by Jack Bennest » Mon May 08, 2006 2:36 pm
Born Wilfred Nicolas Ray at VGH December 21, 1926 and raised in West Vancouver, Wilf was first on the air in 1944 at CKMO. He was competing with Jack Cullen at CKNW and Vic Waters at CJOR.
Wilf Ray writes ? ?Radio Station CKMO, 1410 ON THE DIAL in the forties, was located on the 2nd Floor, in the Sprott-Shaw Building, at the corner of Robson & Howe Streets. I just about fell off the roof of the building laughing at Bill Pike who was handling the controls while I was doing my program called "The Parade of Hits" (Sort of a take off on the Lucky Strike Hit Parade from the U.S.) We spun a record by Mel Blanc of the "Woody Woodpecker Song?, with Mel doing the contagious laughing on the record. I had walked out on the roof, behind the control room, while the number was spinning, started to laugh, and imitating Blanc. When the record ended, Pike had started to voice a commercial on the air, heard my antics, and broke down in the middle of the ad copy laughing between words. We both just about got fired, as the station manager, Kay Willis, was listening and called to give us hell. Radio in those days was a ball.?
Bill Rea, owner of the Top Dog station offered him twice the pay to work all night. He left CKMO but later called it a big mistake because ?nights were a killer?. Wilf also admits Rea outfoxed everyone by taking away Cullen?s opposition. He did win a prize at CKMO; he married the music librarian, Marion McDonald.