The Word - Vol 87

Now the News

I recently did an interview with former news anchor Tony Parsons and we talked about the early days in his broadcasting career. Like many, Tony started in radio in a small town. We talked about how much fun that was and how in a one-station market you got to do everything. You were a DJ, and a newscaster, you wrote and recorded commercials, and you did it all. If you worked the night shift you also emptied the waste baskets and ashtrays around the office and control room.

I did the same thing back in 1968, and it was a fun learning experience. In the station I started at, CKCQ in Quesnel, British Columbia, I began working the evening shift that went from 6pm to 11pm. When my show was over at 11:00 I would play a recording of God Save the Queen and when that finished, I’d reach over and pull the plug on the transmitter! The broadcast day was over. I once asked the General Manager of the radio station, Denny Reid, why we signed off at 11:00. He said that years before there was an announcer who worked the evening shift, and at the time the station signed off at midnight. This announcer complained that midnight was too late because he’d miss last call at the bar! So, Denny agreed to change the sign-off to 11:00. By the time I left CKCQ a year later I was hosting the morning show and it was one of my jobs to plug the transmitter in to start the broadcast day. 

It was a great little station, especially for someone’s first job in the business. We had some interesting features such as Trading Post, a kind of a garage sale on the radio. People would call in with things for sale or ask if anyone had a certain item they were looking for. And there was Message Time which was designed to serve the listeners who lived off the grid so to speak. They lived so far out in the bush that they didn’t have telephone service. And this was of course long before cell phones. In order to communicate with anyone, people would drop off messages at the radio station and once a day we would read them. It could be anything from doctor’s appointments to grocery orders to be picked up, to something as simple as 'come into town tomorrow'. I remember one slip-up on Message Time. A note was left at the station and the handwriting wasn’t the best, to say the least. I went on the air and read the message, and it went like this, “To Janet Smith, to Janet Smith, your baby is ready, signed The Co-op.” What? No, that doesn’t say baby it says barley! My mistake. Really bad handwriting!

The station tried to serve everyone in listening range. I can recall a number of 1/2-hour radio shows that featured music from different countries. One show was for Italian-speaking people and was hosted by a local who spoke Italian. Every week he’d come into the station with a stack of 45’s (remember 45’s?), hand them to me and I’d get them ready to play on the turntable. He’d give a lengthy introduction to each record, and I’d have to guess when he finished the introduction and start the record! It was tricky because I don’t speak Italian! 
Tony began his career as a radio DJ, but found his real love was the news. He made the switch and that’s where he got his early experience reading, writing, and reporting the news. It was a time when the news came across a teletype machine that was constantly typing out news, weather, and sports. When performing a one-man show, there was no time to re-write any of the stories, it was simply a “rip and read” operation. Rip the paper off the machine and read it! Later of course, at a larger market station, Tony got to hone his craft and write his own version of the stories. 

This reminds me of a joke that Peter Legge used to tell, and one I’ve told many times and always use Tony as the rookie news reader. It goes like this. 

When Tony Parsons started out in radio, he started in a small town, a one-station market. And like most rookies, he started doing the evening shift. One night he heard the teletype machine sounding an alarm, ding, ding, ding, which indicated a bulletin was coming in. Tony ran to the machine and saw the bulletin. It said, Bulletin, Bulletin, Bulletin, the King of Romania has died, and gave the King’s name which was 23 letters long with upside down and backward letters, in other words - a pronunciation nightmare. Young Parsons knew it was important and knew he had to get it on the air, so he took the news copy into the control room, threw open the microphone, and said, Bulletin, Bulletin, Bulletin, the King of Romania has died….His name is being withheld until next of kin have been notified!

It didn’t really happen, but it very well could have back in those early days! 

To some, the television business is more glamorous, but Tony and I agreed that working our way up through radio was the most fun we’ve ever had in the broadcasting business.

And what is Tony Parsons up to these days? He’s living a quiet, comfortable life with his wife Tammy in the Okanagan, he plays lots of golf, and is embarking on a new venture - a podcast called The Tony Parsons Show. It will be up and running this fall with Tony interviewing celebrities, politicians, and people in the news.  

That sure sounds like work to me Mr. Parsons! But according to Tony, he’s too young to retire! I guess you just can’t keep a good journalist down!

Till next week… 
Wayne

→ Click here to learn more about Tony's podcast

WATCH:
Above: The Tony Parsons Show Trailer
Below: Looking back on Tony's 30 years in broadcasting

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