Rick C in Oakville was asking me to occasionally write about my days at Chum. Let me start at the start. When I was in school I used to sit at the breakfast table with my parents who always had 1050 on. My mom loved Jay Nelson, my dad would argue out loud with Dick Smyth and I would eat up every word from Dave Wright doing sports.
A few years later I was working with these 3. It was amazine walking into the building and seeing people you had only heard. Smythe, Nelson and Wright in the morning. Then John Gilbert and 2 hours of talks. Terry Steele, Tom Rivers and Scott Carpenter followed. All of them larger than life to me.
Dave actually hired me. To this day I think he's the finest sportscaster I have ever heard. Trouble was he couldn't remember anyones name so you became either Boomer or Shooter. I'd go out with him to press conferences and he'd tell someone I'd like you to meet my new assistant...ah,..ah...Shooter. Meet Shooter. One time he couldn't remember the name of the person he was introducing me to so he just said "Boomer meet Shooter".
Now the news department took itself pretty seriously but Dave told me one day that as far as sports goes we're in the entertainment business. Treat it like that. It's something I never forgot. One of the things I always found odd about radio was the massive egos. The FM side at the the time was different. FM wasn't making any money and neither were the jocks. David Marsden, Pete Griffin and David Pritchard were quirky but they had a pretty good grip on their egos.
Management never thought I was good enough to cut it on 1050 but the FM program director, Duff Roman, figured that rock music and sports went together. Men who like the Rolling Stones probably followed the Maple Leafs. He put the on the air and that was my start.
But 1050 was where the action was. It was fun to watch. Nelson liked to bait Smyth trying to get him to explode. Wright would actually run a pool every morning to see how long it took for Smyth to lose it. Oh, and occasionally I got to work on the weekends with some guy named Roger Ashby. Little did I know at the time.
Wow, hadn't heard some of those names in a while. As a kid, I remember calling to various Tom Rivers contests, and Dick Smythe was great fun even though I had no idea what he was talking about most of the time.
Nice work on the blog so far, Rick. Hope to hear some stories about The Sunday Funnies at some point.
Radio massive egos still exist, see Bob McCown. What a douche.
I understand why you think that way about McCown. I've been watching him on sportsnet for the past couple of years and he really does know what he's doing. Watching is different than listening to him. Watching him lets you see how he handles guests but more importantly how he handles his co-hosts. He's very deliberate and for the most part he knows how to use them. I think he's one of the very best talk show hosts (in any format) in city.
Hodgie!
I am really enjoying reading your blog. Although I only had a chance to walk the halls of the Big House much, much later on - I always enjoyed chatting in the morning with you as we were getting ready for recording sports, and playing those random tunes on the Nifty 10-50 with Gordie when you'd stop in on the "other side" of the hallway.
Of course, it was always a different story filling in for Tom on the FM morning show; boy how things were different on that side of the hall...
Always interesting to hear about the history of the building, the station and the people have worked or still do work for CHUM. Can't wait to hear more!!
Cheers;
Jeff
Nice to hear from you Jeff. But tell me how things were different.
Hodgie,
I'm loving your blog so far and thanks for the entries about radio! I miss hearing you on the air in the mornings. I never quite recovered from no more "Roger, Rick and Marilyn" so for a year, I bounced between Chum, 97.3 and CFRB to create my own RRM. :)
Looking forward to all your future entries!
Andrea
This is your blog...I don't want to take up too much space (or upset anyone)! It's tough to put into words exactly the differences - both were great experiences, but both had their downsides as well. The easiest way to summarize everything would be 1050 was the good ol' days, and FM was the corporate giant.
I was always impressed with how the FM morning show got from start to finish. Not in a bad way - it was like watching magic happen right in front of me. I never had the training I wanted to have before taking control of the FM board, and always knew and worried that when Tom was away the morning show was "dry" and missed that extra piece of creativity. But I would always remind myself that Tom was just as an important part of the FM morning show behind the board, and the success of the show wasn't just due to the three on-air. My goal was always to get through a show without anybody really being able to tell the difference of who was behind the board. If the listeners couldn't tell the difference, then I knew I had done my job. To this day, I still remember when I switched off your mic as we started into a commercial break thinking you had forgot (not saying Gord did this on a regular basis, but it had happened once or twice...so it was a natural reaction). Little did I realize that you still had something to respond to Marilyn with. You never got upset about this (that was something else, nobody was ever a diva on RRM or with Gord) - it was done and I realized at that point I would never turn off another microphone on the FM morning show again lol.
Flip over to the AM side of the hallway, I always welcomed the creative control and freedom to do what radio does best - interact and be immediate with the listener. I think Brad did a terrific job with what he was given to work with, but short of actually making him get out and sell airtime, he did everything to the best of his abilities. Being the only "live" show on the station, if Gord or I didn't really want to hear The Band's "The Night They Drove Old Dixie Down", or the single version of Signs - we could change it and not really have anyone raise an eyebrow. I am pretty sure I would have been in a meeting at 9:02 if I did this on FM lol.
I always enjoyed the input I was able to provide to the AM show, but it was required as CHUM could (or would) only put one person on the air for that time slot. Whether I did this by mixing the entire Sgt. Peppers album down into 7 minutes, morphing between Kid Rock's All Summer Long, Werevolves of London, and Sweet Home Alabama, or getting the sound bytes for the daily game prepared, I always provided my own creativity on-air during each show. And yes, if the equipment from the AM control room still exists somewhere, there are a bunch of Hodgie out-takes from recording sports in the morning for Doug's newscasts...
I was always amazed with the people I had the chance to work with - and humbled by the power of radio. Even if I filled in for a random shift on FM, people would tell me they heard my name on the radio or would ask about you guys. And if the rare, impromptu times I would be asked to speak of FM, if I was out doing station events for promo, people would say they recognized my voice as they tuned in every morning and never missed a beat. To say I was part of both is something that will last a lifetime.
Jeff, my name may be on the blog but what I'd like to do is create discussion. It's great to get feed back and a lot of time I have as many questions for you as you have for me. I get the feeling you pulled a few punches here but thanks for the feed back.
Andrea, thanks a lot. I'm going to write another entry later on today about a very big night tonight for an old friend of mine. He doesn't know I'm supposed to be there so I wont tell you who it is just yet.
Hey Rick, off topic, but in the interest of music fans out there, I wanted to let you know about a pretty cool venue to see some Blues artists.
It's a little out of the way in Gravenhurst, and it is called Peters Players www.petersplayers.com
It is run by a guy named Peter Swanek, who basically holds concerts in his re-fitted workshop attached to his house. I have seen several shows there, Johhny Winter, Debbie Davies, James Cotton, Coco Montoya. What is really cool about the place is it seats only 100 people (seating like bleachers at high school) so basically you are seeing a concert in a setting like your basement. You are literally n more than 15 feet from the artists, and the sound is fanatastic. It is something to see and expierence.
They sell beer and wine and it is just a really cool venue. Highly reccommended to anyone if there is an artist on their schedule that interests you.
Rick.
It's been a long time. Good to see your name again. I have added your blog to my favorites and will stay in touch.
I am still alive and well in London Ontario! I am full of all the great memories and great stories from the glory days.
As well I have many pictures that have never seen the light of day from the old FM "all day and most of the night sales parties" Jack, Bengy, Perry, Gord and I used to throw as a "thank you" to the great people that made CHUMFM what it was.
Sad to see all that has haapened, but looking forward to the future. What about you and TV?
You were always too good looking for radio....LOL!
Boog
RSS feed is not working in chrome, Kindly fix it.
Hey Boog....thanks for the kind words...TV..you're kidding right. I don't exactly have Gord Martineau good looks.