Talk Radio Do I always start off The Word with a question? Oh, did I just do it again? Oops, is that 2 questions? The question I really want to ask is, have you ever had a job or do you have a job that you don’t like? It only happened to me a couple of times, and the first time was what might be considered an unusual job, making Presto Logs. I believe they still make them! For those of you who haven’t experienced the logs, they are cylindrical shaped logs about a foot long made of sawdust and wood chips. They are compressed under great heat in a giant cylinder that resembles the revolving cylinder that contains bullets in a six-shooter pistol. Once the logs are heated they’re popped out of the cylinder onto a conveyor belt and while still very hot are picked up by a person and placed in a cardboard box and pushed down the roller conveyor belt. That person picking up the hot logs was me. Even though I was given thick work gloves, those logs were really hot. An eight-hour shift of that and you wonder why I hated that job, and why I went home after a few days not even waiting to eat my lunch? I suppose it’s understandable that a teenage kid would have an aversion to manual labour, especially manual labour that involved hot logs! I immediately put “making Presto Logs” on my list of jobs I never wanted to do again in my life. The other job that was put on the list of jobs I never wanted to do again didn’t involve manual labour, but involved mental gymnastics. It was the job of a radio talk show host! Yes, another one of the gigs that shows up on my resume. The only thing I can honestly say was a shining light of that job is, it’s where I met my wife of 33 years. My then-future wife Jeri was the Promotions Director of the station, and I was smitten, not by the job but by the Promotions Director. I had just left my tenure at TV station CKVU, and was picking up freelance work here and there when I received a phone call from George Madden, the General Manager of radio station CJOR. I had worked with George years before at radio station CKNW. George and I always had a great relationship and he offered me a job as the host of a new morning show at the station. My response was, “that’s great George, but I’m a single parent with 2 young boys, 10 and 12 and I can’t see myself leaving the house for work at 4:00 in the morning!” I appreciated the offer, and certainly could use the money, but that just wasn’t going to work out. A few weeks later he called again to say that his 9am-noon talk show host had quit, and how would I like to do that? I immediately said “No, I’m not a talk show host, I’m a disc jockey/game show host. To be a good radio talk show host you must have a high opinion of your own opinion, and enjoy giving editorials.” Heck, I don’t do editorials, why would anyone care what I think, I don’t even care what I think! He said, “it’ll be great counter-programming to people like Bill Good!” I said, “no it won’t.” As you can see I was talking my way out of a job and a paycheque that I could really use. He said to come to the station and he’d show me around and introduce me to some of the staff. I did that and during the tour and introductions, he introduced me to Jeri, the Promotions Director. On the spot I said I’d take the job if I could have a desk next to hers, and so began our 37-year relationship and my one-year radio talk show career. The first 6 months of the job were horrific. The moment my feet hit the bedroom floor in the morning, there was a knot of dread in my stomach that would last all day. I managed to go through the motions of the job, but it was a feeling of being a square peg in a round hole. The only way to survive a situation like that is to surround yourself with good people, and I thankfully had a wonderful show producer, Henrietta Young. She held the show together and was able to get some wonderful guests, but I was proving myself right, this just wasn’t the right fit, and after 6 months of this horrible experiment the 9 to noon talk show ended, and I was moved to the afternoon show. The person who replaced me on that ill-fated 9-noon show is the subject of next week’s Word. Between now and then, see if you can guess who that might have been. I’m certain you’ll know his name when I tell you. It’s kind of a fun story that I’ll share with you next week. The whole nightmare ended after a year when the station changed the format of the radio station from Talk Radio to Classic Rock Music. I feel like I was instrumental in single-handedly flushing a radio station down the drain. "Go ahead line 2 from Chilliwack…" |
Ribbit!Welcome to The Word. Join our VIP List
Be the first to be notified about upcoming shows, premieres, live streams, blog posts (like the ones on this page!) and exclusive offers from Blue Frog Studios. Click here Thank you to our sponsors!
Archives
April 2024
|