Flashback

[Glen Livingstone]

Ron awoke with a start.

Sitting up in bed, he pulled back the curtains and looked out at the snow piling up in the backyard - it was really coming down, he couldn't even see the makeshift antenna he had installed last spring on the roof of the garage.

He must have dozed off while doing his homework, it was only quarter past seven.

Reaching for his transistor radio on the nightstand, he switched it on and began methodically twisting the dial. It was a perfect night for DXing: WLS, KJR, KGO; they were all coming in loud and clear.

He tuned back to CKLG to see what Stevie Wonder was up to. 'Time Has Come Today' by the Chambers Brothers - the long version, not the edited single - was playing. Unbelievable! He had heard it just the day before on CKLG-FM when Darryl B had introduced it, and now, here it was again.

Tomorrow he'd head down to Kellys' on Columbia Street and buy the 45 with the money he'd saved from his paper route; it would have to do until he could save up enough to get the lp.

The song sounded louder than bombs on his tiny little six transistor radio. He imagined Stevie sitting in the control room fifteen miles away, bouncing up and down in his chair while madly twisting the pot, cranking it higher and higher as 'LG's transmitter blasted the song into the ether.

TIME!

With a final crescendo the record ended and Bud Bolton was intro-ing the 20/20 news. Nothing major happening in the big city, the cops were staking out the Penthouse again, harrassing the strippers, or exotic dancers as owner Joe Philiponi preferred to call them.

Bud was something else. An announcer's announcer.

Ron looked forward to his newscasts; he didn't particularly care what Bud was talking about, he just liked the sound of his voice and the cadence and inflections it made as the stories were read.

Stevie was probably cueing up his next record by now, rotating it into position on the heavy duty Russko turntable with the green felt padding. Ron wondered what it would be. He was hoping for the song 'Born To Be Wild' by Steppenwolf. Stevie had played it last hour but it was due to come up again.

Ron had read in the new issue of Creem that that group's debut lp had been recorded in only four days!

Bud was wrapping up the 'cast now and the medium-tempo acapella CKLG jingle was on, so it probably wouldn't be Steppenwolf.

The jingle ended, now back to MUCH MORE MUSIC!

What the hell was that?

Five descending guitar notes turned into a bass-heavy downbeat and harmonica-fueled rock-hard blues shuffle.

Stevie was screaming over the song's intro, something about 'Canned Heat out of Los Angeles,' wrapping up his introduction at the precise moment that the song's vocal kicked in:

"Well, I'm so tired of crying, but I'm out
on the road again.
- I'm on the road again.
Well, I'm so tired of crying, but I'm out
on the road again.
- I'm on the road again.
I ain't got no woman
Just to call my special friend."

Oh man, he hadn't heard this before.

Ron glanced out the window at the snow rapidly piling up in the yard as the song played on.

"You know the first time I traveled out
in the rain and snow,
- In the rain and snow.
You know the first time I traveled out
in the rain and snow,
- In the rain and snow.
I didn't have no payroll,
Not even no place to go."

Canned Heat. Another new group. Amazing. The song ended the same way it began, with five descending guitar notes into a quick jingle and the start of a song that Ron recognized as the latest single from Gary Puckett & The Union Gap.

Oh, oh. Don't need to hear that one.

With a flick of the wrist he was in San Francisco.

Ira Blue was broadcasting from the Hungry I. Ron had never been to San Francisco, but listening to Ira over the past couple of years, he felt that he had come to know the city pretty well.

Last year the Monterey Pop Festival had been big news. Eric Burdon had a hit out now called "Monterey," describing what it was like to have been there. Last year of course, "San Franciscan Nights" had been another huge hit for Burdon and his band the Animals.

"Ronnie! Ronnie, are you down there?"

It was his mother, calling to him from the top of the stairs. Probably something to do with his homework, Ron surmised.

Turning off the radio, he sighed, and walked over to the stairwell.

"Coming mom," he replied.

No matter, the radio stations and all of their great announcers would be there again tomorrow. Hell, they'd be there forever, entertaining us with music, crazy contests, good humour, and friendly banter.

It was the best of all possible worlds, and Ron was happy to be a part of it.

[skyvalleyradio]

what a nice flashback, Pluto...been there done that...and I don't think you left any details out!

[Steve Sanderson]

Most excellent, Pluto!!

[Promotions Guy]

Sounds Great. In Edmonton we gathered out coin and headed for the music department at Woodwards Downtown. They had the hotest hits and we had to have then even if they were 1.49.

Guess we have the memories as I can;t seem to find the old 45's.

[skyvalleyradio]

I can't speak about Woodward's in downtown Vancouver, but Woodward's at Oakridge Mall sold only albums by the late 60's. Just around the corner at Oakridge was Kelly's which had 45 sales sewn up. Singles from the LG "Boss 40" & "C-FUNtastic Fifty" cost $1.00 + 5c tax. I even have a few of those red, plastic Kelly's record bags in both LP and 45 size in my collection (somewhere around here)! Even if I had no money for new records, I'd stop in at Kelly's every weekend to scoop the week's surveys for both stations.

[jon]

In the mid-1960s, there were three prices for 45s at Woodwards in Greater Vancouver. 99 cents regular price, and I believe the current hits were racked in a Top 40 which may have been Woodward's own. Or did they use CFUN or CKLG's chart? I don't remember.

Price #2 was on $1.49 Day. 2 for a $1.49.

Price #3 was for clearance material. 25 cents. I picked up "Walter Wart" at Woodwards in the clearance bin, 6 months or less after it was a hit locally, in Seattle, etc.

[jon]

As for LPs in the late 1960s, before Kellys bought them, Stereo Mart had the best pricing: $3.49 for any LP (double albums were more), as well as the usual sale prices. RCA was selling a lot of their popular "Top 40" albums for $2.99 at most record stores at that time.

After Kellys bought Stereo Mart, most of us drifted a few blocks away, in Downtown Vancouver, to A&B Sound as they seemed to have pretty decent pricing. And did they have (relatively) obscure stuff! How many stores stocked Circus Maximus? Pretty much anything that CKLG-FM played, they had.

[jon]

And, of course, the granddaddy of them all, in terms of great record stores in Canada, was the original (not the chain) Sam the Record Man in downtown Toronto. One location only.

I first visited there in the summer of 1973, while on a summer job in Ottawa. As you went upstairs from floor to floor, the LPs got more and more obscure. Sam didn't mind keeping LPs in stock for 10-15 years.

And, other than current hits, there was only one copy of each item. Anything that was bought was dutifully recorded, by hand in those years, and a clerk would quickly restock the item from "The Back". Or, order another copy if they ran out.

$1.99 comes to mind as the price for LPs they had significant stock of, but were no longer popular. Like the Mark-Almond LP I only recently replaced on CD.

A&A Records was next door, but I never found anything there I couldn't find at Sam's for a better price.

[Mike Cleaver]

You probably won't believe this but I never bought a record or cd from a record store until very late in life!
Starting out in a radio station as a go-for when I was 13, I could have dupes of almost every 45 that came into the place and in those days, we got four or five of everything that came out.
LP's were a dollar and you simply told the librarian (yes, they were called that) to order the ones you wanted.
This continued throughout my radio career with a vast number of both formats accumulated through the years as well as hundreds of "discards" after albums were played so many times or simply weeded out to provide more space in the racks or following a format change.
When cd's arrived, it was the same thing.
Lots of duplicate copies available and you could still order through the music director for a buck apiece.
There still was the semi annual clear out for staff of cd's discarded either because they didn't play them or simply ran out of space.
Lots of obscure stuff in all formats which later went on their way to charity.
I don't have a single piece of vinyl left any more.
Too many cross country moves.
But the cd collection is in the thousands!
I have made purchases in the last few years, usually from HMV or on line.
I miss the dollar prices though!

[jon]

Even as a "lowly part-time Operator" at CHQM in 1971, librarian Jurgen Gothe offered me LPs at $1 each. And the stations got two copies (AM & FM) of 45s, and only played a handful, on AM only, discarding them when they were no longer current. In fact, the FM control room had 33 rpm-only turntables.

The 45s all ended up in the Discard Box right next to the LP Washer and Dryer in the Record Library. For staff to take home.

Most of my 45 collection came from my time at CHQM and as Record Librarian at UBC Radio the year before during the massive cleanup of the Record Library. Bill Reiter and others also benefitted, as I funnelled specific genres in their direction, Bill getting the more obscure R&B.

These days what I really miss is the Calgary then Abbotsford company that had over a million CD titles on-line for purchase, mostly imports. All U.S. prices, all 99 cents per title for shipping. Got some nice collections for low prices, like a Gene Pitney 24 cut Greatest Hits CD from Australia for $3.50. All cuts were the original versions that were hits, though one or two may suffer from a little more distortion than their equivalents on my three CD Goldie collection that I have bought since then. Before that, imports were very, very expensive from local record stores who would special order them for you, and call you in 2-3 months when they came in. On-line places like amazon have really improved what stores like A&B Sound carry these days. Just over ten years ago, even the local record stores who searched the world for you could not find stuff that A&B carries today.

I've even been successful at ordering a few British CDs not available from any North American source from amazon.co.uk or directly from the labels involved, e.g. - Judy Tzuke and Tonto's Expanding Head Band. At a decent price, even including shipping. Of course, you always run the risk of $5 admin + GST from the Post Office/CCRA.

And, finally, there is emusic.com. Only subscribed for a month, but got complete late '60s/early '70s LPs on .mp3 that have NEVER been issued on CD. Directly from the studio masters. emusic distributes directly for independent artists.