Tom Lucas @ CFUN August 1979

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Tom Lucas @ CFUN August 1979

Postby radiofan » Sat Nov 16, 2013 10:43 am

THis week it's a flashback to the 70's. In Vancouver, we had CFUN and CKLG duking it out ... a ton of on-air talent between the two stations.

One of CFUN's major players decided to make the sitch to TV after 5 years behind the CFUN mic. On August 31, 1979 Tom Lucas kicked off his Labour Day weekend by hanging up his headphones
and making his move to CKVU TV.

Rummaging through a box of old cassettes last week, I came across this scoped aircheck of Tom's last show at CFUN. Tom shares the mic and cart machine with a number of familiar voices from
the era.

Enjoy this memory from 34 years ago!

Tom Lucas Last CFUN Show - August 31, 1979

Image Image
Those who danced were thought to be quite insane by those who couldn't hear the music.
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Re: Tom Lucas @ CFUN August 1979

Postby Muzik » Sat Nov 16, 2013 12:25 pm

Radiofan,Thank-You,Thank-You for this flashback.I was always a huge Tom Lucas Fan and still to this day listen to the old air-checks.
This was a great time in Vancouver radio and CFUN History.Tom was king and probably didn't know that he had alot of listeners in Saskatoon, Edmonton and Western Canada Thanks to 1410 skip at night.14 CFUN larger than life,Thanks for the memories.
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Re: Tom Lucas @ CFUN August 1979

Postby jon » Sat Nov 16, 2013 12:44 pm

So true about Alberta/Saskatchewan awareness of CFUN. Since I moved to Edmonton in 1975, I ran into a lot of people who eventually found CFUN, after they started listening beyond their local station(s).

During the latter half of the '80s, when I lived East of the City, with the supplied little ferrite loop antenna on the two Sony component stereo receivers I had, and on the crappy car radio, CFUN was gang-busters at night, and very listenable 24/7 in the winter at home, away from RF noise.

As a DX'er, that really blew me away, because I never got anything over the Rockies from Burnaby in the late '60s between 11am and 1pm. Of course, for those Canadian stations with directional patterns in the daytime, nearly all favour North, so Edmonton to Vancouver is a better bet than Vancouver to Edmonton.

No one ever mentioned CKLG. Partly because CBX is on 740. But also because CKLG's night pattern doesn't send much signal East, not to mention a Manitoba station on 730.
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Re: Tom Lucas @ CFUN August 1979

Postby hagopian » Sat Nov 16, 2013 2:10 pm

It was fun hearing Tom again. He was breaking every rule in the book. Darryl B. (sigh) was a highlight. (*The visine jokes will slay CFUN alumni).

Ron Carabine is a favourite of mine. Pipe smoking, quiet and very well liked - he was a really generous and kind GM.

He saved me from Simon Ginsberg, during the CKVN days.

Thanks for posting this.
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Re: Tom Lucas @ CFUN August 1979

Postby DonovanTildesley » Sat Nov 16, 2013 5:44 pm

Radiofan, how apropos that you posted this aircheck this week. I just heard this morning that Tom Lucas will be relaunching his "World Wide Retro Rock Request Show" next Saturday night at 6 on AM650! No doubt he'll be opening with that Spinners classic. Great aircheck! Was Stu Ferguson the final voice saying goodbye to Tom?
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Re: Tom Lucas @ CFUN August 1979

Postby tuned » Sat Nov 16, 2013 6:27 pm

I need to head down to Woodwards Transonic Sound Centre and pick up some 8 tracks for the Firebird.
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Re: Tom Lucas @ CFUN August 1979

Postby jon » Sat Nov 16, 2013 6:36 pm

DonovanTildesley wrote:Radiofan, how apropos that you posted this aircheck this week. I just heard this morning that Tom Lucas will be relaunching his "World Wide Retro Rock Request Show" next Saturday night at 6 on AM650! No doubt he'll be opening with that Spinners classic. Great aircheck! Was Stu Ferguson the final voice saying goodbye to Tom?


Here is the press release for the original launch of this program in 1996 on Radio Max, 850 in Abbotsford:
http://www.insinc.ca/news/961112.html

I remember Robert O. Smith telling me about Tom's "new" project (this show) at that time, when Robert O. did Weekends on Radio Max. The thinking of the time was that the worldwide audience on the Internet would provide more income for the show than the local Fraser Valley audience. As you may recall, the 850 signal into Vancouver was more of a rimshot than anything approaching a Local grade signal.
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Re: Tom Lucas @ CFUN August 1979

Postby DonovanTildesley » Sat Nov 16, 2013 7:59 pm

Aside from Radio Max, the original show aired on some stations in Northern BC (CKGF Grand Forks being one), as well as Sunshine Cable in later years. For whatever reason Radio Max pulled the show in late 1999, but it continued as an online-only program until the following summer, when Tom started working regular weekend afternoon shifts on CISL. (At the time he wanted to bring Retro Rock over to CISL but management wasn't interested). The concept was resurrected for a short time in 2006 as "Retro Rock Partyline" on CFUN, but Tom then focused his energies on the Radio Real Estate show. I'm guessing that similar to Radio Real estate, Tom will be buying the airtime for Retro Rock from AM650 a la Dan Russell. Not a bad deal if he can make it work!
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Re: Tom Lucas @ CFUN August 1979

Postby Neumann Sennheiser » Mon Nov 18, 2013 12:04 pm

Thanks for pulling this one out of the Tickle-Trunk. Of the tragically few that are in existence, this one's probably the best CFUN aircheck of that time, if only for the fact that it shows how much genuine fun we were having and it was like this EVERY SINGLE DAY.
As has already been mentioned earlier here, Tom Lucas was (and is) a singular talent. A lot of guys on their farewell shows would either "phone-it-in" or get all sloppy (in the literal and figurative definition of "sloppy"). Instead, the Luker brings his A-game
If I was any good at all back then it was only because I rose to the examples of excellence on my team.
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Re: Tom Lucas @ CFUN August 1979

Postby Anotherwpgguy » Wed Nov 20, 2013 1:21 pm

What an absolute delight to be able to hop into our radio equivalent of an H. G. Wells inspired Time Machine and go back to the days when I worked at "The Funnest" radio station of my career .... 14, CFUN.

To hear the voices of such good friends and ultra-professional colleagues once again was a real treat. It put me right back in the Master Control Room as if I were about to pull one more on-air shift.

People like General Manager Ron Carrabine who was excellent at providing steady fair but firm leadership, and assuring we had the financial resources and technical tools required to do our work. Being considerbly older than us "Young Turks" who were always pulling some kind of antic or another, he must have spent many a time with his face in his hands wondering "what in the world are they going to do next?"

Then Jack Casey ..... always good for us to have a laugh together and he developed into a great CFUN on-air persona under the well-heeded advice and mentoring from Chuck McCoy.

Hearing the voice of Darryl B .... what can I say about him that half the world doesn't already know? Well ..... at one phase of my life, I was an "op" at The Big 8, CKLW and that was my real learning process .... my first exposure to a huge, huge radio station where everything and everyone was dedicated to perfection. One night while I'm working the all-night shift, "the new jock" shows up, and (you'll get a kick out of this) I received a memo from PD Paul Drew indicating that I'm supposed to "carry him" through the shift so he can see how the format, time clock, music rotation, etc worked before he went to daytime. That "new guy" was Darryl B, having arrived from western Canada. It may be hard to imagine Darryl being humbled, nervous, and really uncomfortable, but he was super-intimidated by being on-air at North America's 5th largest rated station. He was grateful for my "breaking him in" and giving him confidence (yeah right.) Darryl and I got along famously when he came to CFUN and we had the common bond of having worked at CKLW. So maybe that's a story that might not be well known about the great on-air talent, Darryl B. I spoke with Darryl in Winnipeg several times as his health was failing, and it wasn't until that time that I found he was also an airplane nut. Too bad he passed away so young.

Good old buddy old pal Tom Jeffries .... good on you Tom .... we had our "Seasons In The Sun" didn't we? On my next Vancouver visit, we will really have to grab a coffe and a lunch and regale each other with recollections of the various good and bad decisions we made in life .... LOL.

Now, on to "The Aircheck Guest of Honor," Tom Lucas. We had countless laughs from the time he arrived at CKVN/CFUN and shared quite a few impressive life experiences. I never did get him up in a small airplane to go for a ride over Vancouver, but almost managed it .... got him to the Flight Dispatch office at the Vancouver Flying School, then he had a last second change of heart. Tom proved to be a gracious host and inviting me up to the new CFUN studios for an extended period about 9 years ago when I went to the Vancouver/Abbotsford area during the process of getting trained on a particular type of "water bomber" used in forest fire suppression operations and operated by Conair of Abbotsford.

Thanks for much for posting the link to a high quality aircheck of "The Luker," I sincerely enjoyed it.

CFUN was a wonderful place to work. The collection of talent was universally of a high standard, the staff morale was always operating at the peak of the curve, the senior management were people we trusted to always have our backs and would also do their best to make sure that a person's personal aspirations were fulfilled. In may case, they did everything they possibly could for me to simultaneously entertain my two mistresses .... high quality rock radio, and aviation.

Thanks again Radiofan, and to everyone here who have provided a place for us radio junkies to stay in touch and talk about "the good old days."

Oh, and the Spinners - "I'll Be Around" as the last song was fabulous. It was one of those songs that I'd do a fabulous intro on, making use of the many musical "hit points" for emhasis ending with kissing the vocal every so smoothly and gently, mike off .... then crank the studio monitors to the max and revel in the magic of the whole process, knowing the 50,000 watt signal was pounding across western canada, over the pole, and into Europe.

Cheers folks .... AWG
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Re: Tom Lucas @ CFUN August 1979

Postby DonovanTildesley » Fri Nov 22, 2013 2:14 pm

Interesting to compare this aircheck (and Tom Lucas’ style) with other CFUN airchecks found elsewhere on the web from 2-3 years previously. At what point did CFUN decide to turn off the reverb, tone down the screaming, and put more emphasis on straight-ahead “personality”? Also, I can’t help but hear a tinge of "Superjock" Larry Lujack in Tom’s delivery for his final farewell break.
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Re: Tom Lucas @ CFUN August 1979

Postby Rich Elwood » Tue Jan 28, 2014 4:55 pm

Great aircheck of "The Luker." Not only was he a talented Top 40 Jock he was a good friend when I worked in tht building as Rich Kelly. He treated me great from the first day I worked there until I left shortly before him.
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Re: Tom Lucas @ CFUN August 1979

Postby Rich Elwood » Tue Jan 28, 2014 5:44 pm

CFUN started a format shift to try to sound "more FM in mid 78 I think it was." It was done under Darryl B's short lived watch as PD. CHUM in Toronto started it and it was adapted by all CHUM chain stations. We (the on air guys) hated it. We'd play three songs in a row with no break and then would backsell the break with "that was blah-blah and before that was so-and-so and before that was "someone I can't remember now." I actually said that once and got bit by the PD (not B) that went with the format nobody liked. It was the beginning of the end of great TOP 40 at 1410 .

Love the stories on here. Talking about signal skip. Before coming to CFUN I worked at another top rocker - CKOC Hamilton. I remember driving up Hamilton Mountain (which is really just a speed bump - they call it a mountain) to listen to WLS and WCFL Chicago who would skip in at night. When I got to CFUN I was amazed at how far it's signal went. We all got the calls from places we were amazed to hear from. I personally got a call from Canadian Forces Base Cold Lake for a hit line request one night from the on-alert fighter pilots lounge.

I did weekend mornings alot and actually got many calls from LA (not the Langley Area -the smoggy one in California). Plus, the weather ship Vancouver which was stationed in the Pacific I believe a couple hundred miles out would call me. Weather satelites were not abundant yet.

And yes, Ron Carabine was a very nice man. A real joy to work for and he never meddled in the programming side of things. And Chuck McCoy was an incredibly insightful PD and a superb guy. I learned a lot from Chuck and think as highly of him today as I did when I was a young punk jock back then.

Yea, the CFUN LG rivalry was a good one but never nasty. We always beat them but it was close. It was big news when Racoon Carney defected from CFUN to LG. Russ McLeod got the 9-12 spot and did well. All the on air guys at both stations liked each other for the most part. I did weekend mornings and swing and one of the duties of the all-night guy was to call the morning man and wake him up. In this case it was Jim Hault. I was talking to a buddy at LG one night while we were both on the air. I had him call Jim for me to see if Hault noticed. He didn't. Jim is a great dude too. I used to love busting his balls and he would scowl at me but always laughed. A talented morning man for sure. One of the top in the country.

I have a couple old Rich Kelly CFUN airchecks. One of my favs was filling in for Jim Hault. I was nervous but pulled the rabbit out of the hat because you had too. It was CFUN. After the first morning I filled in I thought I sucked. Chuck saw me in the hallway and said, "Great job this morning. It was funny." A nod from Chuck was a big deal.

I'll post the aircheck one day so all my old buddies can bust my chops for a change.

Love the site but why the categorization of newbie etc. ?? What the hell is this a swimming class for 8 year-olds?
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Re: Tom Lucas @ CFUN August 1979

Postby jon » Tue Jan 28, 2014 7:33 pm

Since moving to Edmonton in 1975, I've run into a lot of folks who were teens in the 1970s in Saskatchewan and Alberta, and listened to CFUN at night, every night. Even today, it remains a very clear channel in the Prairies, with nothing on 1400 or 1420 either.

In the late '80s, CFUN had a good clean AM Stereo signal at home (East of Edmonton) 24/7 in the Winter. Even the crappy car radio let me listen to Fred Latrimouille doing Mornings during his China trip with listeners on my 45 minutes to work in downtown Edmonton.

LG, on the other hand, would be greeted with a "Huh?" as they have virtually no signal to the East, there is another station on 730 in Manitoba, and 740 is home to CBX Edmonton with 50KW.

The newbie references aren't personal, Rich. They came with the Open Source software used to run this forum.
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Re: Tom Lucas @ CFUN August 1979

Postby radiofan » Tue Jan 28, 2014 10:26 pm

Rich Elwood wrote:I have a couple old Rich Kelly CFUN airchecks. One of my favs was filling in for Jim Hault. I was nervous but pulled the rabbit out of the hat because you had too. It was CFUN. After the first morning I filled in I thought I sucked. Chuck saw me in the hallway and said, "Great job this morning. It was funny." A nod from Chuck was a big deal.

I'll post the aircheck one day so all my old buddies can bust my chops for a change.

Love the site but why the categorization of newbie etc. ?? What the hell is this a swimming class for 8 year-olds?


Welcome to Radio West!

Glad you finally found your way here Rich. The newbie thing will disapper after 10 posts OR when you quit listening to old Uriah Heep LPs!

I always look forward to catching up with you at Red's RPM lunches. Hopefully you can make it to the next Radio West GTG at The Marine Pub in Burnaby, likely it'll be Sunday Feb 23 (Superbowl, the long
weekend and Valentines Day will all be out of the way then!). I love your stories about a couple of different people being interviewed for on air jobs at NW! And seem to recall one about you and J.O.
hijacking a station in Barrie or Newmarket while you were working at CHUM FM.

Let me know when you get some of your old airchex digitized and I'll post them here.

If this was a swimming class, you'd be a minnow right nw. :yahoo:
Those who danced were thought to be quite insane by those who couldn't hear the music.
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