The Boomin Voice of Jack Stewart

Stories and info about those no longer involved in the industry

Postby Jack Bennest » Tue Jun 20, 2006 6:51 am

Calgary Herald - September 2, 1997

Officially, the British Invasion of the North American hit parade began Jan. 25, 1964, when the Beatles' recording of I Want to Hold Your Hand landed at No. 1 on the Billboard pop charts. Unofficially, the invasion began 13 months earlier, at a Winnipeg Top 50 radio station, CKY.

Jack Stewart was CKY's program director, and the man indirectly responsible for bringing the Liverpool Sound to Canada. He was a broadcast veteran from Calgary, then 43, who had been ``discovered'' at age 17 during a ``man-in-the-street'' interview by CFAC. The CFAC people liked his deep voice and put him on the air, making Jack one of Canada's youngest professional announcers of the period.

Jack spent four years at CFAC, moved to Toronto for a year, then returned to CFAC for another seven, where he became known as the announcing voice of the wartime big-band broadcasts from the Palliser Hotel. ``He was a great ad-libber,'' says Gertie Sweett, a longtime friend in Calgary. ``He could make an empty room sound as if it was filled with dancing couples.''

In 1949, Jack shut off his CFAC microphone and moved to the competition, CKXL, where he rose through management ranks to become production manager. Next stop was Winnipeg's CKY where, in 1962, Jack hit on the brilliant idea of replacing the station's Sunday morning religious programming with a record show featuring hit tunes from around the world.

CKY music director Dennis Corrie was assigned the task of assembling the international hit parade. His quest led him to Parlophone Records in Britain, where a mop-topped Mersey-side quartet in matching Nehru jackets had just released a tune called Love Me Do. ``I became the first disc jockey in North America to play the Beatles,'' says Dennis, now a radio consultant in Calgary. ``It was a direct result of Jack saying, `Go get this.' We played the Rolling Stones, Dave Clark Five, Gerry and the Pacemakers -- the whole enchilada -- long before the Americans, long before anyone else. Jack had a knack for knowing what was current. He was a brilliant programmer.''

Jack Stewart left Winnipeg in 1964, to rejoin CKXL at a time when the station was locked in a three-way struggle with CFAC and CFCN for top broadcaster in the Calgary market. He moved from there, after a year, to Vancouver's CJOR and CKNW, and eventually to Victoria's CKDA and CFMS, where he concluded his radio career as he had started it -- behind the microphone.

Though he held many senior executive positions in broadcasting during his 55-year career, Jack loved announcing above all else. Dennis Corrie remembers Jack co-anchoring newscasts in Winnipeg with a fellow basso profundo named Richard Scott. ``Those guys were always trying to `out-deep' each other,'' says Dennis. ``If you had a cheap radio, it would vibrate when they were on the air.''

Jack remained on the air until he was 73, entertaining Victoria radio listeners with such programs as Remember the Year, Jukebox Saturday Night, Make Believe Ballroom and Candlelight and Wine.

Jack was on the air until 1992
He died five years late at the age of 78
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Postby Victoriaradio » Tue Jun 20, 2006 7:16 am

Great story about Jack Stewart. His "Remember the Year" shows were classics. I have a tape of the show for my birth year.
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