ermanno Barone and #Willy Parasiuk and some #Geo #LifeLiners above. Much more@ GeorgeJohns.com and on Twitter @GeoOfTheRadio. Sharing and commenting is appreciated.

 
 

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Geo’s Media Blog. (Hell, I’ll Release That!) 4/28/18. #6 in 2018.

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Having hung around radio stations for most of my life and working with Hall Of Fame folks like Ron Chapman, Jerry Bobo, Larry Dixon, Mike Selden, Jack Schell, Ken Barnett, Bob Morrison, Steve Eberhart, Suzie Humphries, Jeff & Jer, Delilah, Jack Wells, Jim Coghill, Gary Russell, Chuck McCoy, J Robert Wood, Fred Heckman, Sid Collins, Joe Pickett, Jim Shelton, Jack Morrow, Joe McConnell, Art Schreiber, Tom Cochran, Cris Conner, Sunny Joe White, Don Bleu, Terry McGovern, Steve Hicks, and Jim Harper, I got to hear some pretty strong lines. However, even though the most memorable line I’ve ever heard was said in a radio station, it wasn’t said by a radio person.
It all began one frigid January night in Winnipeg when CKY dee-jays Chuck Dann and Daryl ‘B’ graciously agreed to record a demo tape for my band The Jury. We’d recently recruited a singer by the name of Bruce Walker to replace Donny Burns whom we lost to Bill Gilliland of Arc Records but he wasn’t “stage ready.” Our plan that night was to cut a few instrumentals and If they turned out half decent, we’d send them out to some dance promoters like J Robert Wood. While sitting there waiting for Chuck and Daryl to finish setting up, Bruce asked Terry Kenny and I if we would help him finish up a tune he was composing. He was hoping that if we got it done maybe we could tack it on the end of the session.
After having played our instrumentals so often on stage, things went very smoothly, so we had plenty of time to have a go at Bruce’s new tune called “Until You Do.” After going through it with the rest of the guys a few time we laid down a couple of tracks of it and then went into the control room to hear what we had.
The playback blew us away, not only did it sound decent, it sounded very English which was very important because we were right in the middle of the British Invasion. Chuck and Daryl who were also excited about the tune, suggested that I should bring it back tomorrow at noon and play it for their boss, Jimmy Darin. Jim was the Program Director of CKY, and as they said,”If anybody knew what to do with our new song, it would be him.”

The next day at the stroke of high noon I was back at CKY, with tape in hand and after Jim listened to it, he asked if I could hang around until six? He went on to say that Hal Ross who is an executive with London Records was coming by to take him to dinner, let’s make him listen to your song first. When Hal showed up, we dragged him to the studio and when “Until You Do” faded away he said something that I’ve never forgotten, “Hell, I’ll release that!”

(To hear what Hal heard, click on the link at the bottom of the page.)

GEO’S LIFE-LINERS

One of the neat things about the recent Royal Wedding was the lack of politicians looking for camera time. As the happy couple said, “This is not a political affair.”

Speaking of the royal wedding, I loved when Harry said to Prince Charles after he escorted the bride down the aisle, “Thanks Pa.”

Supposedly at his bachelor party, Prince Harry was overheard saying, “It feels weird stuffing my grandmother’s picture into g-strings.”
 
I never realized that there are 31 teams in the NHL but only 6 of them are in Canada. Seeing as hockey is Canada’s national sport, shouldn’t they have teams in Kelowna, Regina and/or Saskatoon, Hamilton, Quebec City, and Halifax?
 
How cool would it be to see a Yardbird reunion with Clapton, Beck, and Page?
 
I love when companies turn the negative about their product into a selling point. Example, Heins Ketchup making us believe that if it’s not hard to get out of the bottle, it’s no good. Or Uber recruitment ads saying, “You get to drive your own car” and others saying, “You can work from home.”
 

Why are we never shocked when a corporate executive is charged with fraud?

I was watching a special the other day about Larry Bird and one of the NBA superstars said, “Here’s the thing with Bird, he couldn’t run, couldn’t jump, and couldn’t dribble. The only thing he did really well was kicking your ass.”

Why do people who not only still vote like their ancestors even though the times have changed rant at us that we should do as they do?

If New York and California are always gonna vote the same way, why do we waste money counting their votes?

As Garth Brooks once said for me, “I was a little wild in school but not as wild as I wanted to be, I was too scared.”

The NRA has to figure out how to get people to stop committing suicide with guns so they can get their stats down.

Great Indy 500 which featured a new car design that put the driving back in the hands of the driver. Will Power, an Australian, won it after Danica Patrick ended her career crashing out.

Wow, the Cavs beat the Celtics at home on their way to the NBA finals. How many times can LeBron do it himself?

“https://youtu.be/vufZfWjUqbI

Geo’s Media Blog above is about #Making a #Record and a bunch of #LifeLiners about the #NHL, #NRA  and the #RoyalWedding. Much much more@ GeorgeJohns. On Twitter @GeoOfTheRadio. Sharing & commenting is appreciated.