This Is The CFUN Radio Lifestyle .....

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This Is The CFUN Radio Lifestyle .....

Postby Anotherwpgguy » Fri Dec 30, 2011 6:36 am

The radio business has certainly changed a great deal.

With the proliferation of stations all looking for the same target demo and alternative sources of entertainment fragmenting the audience, drastically declining salaries, soulless voice tracking, smaller station staff size, etc .... there is ... (and rightfully so) ... a longing for the return to the days of a huge captive adoring audience, request lines full to almost to burn-out capacity with giggling groupies hoping to meet a "with it" jock when he got off shift, record reps flooding us with freebies of any sort your lascivious mind can conjure, and so on.

I must admit, the fast and furious lifestyle of the early days of CFUN after the conversion from CKVN was even better than you can imagine. Our lives served as the prototype for the movie "Fast Times At Ridgemont High." http://youtu.be/nhUfmDGdK7M

But, before you drop dead with envy, not everything was all cake and cookies with beer by the poolside.

When I would have to collect " Brother Boom-Boom Benson" and head to the station to go in for some production in the afternoon, invariably we were late for the studio booking and had to get our butts in gear to arrive "fashionably late." That's when we would have to run the gauntlet of one hazard after the next before we could whip into the underground parkade at 1900 West 4th and close the gates behind us for protection.

I've discovered a video which, although made well after the event, will give you a simulated look at just how terrible it could be, and the lengths we would have to go to make it to the studio some days.

Enjoy and reflect!


http://youtu.be/TtvsozMhbS4
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Re: This Is The CFUN Radio Lifestyle .....

Postby hagopian » Sat Dec 31, 2011 2:31 pm

Hilarious, and the memories. AWG and Bro Benson - two great talents, and incredibly funny, professional and solid wingers. The parking lot at 1900 West Fourth also had a storage room.
Boy, the stories that we have could fill three books.
AWG taught me the board at what was then CKVN. Talk about lucking out. AWG was peerless.
No wonder he is such a talented aviator! Perfection.
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Re: This Is The CFUN Radio Lifestyle .....

Postby Anotherwpgguy » Sat Dec 31, 2011 2:53 pm

I knew you'd get a kick from that bit of humour .... Surprised nobody else commented.

Happy New Year!

AWG
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Re: This Is The CFUN Radio Lifestyle .....

Postby hagopian » Sat Dec 31, 2011 8:29 pm

I fear that much of the memories we hold are of another generation, and many folks have moved on, even radio junkies. So many fine people.
It went so fast, because we never seemed to have time for anything but work, promo, emmceeing etc, and then there were, gulp, true, six day weeks. Two weeks off a year.Like I said, this is a new era - and my wish is that the current crop have as much fun as we did.
AWG and peers of mine got to run a board, not run a station with a mouse.
It ain't the same ~ which is cool because everything changes
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Re: This Is The CFUN Radio Lifestyle .....

Postby FORMER-BOSSJOCK » Sat Dec 31, 2011 10:47 pm

The mention of Brother Benson -- reminded me of a promotion CFUN ran -- where we gave away a Pontiac Firebird. Carter Pontiac gave all the jocks a Firebird to drive during the run of the contest. When they handed out the keys -- The Bro asked Chuck McCoy if we could actually take the cars home -- Nits answered " Of course you can". Well -- Pete took 2 weeks off and drove home. Home -- being -- Albuquerque , New Mexico . I often wondered what the Carter folks thought when they noticed that one of their vehicles had 3000 more miles on it than the others . I spent 10 years there . Never a dull moment .
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Re: This Is The CFUN Radio Lifestyle .....

Postby Anotherwpgguy » Sun Jan 01, 2012 8:11 am

X Boss Jock, that was an excellent chuckle to start the year off ....

You're right ... there was never a dull period in my 5 years with the station. There were undoubtedly frustrations, from today's vantage point I recall it only as being a lot of fun.

AWG
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Re: This Is The CFUN Radio Lifestyle .....

Postby Muzik » Sun Jan 01, 2012 5:50 pm

Man oh Man do I love to hear the old CFUN stories. I got into the biz in '79 but I sure would loved to have worked there in the 70's.All I could do was be a loyal listener and aircheck as much as I could.I collected FUN Stickers, year end countdown charts,pictures of jocks...I even went down to the Dog'e ear to buy some T-shirts,ball cap, which I still have till this day.Groupie...from a thousand miles away...hell ya. I even have pictures which I took around the station in the early 80's tour. (Thanks to Jack Casey and Russ McCloud) for that. I really have to wonder if today's generation has the same passion as I did and kinda still do?
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Re: This Is The CFUN Radio Lifestyle .....

Postby Neumann Sennheiser » Sun Jan 01, 2012 6:54 pm

Please scan and post those pictures for us. There's surprisingly little pictoral history from that era of CFUN. If you need assistance, just get them to member radiofan and he'll do the rest.
"You don't know man! I was in radio man! I've seen things you wouldn't believe!"
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Re: This Is The CFUN Radio Lifestyle .....

Postby hagopian » Sun Jan 01, 2012 7:59 pm

Any pics of CFUN 74-88 would be appeciated.
Why didn't I take more pictures?
CFUN was populated by the finest group of people - even nits was a great guy

Nits, for the unitiated, was our nick name for our much respected PD, Chuck McCoy. Chuck
looms large in my career. Some of the best years of my life.
I miss so many people. Kathy Danford, AWG, NS, Freddy, and so many more.
Clara Carotenuto.
Oh, man.

Happy New Year!
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Re: This Is The CFUN Radio Lifestyle .....

Postby Anotherwpgguy » Tue Jan 03, 2012 2:23 am

I beg of you .... please scan those photos at high resolution.

I'd really, really like a copy of everything and be highly appreciative of all the CFUN/CKVN material you can provide, as I have none .... notta ... of those days.

Like the Mary Hopkin song lyrics from "Those Were The Days," I guess "we thought they'd never end."

http://youtu.be/AyaTIXdN5fI
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Re: This Is The CFUN Radio Lifestyle .....

Postby Muzik » Tue Jan 03, 2012 4:54 pm

Hi all...I will try to send along my CFUN pic's as soon as I can. I am very busy these day's but maybe on the weekend. I finally found them(like last night) in an old radio photo album which I still had at my parent's house.Anyways I will also label the names to faces in news/control room etc.The year is 1983 if that's ok.
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Re: This Is The CFUN Radio Lifestyle .....

Postby hagopian » Tue Jan 03, 2012 6:53 pm

Muzik -anything you have will be treasured.

Most thoughtful.

If anyone has any CFUN 1974-76 or so, that would be incredible too.

As I mentioned earlier...no pix. I also neglected to mention one of the most successful broadcasters to ever come out of Prince George, Russ McLoud.
This guy was the real deal. He lived and breathed it.

Maybe Russ can tell us some stories about Darryl B., Bimini and those famous "shift changes". They were part of the folklore, I can tell ya.
Or, how about the party at Susan Booker's house and Bob Merchant and Merv Connelly streaked the party.
The neighbours were not amused.

J. Robert Wood dressed like a gorilla at the legendary Halloween party in, was it, 83? We had so much fun.

Stand up board, unless you did Mornings. Then and only then did you get an op.

Nelson Millman did all right for an op at CFUN, as he is a huge heavy in Toronto Sports media. Good to see....you bet.

Then there were the great record reps. Lionel "train" Wilson.....Pete Taylor - Mick O'Keefe, my pal from the old Kelly's warehouse, where we first met in 72....Frank Gigliotti....so many great folks....

Enjoy it, because it goes by very quickly.

I can still hear Darryl Burlingham when I close my eyes.

"Stay outa trees".
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Re: This Is The CFUN Radio Lifestyle .....

Postby FORMER-BOSSJOCK » Tue Jan 03, 2012 8:24 pm

Nelson Millman was my operator for 7 yrs. A lot of my so called comedy bits required preproduction..voice tracts with gaps so I could respond to the different characters...or sfx or music for other stuff...and we did it all while the first 2 or 3 songs were being played starting at 6 am...no computers here...all on tape. I drove that poor bugger like a rented mule...but he handled it like a pro. Whatever success I had at the time, I owe to him. Whatever success he's had, he did on his own. He earned it. Mazel Tov, Nelly.
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Re: This Is The CFUN Radio Lifestyle .....

Postby radiofan » Tue Jan 03, 2012 11:04 pm

hagopian wrote:Then there were the great record reps. Lionel "train" Wilson.....Pete Taylor - Mick O'Keefe, my pal from the old Kelly's warehouse, where we first met in 72....Frank Gigliotti....so many great folks....



To add to your list hagopian ...there was Monica Netupsky at Emerson Sales, late at Polygram, Dave Chesney at CBS/Epic, Ray Ramsey at TPC in the early 70's then at RCA for many years, Calvin Lew at TPC handling Motown in the mid 70s, Dave Brian at A&M, Barry Ryman and later Nancy at MCA, Mike Hertslett from London Records, John Ford at RCA in the early 70s, Nikki Dalziel at Capitol in the mid 70s .. the list goes on ..

Didn't you work retail at Kelly's in New West? The Kelly's at 611 Columbia Street in New West was where I started collecting charts .. and buying 45s. Doreen Phillips was the manager, she later went to RCA and then ontop Pindoff and last I saw her was at A&B Sound in 1981 or 1982 .. and idea if she is still around??
Those who danced were thought to be quite insane by those who couldn't hear the music.
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Re: This Is The CFUN Radio Lifestyle .....

Postby Firedog » Tue Jan 03, 2012 11:15 pm

hagopian wrote:
I can still hear Darryl Burlingham when I close my eyes.

"Stay outa trees".


Well Hagopian, close your eyes once again. Here is an 11 minute scoped memory of Daryl B that I recorded on February 5, 1974 for your listening enjoyment.

DARYL B C-FUN 02-05-1974
We are running in, when everybody else is running out.
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