The recent death of Dave Glover discussed in
another thread got me thinking about CJAT in Trail. Where so many on air folks have been. For a long time, it was the second market that many went to. Often from CJDC in Dawson Creek or CHQB in Powell River, where many got their start.
By the time that I arrived in May 1972, CJAT-610 was a cooking little Top 40 station that made good money, despite not airing any ads after 6pm. In the basin below Cominco where most of the Trail population lived, no other AM station could be heard in the day, and the RF interference from Cominco made it tough to listen on skip at night.
John Jackson is one name that comes to mind. Not just because he was at CJAT when I was, but that he was still there more than 10 years later. He did PM Drive in 1972, and was also Music Director. CJAT had a weekly record chart, of 40 songs, but it was not numbered. The first song was just the first song, not the most popular. As a chart collector in the 1960s, we called them Play Lists as opposed to Record Surveys. They weren't generally published, and stayed within the station. I don't know anyone who still has a copy of CJAT's play list from that era.
John was a great guy with lots of enthusiasm, who never let Billboard's Hot 100 get in the way of charting a song that listeners liked. "Super Bird" by Neil Sedaka comes to mind. John had a huge knowledge and respect for the music of the '50s, which undoubtedly influenced his decision to give the song a listen and some airplay so that listeners had a chance to express their interest in it. John would often hang around until after midnight and talk on air with the evening DJ after management was asleep and couldn't complain. The topic was usually Music of the '50s.