Radio ... and Me - 9

My favourite New Years Eve activities, from the '60s through to the '80s, were: watching TV at midnight (or 1 a.m., Atlantic Time!), and listening to the radio and collecting the list of Top 100 Songs of the Year.
On TV, crowds would cheer on Times Square and Guy Lombardo and the Royal Canadians would play Auld Lang Syne at midnight every New Year’s Eve at News York’s Waldorf Astoria Hotel.

Radio ... and Me - 8

On Boxing Day, 1979, I worked a total of ‘12 Hours on the Air.’
It all came about this way: I was working ‘supply shifts,’ Saturdays from 6 p.m. to midnight, at C-H-F-X, Halifax, playing Country music.
A few weeks before Christmas vacation, I heard that the regular all-night announcer was to take some extra vacation time with family on ‘The Rock,’

Radio ... and Me ... at Christmas

There was always lots of Christmas Music at our house, and we still enjoy it, from cassettes, CDs, TV and ... of course, Radio.
While I was growing up, my Mom’s favourite was
-- Bing Crosby’s, Silent Night.
We also liked some novelty songs, such as:
-- Gene Autry’s smash hit, Rudolph, the Red-Nosed Reindeer ; and

Radio ... and Me - 7

The ‘Grand Ole Opry,’ the longest-running radio program in history, just celebrated its 85th anniversary. It was launched in late November, 1925, as the ‘WSM Barn Dance’, on Clear Channel, W-S-M, 650, Nashville.
The program is still on the air, from 6 p.m. to midnight, every Saturday night, and portions are presented on TV.

Radio ... and Me - 6

More “Country & Western” artists on local radio in the 1950s included:
-- Marty Robbins, whose songs, A White Sport Coat (And a Pink Carnation), The Story of My Life, were recorded on the major Columbia label. Years later, he would compose and perform the country classic, El Paso’;
-- Jean Shepard, who did the teary song, A Dear John Letter, (which instantly led to a variety of parodies) with Ferlin Husky;

Radio ... and Me - 5

In the mid-1950s, the music from the U-S-A played locally was called ‘Country & Western,’ and featured such singers as,
-- Eddy Arnold, the ‘Tennessee Ploughboy,’ with Cattle Call, and Bouquet of Roses; His later R-C-A recordings, such as Make the World Go Away, helped introduce the ‘Nashville Sound’ ,
and were among the first to feature a full string section, a bold move which met with some opposition. His reaction was, ‘We ended up selling 90 million records, so we must have been doing something right.’;

Radio ... and Me - 4

We listened to a lot of homegrown country music on local radio in the mid-1950s.
Two singers had already reached great international fame:
-- Hank Snow, ‘The Singing Ranger,’ hailed from the South Shore, N.S., and first worked as a fisherman on the Grand Banks. His first musical break came in the 40s, when he had a regular show on CHNS Radio, in Halifax. He later moved to Nashville, but failed to catch on, until 1949, when he found 'overnight' fame with I’m Movin’ On,

Cape Breton Tour

We’ve just returned from a delightful four-day trip to Cape Breton.
Most folks would visit in the summer, when it’s warm and all the Cape Breton Island tourist places are in full swing, or in the Fall, for 'Celtic Colours,' when the foliage puts on a spectacular show and there are nightly music concerts all over the Island!

Remembrance Day ... on Radio

Songs of war on the radio were -- and still are -- usually clustered around Remembrance Day, when veterans and other folks gather to recall their experiences, and remember departed comrades.
My parents were no exception; as my Dad had served in the Merchant Marine in the First War and in the Royal Canadian Navy in World War II. As I was growing up during the decade after the war, they both recounted vivid personal stories of life during the wars -- such as: blackouts, rationing and the death of loved ones in the service. There was an added bonus for me: my Mom’s sang all the war songs.

Radio ... and Me - 3

Rock ‘n’ roll and radio were made for each other.
In the early 1950s, both were mired in the 'doldrums.'
The smooth, tightly-crafted 'big-band' music of the 1940s was getting stale.
Radio -- reeling from heavy competition by ‘television’ -- was an ‘old’ medium, badly needing to present something exciting, or, at least, get a face-lift.
Other factors contributed to this need for change;

Radio ... and Me - 2

Bob and Ray, began working as disc jockey and news announcer resp., at WHDH Boston in the mid-1940s and carried on their easy going, dead-pan, humour for more than 40 years.
Bob Eliott and Ray Goulding performed ad-lib skits while filling time during Red Sox baseball rain-delays, then later moved to work on New York contracts, for local and network shows.
Their quiet, irreverent delivery satirized radio shows and personalities who flourished -- and may have sometimes taken themselves too seriously -- during radio’s "Golden Age."

Here are some of my favourite characters --
-- Wally Ballou, pompous remote news reporter (His clipped start "-lly Ballou," was a dart at technicians, whose might be late switching on his mic.) His news beat was Times Square. Once, while interviewing The Cranberry Man, he traded a variety of cranberry recipies, ignoring the

Saint Brother André of Montreal

Early today, a frail but legendary Quebecquer, often called ‘God’s Doorkeeper,’ was canonized at Saint Peter’s in Rome.
My mother introduced me to the story of Frère André when I was about age 4, at evening prayer, while I also learned to pray the Rosary. She also had shown me a strong ‘visual aid,’ the Calendar of St. Joseph’s Oratory in Montreal.
Question to ‘older‘ --ahem, mature -- Catholics:
Do you remember the calendars with the ‘fish’ icons on the Wednesdays, Fridays and Saturdays, along with lots of holy pictures and lists of saints’ days?
The Oratory, which had taken more than 25 years to build, was then nearing completion, and I heard about the efforts of

Harvest / Thanksgiving

It's "Thanksgiving Weekend," and we who live in Nova Scotia have "plenty" to be thankful for. (Pun intended!)
How can we celebrate it?
This year, we have been blessed with the most bountiful harvest in many years. Commercial and backyard farmers alike are using the terms: "superb" and "bumper crop" to describe the results from this year's cultivated fields and gardens.
Generally, farming in this province is a gamble: uncertain weather,

Chelsey Gotell, Star Athlete!

Chelsey Gotell is a 24-year-old world-class swimmer, who happens to be visually impaired.
Ten years ago, she was a high school student from Antigonish, with the school where I was teaching. She was competing in Nova Scotia at the provincial level and was already winning medals. I interviewed her by telephone for an article I was writing for the parents newsletter, and was impressed at her poise and P-R skills even at that age.

She swims in the Paralympic S13 class, meaning that she has only 10 per cent of normal vision in each eye.

Radio ... and Me

I have always been fascinated by radio. Even as a child of four or five, I wondered how they could get those people, the announcers and the musicians, into that little box!
Throughout my life, I have had to make this bold statement: My name is Colin, and I am a news junkie. My first brush with the news was by radio, followed closely by newspapers -- dailies, weeklies, anything I could get my hands on. My mother ensured that I was an early reader, so I needed a lot of material for practice.
In the early 1950s, radio where I lived was made up of

'Notre petit Mozart' is back!

André Gagnon, one of Canada’s greatest composers / arrangers / pianists, published a new album last week, after a nine-year break from recording. And, he is about to go on tour.
Gagnon explained his hiatus by stating that he felt he had no more left to say with his music.
During that fallow period, he had contracted a degenerative muscle disease which was paralyzing his right hand; a Quebec surgeon convinced him to have a corrective operation, which was quite successful. Then, he had to be persuaded to work on a new album. The result is Les chemins ombragés / 'The roads in shadow.'
The native of St-Pacôme, a small hamlet along the Trans Canada Highway on the Lower St. Lawrence, carried the nickname ‘Our little Mozart’ for much of his 40-year career

MDA, Jerry Lewis and Me

This weekend, on a TV set or computer near you, it’s time for the 45th Annual Jerry Lewis MDA Telethon.
Jerry began the Labour Day Telethon for the Muscular Dystrophy Association in 1966, over one station in New York. This year, the live show from Las Vegas, stretching some 21½ hours, will be carried by the 170-station ‘Love Network.’
The goal? To find a cure for muscular dystrophy.

Back to School

According to the folks at Staples, “It’s the most wonderful time of the year!” Their clever TV parody commercials feature an ecstatic parent in the store aisles, pulling the family sofa containing two very bored junior high youngsters.
-- For parents, it probably IS the most wonderful time, as they can hand over their youngsters to the teachers at the local school.

Old Cars -- Eerie Happenings

Do old cars KNOW that they’re about to be traded in?
I will present some strong evidence that they do. (The brand name has been omitted to protect an investigation!)
This summer, we decided it was time to trade in our nine-year-old sedan, which had provided excellent service, but was running out of time.
We looked for a small SUV among a number of dealers, and had two criteria: Could we easily store my folded walker in the trunk, leaving room for luggage? and,

R.I.P., Kemp Ross

Kempie Ross, a childhood friend, died this Spring. He, with his older brother John, and I, were pals throughout grade school and junior high, in St. Peter's, Cape Breton. He led the inaugural graduating class at the Canadian Coast Guard College in Point Edward, serving on a number of training voyages to the North on ice breakers, and never looked back. Kemp became a mariner and teacher.

Cadet training at the College includes an interesting twist in language training; for any given two-week period, the language on campus is French -- for everything: classes, study, meals, recreation -- followed by a two-week period, of communication completely in English.

Bonne fête acadienne!

Fewer Keys

Have you noticed, dear reader, especially if you are of a “certain age,” that you / we are carrying fewer keys than before?
When you were a youngster, you might have been given a key to your house and to your mailbox. It was a minor rite of passage. Later on, as you bore more responsibility, you needed a key ring, for your vehicle’s ignition and entry keys, perhaps a key to a garage, and then keys to your place of work, file cabinets, etc. Perhaps you even had a key chain. Your keys jingled, and your toddler-age friends were often fascinated by the sounds from your key ring,
But after you retired, you suddenly noticed that your key ring suddenly became a lot lighter. You no longer needed workplace keys, and your vehicle uses one of those pocket mini-consoles that operate the locks, lights, horn and -- even the engine!

Right now, I'm down to two keys: my house and my vehicle.
And they’re probably going to have to take those away from me, some time in the future!

Loss of Services 1

The Age of “Get-it-Yourself” seems to be fully installed in our culture. The service component of selling gasoline, we must only assume, became too expensive, so the “Self Serve” sign was introduced. Let me explain that, because of physical limitations, we are unable to neither remove / replace the gas cap, nor operate the gasoline pump.

At first, there was some lip service given to the old system, with one set of gasoline pumps showing “Full Serve” signs. Even those have disappeared.

‘Le Tour’

‘Le Tour’ 2010 is done.
If you have to ask, ‘Which Tour?’, then you haven’t spent every fore-noon for three weeks each July parked in front of your TV, watching the world’s greatest cycling spectacle: ‘Le Tour de France.’
And what an event it is! Sure, cycling racing is, at the same time both grueling and beautiful, but the pictures are nothing short of spectacular.

French Radio: Ad Lib

In the summer of 2004, during a continent-wide Acadia gathering, I had volunteered to go back to radio. I would produce and present daily, live morning programs on a new local French station (which would eventually become a permanent project). Check out CKRH - Radio Halifax Métro .
As with most of the radio programs I had presented in my career, I would work alone. This time, however, I had to face a new challenge: I had never spun CDs before, my commercial radio experience having been ‘way back in the days of vinyl records! (Question from the younger generation: “Daddy, what’s 'vinyl'?”)
After basic instruction by Pierre, the chief technician, on cueing and playing CDs and on the sound mixer, I felt ready.