Transcript
00:00:09 Speaker 1
This interview is with Bob calling. My name is Steve calling Bob entered the radio industry while in high school in Chilliwack, BC. The year was 1945.
00:00:20 Speaker 1
World War Two in Europe was just winding down.
00:00:23 Speaker 1
The allies were getting ready to finish off the war in the east against Japan, he accepted an offer to voice a weekend radio program or two, and on Sundays handled remote broadcasts from the local United Church.
00:00:34 Speaker 1
He was 17.
00:00:36 Speaker 1
The following year, he would attend the University of British Columbia on an arts program majoring in economics and including the studies of English and Geography that had lasted 2 years.
00:00:47 Speaker 1
In 1948, he accepted full-time employment at the radio station CHWK. So what happened from there?
00:00:56 Speaker 2
Well, Steve, I’m glad in your opening remarks that you mentioned the word voice, the program because in those days prior to television, I think radio programming was very much an entertainment media and it was.
00:01:14 Speaker 2
We had our programs all scripted by various people and we didn’t necessarily do them ourselves.
00:01:19 Speaker 2
I think this is something we’ll be mentioning from time to time in this interview.
00:01:24 Speaker 2
And that’s how we did our first program there.
00:01:28 Speaker 2
I think it was called the hit parade.
00:01:31 Speaker 2
And I remember we played the the odd Guy Lombardo record that that was on the hit parade and and then the others and they changed every week of course.
00:01:41 Speaker 2
And we just played those.
00:01:43 Speaker 2
Top 10 so that was 1/2 hour show.
00:01:47 Speaker 2
But this sort of.
00:01:49 Speaker 2
Led into 1948 and.
00:01:54 Speaker 1
When when the first full time opportunity arrived for your for your full time position, well, you’d be about 20 then, would you?
00:02:03 Speaker 2
Yeah, that’s yeah, 20, yeah.
00:02:06 Speaker 1
And the radio station was your in your hometown.
00:02:08 Speaker 1
Was that one of the reasons for getting involved in radio?
00:02:11 Speaker 2
Well, in 1948, the Fraser River in Chilliwack flooded and it was a very significant news story. For the first time.
00:02:20 Speaker 2
The radio station did not sign off at 10:30 PM instead, we stayed open around the clock for quite a period of time.
00:02:29 Speaker 2
And we felt that we had to be advising people what was happening with the changing situation, with the flooding at that time.
00:02:38 Speaker 2
I remember one thing, our station owner.
00:02:42 Speaker 2
Casey Wells had a a brand new 1948 Chevrolet 2 door and he installed two way radio equipment in the back seat and I would think that that’s just about the first time that the two way radio had been in use for news stories. So that was something that sort of got me very interested in the business. And I decided then.
00:03:04 Speaker 2
That I would stay on instead of going.
00:03:06 Speaker 1
Back to school.
00:03:07 Speaker 1
Well, you’ve been with the station on and off for a few years.
00:03:10 Speaker 1
How did the programming?
00:03:12 Speaker 1
Then compared to say now for instance, how?
00:03:15 Speaker 2
Well, yeah, there was that point that we had material scripted and.
00:03:22 Speaker 2
For instance, our program director, Murdoch McLaughlin, did a lot of that and the various announcers, Gordon Rose and Tom Rennie, people like that would script material and we would then do the programs.
00:03:40 Speaker 2
Other programs were more or less similar to what are being done now with the with the disc jockeys, where the disc jockey would go in and spin his own records.
00:03:50 Speaker 2
But for many of us, we’d go into a studio, and if there was any production material at all, and we’d have an operator that would handle it for us.
00:03:58 Speaker 2
And that lasted for quite a long time.
00:04:00 Speaker 2
Before we actually did our own operating in some cases.
00:04:04 Speaker 1
The people at the station, were they all local residents of Chilliwack?
00:04:07 Speaker 1
Or was it a transient type job back then?
00:04:11 Speaker 2
I think that now that I mentioned it, I mentioned Bill Teetzel.
00:04:15 Speaker 2
His father was a Barber in town.
00:04:17 Speaker 2
I guess what happened was that people did sort of take jobs at the station and from the local point of view, although sometimes they moved on and other times if they moved up on the ladder became salesman and sales managers and that then they tended to stay.
00:04:33 Speaker 2
But in my case I I bounced around for a while after leaving that station.
00:04:39 Speaker 1
When you first started CHW K, how old was the star?
00:04:43 Speaker 2
Oh, that was one of the pioneer stations in the country. I believe it started in the 20s, the late 20s, maybe about 1930 or so.
00:04:52 Speaker 2
So when I first started, it would have been fairly new, about 151617 years old. I remember it was located on top of the fashion.
00:05:02 Speaker 2
Bakery we walk through the fashion bakery and it was a kind of a restaurant and we would walk right through the restaurant.
00:05:12 Speaker 2
Make our way through a catching up a flight of stairs through the back and there was the radio station on the second floor.
00:05:18 Speaker 2
It was after that that they moved to the Main Street of Chilliwack on the again on the 2nd floor of a building across from the post office, and they stayed there for many years before moving into their own building on the outskirts of town.
00:05:31 Speaker 1
Well, we’ve been looking at a time that’s only a few months before a significant year in your life. You’d married a high school sweetheart in September of 1949. What happened after that?
00:05:43 Speaker 2
It was yes, honeymoon had to come in there and funds were limited.
00:05:49 Speaker 2
We bought a car, hopped into it and drove to Toronto because I had heard that Lauren Green was operating a school in Toronto.
00:05:58 Speaker 2
In 1949, and he had been operating it for some time and I was familiar with some of the graduates of that school.
00:06:05 Speaker 2
It was called the Academy of Radio Arts and Sciences and the following year he changed it to include the name television.
00:06:12 Speaker 2
But I joined his class of 19.
00:06:19 Speaker 2
And it was about the early October.
00:06:22 Speaker 2
And I stayed with Lauren Greene and learned a lot from him and the various people he had teaching at the school.
00:06:30 Speaker 2
But I was only there for a few months before accepting a position in St.
00:06:34 Speaker 2
Thomas ON.
00:06:36 Speaker 1
Toronto a young city back in 1949, was.
00:06:39 Speaker 2
It different than now.
00:06:41 Speaker 2
I think the thing I remember.
00:06:43 Speaker 2
It was certainly different than Vancouver. It was big and impersonal. But the thing I remember was 1949, the year we arrived was when they started digging, digging up young St. and.
00:06:56 Speaker 2
The building the the subway at that time and up to that period signs over overhung young St.
00:07:06 Speaker 2
and they were all ordered taken down so they could dig up the street and and make the the tunnel necessary for the subway.
00:07:13 Speaker 2
And they did not permit them.
00:07:15 Speaker 2
Then afterwards to replace them, they had to be flushed with the building.
00:07:18 Speaker 2
So that’s that’s why young St.
00:07:20 Speaker 2
looks quite different now than it.
00:07:22 Speaker 1
Them you were mentioning that you were familiar with some of the names of the graduates of Lauren Green School.
00:07:28 Speaker 1
Are any of them prominent in the in the field?
00:07:31 Speaker 2
Today. Well yeah, they became.
00:07:33 Speaker 2
Quite prominent in most cases, many working in senior positions in the CBC.
00:07:38 Speaker 2
Some like Hal Davis of CKNW, who I worked for at at a later date.
00:07:44 Speaker 2
And at the Academy itself, similar names come to mind like Lister Sinclair, who became an executive with the CBC but who much preferred writing, and so his executive position didn’t last all that long.
00:08:00 Speaker 2
He went back to writing and voicing programs on the network.
00:08:04 Speaker 2
Along with green, the chap that did that taught us drama was Eric Christmas.
00:08:10 Speaker 2
He was an actor from Britain and Andrew Allen of the CBC was another instructor, he.
00:08:16 Speaker 2
Is a very prominent radio producer and did radio programs on the CBC to see Greens Academy was located directly across from the CBC.
00:08:28 Speaker 2
So these chaps would wander back and forth and do their bit with green and the and the students, and then they go back to their regular jobs, I I suppose.
00:08:37 Speaker 2
Like many of us in those days, they were supplementing what might be considered today a rather meager income.
00:08:45
It’s nice.
00:08:46 Speaker 1
To know things don’t change.
00:08:48 Speaker 1
What did it take to become a broadcaster in those days?
00:08:51 Speaker 1
What were the academies teaching?
00:08:54 Speaker 2
Well, that was my problem actually.
00:08:56 Speaker 2
When I was there because I felt well I’d been in radio for a period of three years, more or less.
00:09:03 Speaker 2
And I felt like I knew it all, and the Academy was very culturally oriented like Sinclair, for instance, would give us an assignment to write 1/2 hour.
00:09:14 Speaker 2
Radio drama and we would expect he was expecting us to have it ready for the following morning.
00:09:20 Speaker 2
Well, he would do things like that in in a matter of an hour or two, but the rest of us, it was a little more difficult.
00:09:26 Speaker 2
We we thought it was a very good grounding and whether or not it was necessary for commercial radio was another question, but it was we certainly made a lot of good contacts and friends.
00:09:41 Speaker 1
So Saint Thomas remained your home for three years.
00:09:44 Speaker 2
Well, yeah, after we went to Saint Thomas, that was.
00:09:47 Speaker 2
In 19.
00:09:50 Speaker 2
50 I guess very early, early in the year.
00:09:54 Speaker 2
I was earning about $35 a week from Chlo and in spite of that, we got along really well and saved money and we thought we’d buy one of those nice old brick homes that they have in Saint Thomas.
00:10:07 Speaker 2
But we didn’t do that.
00:10:07 Speaker 2
We always lived in a second floor of a of a house or and that sort of like an apartment.
00:10:15 Speaker 2
It was very nice and our our daughter was born in Saint Thomas.
00:10:19 Speaker 1
And how was the station?
00:10:21 Speaker 2
Well, the one thing I remember, those were the early days of tape recordings.
00:10:26 Speaker 2
We had reel to Reel Recorder which was packed into a box and it looked like a standard size suitcase.
00:10:31 Speaker 2
I was the farm reporter.
00:10:34 Speaker 2
And this took me out into the field for interviews for my sponsor, Ralston Purina, and the station engineer, John Ward drove the station wagon, and he operated the equipment.
00:10:45 Speaker 2
I’d bring the tapes back and.
00:10:48 Speaker 2
And edit a 5 minute program for the sponsor.
00:10:51 Speaker 2
And of course I also did newscasts and disc jockey work.
00:10:55 Speaker 2
Our disc jockey work in Saint Thomas well again we followed scripts that were sometimes prepared for us by by a syndicate or we wrote our own and we used the.
00:11:08 Speaker 2
Music that was on transcriptions as well as records, and the transcriptions were the big 16 inch plastic floppies and they they’d have about 8 or 9 items on each side.
00:11:20 Speaker 2
And and they, they were kind of interesting.
00:11:23 Speaker 2
I like those because myself it was material I couldn’t buy at the record store, so it was quite different.
00:11:30 Speaker 2
Did you come close to people at the station?
00:11:32 Speaker 2
Well, yeah, we worked with, for instance, the news director, Pete Dickens and.
00:11:37 Speaker 2
Pete moved on to Toronto. Len Evans was the production manager. He did sports on a spree every night at 6:30, and we competed with the London ON radio station CFPL along and.
00:11:51 Speaker 2
The station manager, John Peterson, became mayor of the city.
00:11:54 Speaker 2
He was very prominent politically in the early 50s.
00:11:59 Speaker 1
You eventually made your back your way back to the Fraser Valley.
00:12:04 Speaker 2
Well, yeah, I somehow or other I got word that they would give me a job that would pay a few more dollars.
00:12:12 Speaker 2
I guess it would be in the.
00:12:14 Speaker 2
$45.00 range or something. So that’s per week we thought we thought that was a lot of money, so we climbed into this 39 dodge that we still had and.
00:12:26 Speaker 2
Packed most of our belongings into it and daughter Sue, and we drove West and accepted the job in Chilliwack again.
00:12:33 Speaker 1
Did things change in Chilliwack since?
00:12:34 Speaker 1
You been gone?
00:12:34 Speaker 2
Well, yeah, from a residential point of view, we arrived dead in the middle of winter and we spent our whole salary and then some heating our house with propane gas and we didn’t think we could carry on with that.
00:12:46 Speaker 2
So that was one of the reasons I decided to join Bill Ray, who was the owner of CKNW and US Minster.
00:12:53 Speaker 2
That would be early 1953.
00:12:59 Speaker 1
Did you have people in the industry that you had admired role models or?
00:13:04 Speaker 2
Well, yeah, I’m glad you asked that, because during the war in the late 1940s, we heard a lot about Edward R Murrow reporting from London, though I don’t recall hearing his reports personally. We knew about him and on his return he did radio interviews and he was.
00:13:19 Speaker 2
One of the.
00:13:19 Speaker 2
Early pioneers in television.
00:13:22 Speaker 2
And he set up one of the earliest TV news operations, too. At that time. In 1954, for example, he talked with clarinet player Benny Goodman, who is known as the King of Swing and did this significant and entertaining interview at Goodman’s home in Stamford, CT, and his Goodmans wife, Alice, and their daughter Rachel, were on.
00:13:45 Speaker 2
I’d like you to listen to how he cleverly brings the daughter in to highlight the end of the interview.
00:13:50 Speaker 5
Goodman, I was going to ask Benny this, but I think I’ll ask you instead.
00:13:53 Speaker 5
Does he really practice very much?
00:13:56 Speaker 4
But there seems to be a slight difference in opinion in the family, and I’ve wanted to tell.
00:14:00 Speaker 4
You that seven years ago.
00:14:02 Speaker 4
I thought Benny was practicing really rather inordinate amount hours a day until I said to him.
00:14:07 Speaker 6
Don’t you ever.
00:14:07 Speaker 4
Get bored and tired, practicing hour after.
00:14:10 Speaker 4
Well, he said.
00:14:11 Speaker 4
It’s very odd, you know.
00:14:12 Speaker 4
You should ask me that, but I was.
00:14:14 Speaker 4
Practicing the day in the living room.
00:14:16 Speaker 6
I looked out the window and.
00:14:17 Speaker 4
There you were and the hot.
00:14:18 Speaker 4
Sun digging in the garden, I said.
00:14:20 Speaker 4
To myself, with guilt would be out of.
00:14:22 Speaker 4
My mind so I said.
00:14:24 Speaker 4
And we’d better go.
00:14:25 Speaker 4
Let’s go with that.
00:14:27 Speaker 5
Rachel Benji, do you like music too?
00:14:32 Speaker 5
Benji, I hear that you’re something of a painter.
00:14:35 Speaker 5
Is that right?
00:14:36 Speaker 6
Wow, this is what I made for Daddy last Christmas.
00:14:43 Speaker 6
I made the picture.
00:14:47 Speaker 6
Emily, I’m painted into a mask.
00:14:51 Speaker 5
Or a very nice X-ray to Betty.
00:14:54 Speaker 5
Very nice, Rachel.
00:14:56 Speaker 5
I know that you and your dad played duets at home sometimes.
00:15:00 Speaker 5
Why don’t the two of you now try your hand at rocking Stamford and the rest?
00:15:04 Speaker 5
Of the country.
00:15:46 Speaker 5
Rachel, I think your dad shows great promise, don’t you?
00:15:56 Speaker 1
That was a fine bit of history.
00:15:58 Speaker 1
Have you managed to compile some history?
00:16:00 Speaker 1
Of your own.
00:16:02 Speaker 2
From that period, actually, it was the same year that Murrow did the interview with the Goodmans in their home there in Connecticut, I was news director at CKMO in Vancouver, and when we did, the local news was with a a broadcast line which ran from City Council chambers at City Hall to our newsroom.
00:16:19 Speaker 2
We would monitor the debate.
00:16:21 Speaker 2
At the City Hall and select the actuality material and the stories to go with them for our news, we also ran expanded City Hall programs on occasion, based on the material that came in and depending on what was happening, how significant it was.
00:16:37 Speaker 2
The following year, 1955, I was at C KWX in Vancouver.
00:16:42 Speaker 2
Now this was only a few years later, on November 22, 1963, that President Kennedy was assassinated, and I reported the story this way.
00:16:51 Speaker 3
Which this nation has always been committed, and of which we are committed today.
00:16:58 Speaker 7
At home and around the world.
00:17:00 Speaker 8
That was the voice that was forever. Still just a little more than one month ago, on November 22nd, 1963, Canadian Prime Minister Lester Pearson expressed it for the rest of us when he said the world can ill afford the premature death of a man like President Kennedy.
00:17:15 Speaker 7
The world can ill afford his loss.
00:17:20 Speaker 7
Canadians next to Americans themselves.
00:17:24 Speaker 7
Will feel most deeply the tragedy of that loss.
00:17:31 Speaker 8
And yet he was dead, struck down suddenly by an Assassin’s bullet during a trip to Texas, and three days later, the streets of Washington reverberated to the solemn roll of drums.
00:17:41 Speaker 10
The crowds were standing quietly.
00:17:45 Speaker 10
Heads are bared.
00:17:47 Speaker 10
The people are not moving.
00:17:50 Speaker 10
A few in the back are walking along.
00:17:54 Speaker 10
As they come up to obtain perhaps a little better vantage point from which to see.
00:18:01 Speaker 10
They last.
00:18:03 Speaker 10
Flow’s solemn procession of John Fitzgerald Kennedy from.
00:18:10 Speaker 10
The White House in Washington to Capitol Hill in Washington.
00:18:14 Speaker 10
The members of this ceremonial drum corps now are crossing.
00:18:19 Speaker 10
The avenue right directly in front of us.
00:18:29 Speaker 10
This drum core is made-up of members of all 5 branches of the armed forces of the United States immediately behind them.
00:18:41 Speaker 10
The Navy.
00:18:45 Speaker 10
A special honor.
00:18:50 Speaker 10
But behind them, again, the Joint Chiefs of Staff.
00:18:56 Speaker 8
Among the Canadians to express their shock and horror, along with the Prime Minister and many others, was longtime friend, former Prime Minister and now leader of the opposition, John Diefenbaker.
00:19:06 Speaker 3
I think it’s the passing of another Great American president.
00:19:10 Speaker 3
Abraham Lincoln.
00:19:12 Speaker 3
Of whom it was said by one of his cabinet.
00:19:16 Speaker 3
He now belongs to the ages.
00:19:20 Speaker 1
Kennedys’s death certainly did shock the nation. A news program like that obviously took a fair amount of production expertise and time.
00:19:29 Speaker 2
Well, yeah. For a decade at C KWX, we collected local, national and international material from many sources. We used them in our newscasts, and then at the end of the day, about 9:00 PM, but that time I had written 1/2 hour program called the world today.
00:19:44 Speaker 2
My producer Ron Robinson would take the cuts from their various reels.
00:19:49 Speaker 2
And I would have them numbered in proper sequence at that stage and he would have a list of these numbers and I would keep a copy of course, because while he was doing the dubbing in the control room, I would be writing the the script.
00:20:04 Speaker 2
And sometimes this would be done just scant minutes before airtime.
00:20:10 Speaker 2
As I read the script, Ron would be inserting the clips on.
00:20:15 Speaker 2
Important cuts were saved for the program that we did annually near the end of the year. We called it the year in review and it was from one of those that that 1963 Kennedy report was taken.
00:20:28 Speaker 1
You had mentioned some sources.
00:20:30 Speaker 1
Did you have local local staff or did you depend heavily on networks?
00:20:36 Speaker 2
Well, both at that time, local people under news directors Bert Cannings, Bob Giles, Eric Sanderson included, New Zealander Jim MacDonald and many others.
00:20:46 Speaker 2
Over the years, our sports department was headed by Bill Stephenson, who was later in Toronto.
00:20:52 Speaker 2
And Jim Robson, who became the voice of the NHL Vancouver Canucks.
00:20:57 Speaker 2
The international news network was mutual and I regarded as material very highly.
00:21:03 Speaker 2
It was excellent quality and they were always on top of all the international news stories.
00:21:09 Speaker 2
The day Kennedy’s assassin was shot to death, for example, in Washington, I received a call when the news flash appeared in the broadcast news.
00:21:18 Speaker 2
And I was already I was able to say to the caller that I’d already used the material which was being carried live by mutual at that time.
00:21:28 Speaker 1
With the way things go now, you start in the smaller stations, et cetera.
00:21:33 Speaker 1
There’s a lot of work that’s being depended on the the one person type newsrooms.
00:21:37 Speaker 1
How do things work now?
00:21:40 Speaker 1
Or back then was there, is there a similar comparison?
00:21:43 Speaker 2
Well, if we want to look at, for instance, the 1940s in in Chilliwack, as I recall them, these were the days before wire service printers were located in The Newsroom.
00:21:59 Speaker 2
One of the.
00:22:00 Speaker 2
Big newscasts we had was called Valley News and we would search around by telephone, mostly for little items that we could use.
00:22:11 Speaker 2
We would check the hospitals and the police the way they do today and we would, however, use just little feature ish.
00:22:19 Speaker 2
Human nature, kinds of things, like maybe some elderly pioneer of the district was having a birthday. I remember we used to report my own grandfather’s birthday each year because he was in his 90s and was considered a pioneer of the district and well known as the operator of a of A.
00:22:39 Speaker 2
Of a grocery store and and and still working all the way through to 95 when he passed away and he would be mentioned in Valley News as being when his birthday rolled around because it was considered kind of newsworthy I guess.
00:22:55 Speaker 2
I was at that time besides my radio work at the radio station there I was worked for my grandfathers.
00:23:03 Speaker 2
Grocery store as a delivery person, both on my bicycle and driving the truck long before I probably had a license for it, and I had a paper route.
00:23:15 Speaker 2
I started with the Edmonton with the Vancouver Sun newspaper.
00:23:20 Speaker 2
The province was the big newspaper at that time.
00:23:23 Speaker 2
The province’s carriers had big roots, 75 customers. I started out with 50 customers and I covered most of the city of Chilliwack.
00:23:32 Speaker 2
It seemed I was downtown and then I went way out into the West End of town near the hospital and but by after three years I built the route up from 50 customers.
00:23:44 Speaker 2
Over 100 and I was still able to do it inside.
00:23:47 Speaker 2
Of an hour, so I really must have been traveling around on that bicycle and then I might go to the radio station and do something or I’ll say I would wait until my weekend shift.
00:24:01 Speaker 2
But one one I remember sometimes we sit in the studio and in order to supplement our local news coverage, the Morning News Herald would arrive from Vancouver and we just spread it out in front of us and read two or three little items out of.
00:24:17 Speaker 2
The paper, too, don’t think news directors.
00:24:19 Speaker 1
Will let you get away with that.
00:24:20 Speaker 1
More what kind of population and listenership did you have in Chilliwack back in those years?
00:24:28 Speaker 2
Well, people didn’t have the selection, of course, and the radios were rather primitive.
00:24:35 Speaker 2
So I think that.
00:24:38 Speaker 2
People listened to the local station wherever it was located and took it very seriously and enjoyed the programs and and followed them closely and knew the people that were working at the station too.
00:24:51 Speaker 2
Although I don’t recall anybody considering you or any kind of notorious person or anything but you.
00:25:01 Speaker 2
You figured that with.
00:25:03 Speaker 2
The small population and the small number of stations that could be collected on radios in those days that people did did listen.
00:25:10 Speaker 2
And of course, because there is no television, people listened in the evenings, more probably than they do now.
00:25:19 Speaker 1
You would mentioned earlier.
00:25:21 Speaker 1
Stephenson and Robson is there anyone else that you recall from the?
00:25:24 Speaker 1
50S in Vancouver.
00:25:26 Speaker 2
Well, the manager at CWX was tiny elfick, and the assistant manager was Sam Ross.
00:25:31 Speaker 2
Sam was a newsmen through and through a key organizer and manager with the Canadian Press and Broadcast News before going into radio in Vancouver.
00:25:42 Speaker 2
But we thought a lot of tiny elphicke, and in fact, the rhythm pals did a parody of tiny when he opened the stations big new building in 1950.
00:25:52 Speaker 2
The key to us at that time as employees was where did all the money come from?
00:25:57 Speaker 2
At least that was one of the things that we apparently thought about at the time.
00:26:01 Speaker 2
And the owners, Taylor, Pearson and Carson, were obviously the source of all these funds.
00:26:14 Speaker 5
Well, in the radio game spread out across nation, there’s a very smart man with a singular reputation.
00:26:25 Speaker 5
His managers never worry about the dough.
00:26:30 Speaker 5
For they think they work for a man who makes it grow ohh the money man with the money trees.
00:26:38 Speaker 5
And if you’re white, Calgary on the coast, there’s a manager named.
00:26:51 Speaker 5
Had to build himself a station that was real slick.
00:26:56 Speaker 5
He called for bending and hollered loud for Chara.
00:27:02 Speaker 5
It beggared Harold Carson had the money.
00:27:07 Speaker 5
The money man with the money tree and.
00:27:10 Speaker 9
If you’re wondering.
00:27:11 Speaker 5
Who is the great White Father in Calgary?
00:27:17 Speaker 5
The coffee bar serves everyone freak as they are.
00:27:22 Speaker 5
And Stanley’s dog is a university track *.
00:27:28 Speaker 5
And Edith ashtrays.
00:27:29 Speaker 5
All are lined with mink.
00:27:33 Speaker 5
And Sam Ross shares the golden plated sink.
00:27:38 Speaker 5
The money man with the money.
00:27:40 Speaker 5
Tree and if you’re.
00:27:43 Speaker 5
Was he the great White Father in Calgary?
00:27:49 Speaker 1
Well, that was a lot of fun.
00:27:51 Speaker 1
I guess we don’t really have to mention that that’s somewhat of an exaggeration.
00:27:55 Speaker 2
Yeah, that was recorded for a party which we held to celebrate the official opening of the new Burrard St.
00:28:00 Speaker 2
Building in Vancouver.
00:28:02 Speaker 2
Since then, and of course, the owners, now known as Selkirk have replaced that building with another one. So I suppose that 1957 record with all its scratches could be replaced and updated.
00:28:17 Speaker 1
So from there, from radio you’ve joined broadcast news that was back in 1964. Why did you make the choice to leave radio for broadcast?
00:28:27 Speaker 2
Well, it’s interesting that you mentioned that I left radio because in a sense I did and because we didn’t do any broadcasting on the air in the early days of broadcast news.
00:28:38 Speaker 2
And it was only later that we started an audio service.
00:28:43 Speaker 2
And of course now with that, we can consider ourselves back into the.
00:28:47 Speaker 2
Direct broadcast of news too, as well as writing it.
00:28:50 Speaker 2
But in the early 60s, it was my view that I would be able to do more for the industry by writing news for many, many radio stations instead of just one radio station in Vancouver Bureau, for example, we served perhaps 40 radio stations throughout the province.
00:29:11 Speaker 2
And then our major stories were picked up and moved nationally through head office in Toronto.
00:29:18 Speaker 2
But I think that that was what I had in the back of my mind that I wanted to expand my reach, as it were, and do work for more for more people.
00:29:30 Speaker 2
And rather than restrict myself just to the one outlet.
00:29:33 Speaker 1
Was broadcast news relatively new back then?
00:29:35 Speaker 2
As well.
00:29:36 Speaker 2
Well, no.
00:29:37 Speaker 2
It had been operating for many years and we heard stories.
00:29:42 Speaker 2
From the war years when people would, for instance, not be able to obtain sufficient real rolls of paper for the printers, and they would send out news and they would not be copying it in The Newsroom because they didn’t have the rolls.
00:29:57 Speaker 2
But so they just sent it out and sort of trusted that it would be appropriately picked up at the other end.
00:30:04 Speaker 2
There were quite a few few things of that nature.
00:30:08 Speaker 2
Our we relied heavily on newspaper reports and reporters, whereas today broadcast news.
00:30:16 Speaker 2
It relies almost exclusively on experienced radio reporters.
00:30:22 Speaker 1
Did you pick up some special memories or special rewards being in the broadcast business?
00:30:29 Speaker 2
Well, yes, I’ve written business stories for which people like the local Chamber of Commerce had presented me with poster for the wall sort of thing.
00:30:39 Speaker 2
It was framed we had done.
00:30:43 Speaker 2
I had done numerous entertainment stories and that that was one of the things I used to enjoy in Vancouver.
00:30:49 Speaker 2
Was the entertainment beat that was in radio?
00:30:52 Speaker 2
I would go to.
00:30:53 Speaker 2
At Stanley Park during the summer months, for example, and cover the various productions at theater under the Stars, which was known as Tuts, an acronym for theater under the Stars.
00:31:06 Speaker 2
And I remember many of the time that we would sit in the pouring rain, watching the program on the stage, the players were.
00:31:13 Speaker 2
Detected, but the audience was not from the.
00:31:16 Speaker 2
I mean, one of the big productions that touch was South Pacific, which and we introduced Bob Gulley in 1956.
00:31:28 Speaker 2
Gulley was a young man of about 20 and he was paid around $100 a week to come and play the role of.
00:31:37 Speaker 2
Lieutenant Cable in South Park.
00:31:39 Speaker 2
Specific and here it was some 35 years later, in 1988, he resurrected the play and this time, however, he played the older man in the play and somebody else played the Leftenant cable.
00:31:52 Speaker 2
So I was.
00:31:53 Speaker 2
I was interesting to me to be able to compare the the way he played those two roles.
00:31:57 Speaker 2
That’s just one of the examples of.
00:32:00 Speaker 2
Entertainment stories that do develop over the years.
00:32:04 Speaker 1
In your, in your history of radio, have you noticed any changes that have been quite significant to the industry?
00:32:12 Speaker 1
Whether in the reporting styles or the delivery styles or programming styles.
00:32:17 Speaker 2
Yes, when even in the 60s and certainly in the 50s in Vancouver, I would staff City Hall and I would staff the police beat and I would do other things.
00:32:31 Speaker 2
I would on the on the scene and we would produce.
00:32:38 Speaker 2
Lengthy reports on these on these stories that would run at least a minute.
00:32:44 Speaker 2
Some of them would run a minute and 1/2. I think there we covered a full page of of tightly typewritten material, and I think that’s certainly something you wouldn’t do today.
00:32:53 Speaker 2
You you want to cover the whole story on radio in 20 or 30 seconds, we would spend a lot of time on it and give all the appropriate background and and do this story that way and.
00:33:04 Speaker 2
Also in Vancouver, we I I would suggest that we pioneered traffic reports in Vancouver with the helicopter that was owned and operated by.
00:33:17 Speaker 2
By a man that later became known as a futurist in Montreal.
00:33:22 Speaker 2
Frank Ogden and Frank is he was. He’s quite a man when it came to this helicopter, it was a little tiny machine which we rented for $50.00 an hour, which was a tiny sum of money even in those days for a helicopter.
00:33:35 Speaker 2
But it was such a small machine that the two people who were crowded into it, including the pilot and the passenger, and we would do regular.
00:33:43 Speaker 2
Broadcasts on traffic and in the summertime, a beach patrol in the in Vancouver that would be in the late 50s, I guess and.
00:33:55 Speaker 2
I remember I remember 1 experience that we had with the helicopter.
00:33:58 Speaker 2
He took off near Lions Gate Bridge and I think sometimes they they would let the the routine servicing go a little bit and and the the rotor blades started slipping and we started falling into the water just sort of slowly sliding into the water and we were looking down.
00:34:15 Speaker 2
He and I both were looking down and the water was coming pretty close to the machine.
00:34:19 Speaker 2
I think we were both getting ready to jump and then.
00:34:20 Speaker 1
It caught and took off again.
00:34:22 Speaker 1
Well, I heard this pilot was quite a character.
00:34:24 Speaker 1
Any other stories while you’re up in the air?
00:34:28 Speaker 2
Well, he let me take the control once or twice, and the well, I’ll tell you, that’s a tricky business.
00:34:32 Speaker 2
And the other time was when we flew under the bridge instead of over it, to get back to the landing pad.
00:34:37 Speaker 2
And I don’t know how legitimate that was, but it was quite exciting at the time.
00:34:43 Speaker 1
Do you care to comment?
00:34:45 Speaker 1
Does sum it up on what radio holds for the future?
00:34:50 Speaker 2
Oh yeah, I’m one of those that has all kinds of positive feelings about the future of radio because.
00:35:00 Speaker 2
People not only need background.
00:35:04 Speaker 2
Sound as it were, but they need immediate information that they can’t get from other sources like television, for example, does have immediate information, but you’re not just sitting around watching television all day.
00:35:15 Speaker 2
And I do believe that radio news is vitally important and will continue to be.
00:35:20 Speaker 2
So and and also the programming you can well, I mean the indication of that is how many radio stations are there now compared to many years ago when we only had a few.
00:35:35 Speaker 1
This interview has only been a small portion of Bob Callings vast 40 plus year career.
00:35:41 Speaker 1
This was recorded September 24th, 1988. My name is Steve calling.
00:37:00 Speaker 9
We’re not.
00:37:09 Speaker 9
The lady you were trying for doesn’t let you come.
00:37:22 Speaker 9
A little late break.
00:37:32 Speaker 5
I have been to many.
00:37:37 Speaker 5
I might include even Brooklyn.
00:37:40 Speaker 7
If you’re ever feeling out of.
00:37:44 Speaker 5
I’d like to recommend a look.
00:37:58 Speaker 9
Sailing away across the lake.
00:38:23 Speaker 9
One second.
00:38:30 Speaker 9
On the ship across the Earth.
00:40:11 Speaker 9
Let me.
00:40:19 Speaker 7
That I see.
00:40:32 Speaker 7
Little blue.
00:40:53 Speaker 9
When you’re in love.
00:41:00 Speaker 7
All of them.
00:41:26 Speaker 9
When you’re in love.
Part 2
Transcript
00:00:11 Speaker 1
Thank you, Steve for an insightful and at times probing look at radio as it was in the 1940s, fifties and 60s, one aspect of the time should be looked at now in more detail, and that’s the recorded music we played. Many stations have live musicians like the rhythm fowls at CKWX and CKNW.
00:00:30 Speaker 1
But recorded music was the mainstay of the musical affair offered at the time. Records were 78 RPM transcriptions 33 and a third.
00:00:39 Speaker 1
We used mostly records and it was quite a time keeping them in condition because of the steel needles which had to be changed frequently by disc jockeys or technicians.
00:00:49 Speaker 1
One of the big sources included the major British recording companies, whose discs seemed to stand up best.
00:00:55 Speaker 1
So we heard a lot of the early Mantovani martial music and for comedy.
00:01:00 Speaker 1
Relief George Formby Victor Sylvester was a favored British conductor and a popular musical and vocal group called themselves The Troubadours.
00:01:33 Speaker 1
And Jan Garber was one of the popular records of the day.
00:02:30 Speaker 1
We heard a lot of von Monroe in those days too.
00:02:33 Speaker 1
He was an orchestra conductor and the vocalist.
00:03:13 Speaker 2
And after.
00:03:20 Speaker 2
You promise?
00:03:50 Speaker 1
A popular vocalist in the 40s whose records?
00:03:54 Speaker 1
Were often on the hit parade was victim Moon.
00:03:58 Speaker 2
Music and the wine convinced me you were mine, but it was just the spring.
00:04:22 Speaker 2
By April in Portugal, with you when we discovered Roman like I never knew that.
00:04:38 Speaker 2
Brought the rain and now my dream is true, but still my heart says of you.
00:04:55 Speaker 2
Five my April dream and forth with you when we discover all you like.
00:05:10 Speaker 2
I never knew then.
00:05:15 Speaker 2
Brought the rain and now my dream is true, but still my heart.
00:05:44 Speaker 1
Remember, the 1940s were the years when vaudeville was still pretty big on a lot of stages. We often had motion pictures with vaudeville performances in between, along with the serials and.
00:05:58 Speaker 1
And the upcoming features and the newsreels, of course, during World War Two in the 1940s and long after the war and the other big feature where the the, the comedies and the cartoons and we heard them on the radio as well.
00:06:15 Speaker 4
Sort of way, and when a pretty waitress brought them a tray of food, they spoke to her family in manna rather.
00:06:28 Speaker 5
At first, she.
00:06:29 Speaker 5
Did not notice them or make the least reply, but one remark was passed that brought the tears to her eyes.
00:06:35 Speaker 5
Drops her.
00:06:41 Speaker 4
And facing her tormentor with cheeks now burning red, she looked a perfect.
00:06:48 Speaker 4
Picture as a feelingly, she said.
00:06:53 Speaker 4
My my mother was a lady.
00:06:59 Speaker 4
Like yours.
00:07:03 Speaker 4
And you may have a sister who needs protection.
00:07:11 Speaker 4
Come through this great find a brother and you wouldn’t help me if Jack were only here.
00:07:31 Speaker 5
It’s true, one touch of nature.
00:07:34 Speaker 5
It makes the whole working.
00:07:36 Speaker 5
And every word she uttered seemed to touch their hearts within.
00:07:40 Speaker 5
They set their stand in silence until on Friday.
00:07:46 Speaker 6
Forgive me, miss, I meant no harm.
00:07:50 Speaker 6
Tell me, what’s your name?
00:07:54 Speaker 5
Mandy cried again.
00:07:56 Speaker 6
Know your brother.
00:07:59 Speaker 6
We’ve been friends for many years and he often speaks of you.
00:08:06 Speaker 2
Of you.
00:08:08 Speaker 6
He’ll be so glad to see you.
00:08:11 Speaker 6
And if you’ll only wed, I’ll take you to him as my wife.
00:08:17 Speaker 6
For I love you sin.
00:08:20 Speaker 2
You said.
00:08:23 Speaker 4
My mother.
00:08:25 Speaker 4
You are the lady.
00:08:27 Speaker 4
I like love you when I love and you may have a need protection.
00:08:38 Speaker 4
I come to.
00:08:43 Speaker 4
And to find out here and you.
00:08:51 Speaker 4
If Jack.
00:09:01 Speaker 1
On the interview, we spoke through one of our tape recorded inserts with Benny Goodman, the King of Swing, and here’s one of the records that we heard a lot of in the 40s and perhaps in the 50s.
00:09:15 Speaker 1
It was called changes.
00:09:17 Speaker 1
Benny Goodman, his clarinet and his orchestra.
00:09:55 Speaker 1
And this is Nelson Eddy and Nadine Connor.
00:10:55 Speaker 2
Oh, sweet mystery of life at last I found thee.
00:11:04 Speaker 7
That’s the secret.
00:11:09 Speaker 2
Along is driving away the joy and idle.
00:11:23 Speaker 2
Lord is love and love along the world is.
00:11:31 Speaker 2
To the love and love alone.
00:13:00 Speaker 1
Nelson Eddy, of course, was famous in the 40s for his motion picture activities and his singing with Jeanette MacDonald.
00:13:09 Speaker 1
There we have him with Nadine Conner, with the Victor Herbert favorite.
00:13:13 Speaker 1
Oh, sweet mystery of life.
00:13:16 Speaker 1
Early in this segment of the program, we heard from the troubadours.
00:13:22 Speaker 1
And here’s another of their selections from the album.
00:13:27 Speaker 1
This particular number was popular in the 40s.
00:13:30 Speaker 1
We played it a lot on the radio and at this date it pays to listen to the lyrics as we heard them then.
00:14:16 Speaker 2
My baby slumber time is coming.
00:14:21 Speaker 2
Press your head upon my breast for man.
00:14:26 Speaker 2
Man, man is falling where shadows are.
00:14:31 Speaker 2
Falling while the soft freeze, as in days long gone.
00:14:41 Speaker 2
I heard this melody.
00:14:44 Speaker 2
When I was a pig and my manager in the band.
00:14:53 Speaker 2
Were strong and so sweet.
00:16:53 Speaker 8
I will.
00:17:02 Speaker 8
And the wind.
00:17:53 Speaker 1
One of the.
00:17:54 Speaker 1
More popular records was by Benny Goodman.
00:17:58 Speaker 1
And in this particular one, he’s joined by the famous vocalist of the day, Peggy Lee.
00:18:04 Speaker 9
To question his intention.
00:18:09 Speaker 10
He was shy.
00:18:10 Speaker 10
That’s why he hadn’t spoken.
00:18:16 Speaker 9
They didn’t.
00:18:17 Speaker 9
When he’d be heartbroken.
00:18:54 Speaker 9
But my little cousin came and she did.
00:19:07 Speaker 3
My love is both glory.
00:19:15 Speaker 10
Finish up this.
00:19:45 Speaker 1
If it or not, this is Kate Smith.
00:19:50 Speaker 3
Older than river.
00:20:15 Speaker 3
Gripped and helpless.
00:20:26 Speaker 3
Escape this broken heart.
00:20:30 Speaker 3
Mine freedom. Many more.
00:20:43 Speaker 3
Heaven help me.
00:20:50 Speaker 3
Help me find the distant shore.
00:21:40 Speaker 3
With you someday you let me down.
00:21:47 Speaker 3
You troubles on my mind.
00:21:56 Speaker 3
Yeah, I’m doomed to fail.
00:22:08 Speaker 3
Leave your lovely behind.
00:22:32 Speaker 1
And we had our share of jazz back in the 30s.
00:22:36 Speaker 1
This one goes way back, well before any of the previous recordings were this.
00:22:41 Speaker 1
And here we go.
00:23:46 Speaker 11
If I had a thought.
00:23:51 Speaker 11
I would run it every time I felt I’d sit there in the gloom of my lonely little.
00:24:00 Speaker 11
And a thought each time you whispered.
00:24:03 Speaker 11
I love you, love you.
00:24:05 Speaker 11
I’m free.
00:24:06 Speaker 11
The moment you came in, you we would talk the whole thing.
00:24:15 Speaker 11
I would pay attention and the midnight mass men if I had a talking picture of you.
00:24:25 Speaker 1
And the lyric there, we would talk of growing older and that brings us to our final selection in this portion of the program and it’s a good one to wrap up with because.
00:24:36 Speaker 1
These selections will bring back memories.
00:24:41 Speaker 1
Once again, here’s von Monroe.
00:24:49 Speaker 2
Memory dream of my soldiers.
00:25:02 Speaker 2
The sea of memory.
00:25:18 Speaker 2
Childhood bird.
00:25:32 Speaker 2
You left me alone.
00:25:38 Speaker 2
My own in my own my.
00:25:56 Speaker 2
My day.
00:26:00 Speaker 7
Are you?
00:26:28 Speaker 1
It is the sincerest wish of yours truly, Bob calling and my son Steve, who helped me produce the program.
00:26:36 Speaker 1
That you listeners far in the future will.
00:26:40 Speaker 1
Enjoy listening to some of the items that we heard.
00:26:44 Speaker 1
Many, many years ago, the top recording stars in this little segment of the program.
00:26:51 Speaker 1
Like Vaughn Monroe and Jan Garber.
00:26:56 Speaker 1
We could even have played the Inchy suite by Ted Goon.
00:27:01 Speaker 1
And Ralph Ford the.
00:27:04 Speaker 1
The organist Ted Goon played something called the Bones.
00:27:09 Speaker 1
But we resisted the temptation.
00:27:14 Speaker 1
Sign off now. Goodbye.
00:27:40 Speaker 4
I’ve got a story.
00:27:41 Speaker 4
I got a story to tell.
00:27:49 Speaker 4
I’m not a storyteller, but I’ll try to tell it where he was.
00:27:55 Speaker 4
Handsome boy.
00:27:56 Speaker 4
He was my pride and joy my might.
00:28:03 Speaker 4
It might be 16.
00:28:04 Speaker 4
Leave me.
00:28:22 Speaker 4
He walked me home from school one day, told me he was going away.
00:28:27 Speaker 4
I begged, begged, begged him not to go.
00:28:29 Speaker 4
But he said his mommy and told him so it might be 16.
00:28:33 Speaker 4
Leave me.
00:28:36 Speaker 4
I took my baby at the station door.
00:28:40 Speaker 4
Wanted to kiss him.
00:28:41 Speaker 4
No more watching shoot you down the track and never come back.
00:28:46 Speaker 4
Now my Sweet 16.
00:29:05 Speaker 4
816 just couldn’t be me. He’s coming back on the 5:15 that don’t like you and poop. Poop. Poop 16 won’t leave me forever. Ever leave me for my Sweet 16. Won’t leave me no more.
00:29:28 Speaker 1
I know we signed off, but we must explain that was my sweet six, my Sweet 16.
00:29:34 Speaker 1
Priscilla Wright was the singer and the orchestra was conducted by Don Wright, the Canadian Orchestra leader and composer, and so that record was produced in Toronto.
00:29:47 Speaker 1
And recorded there with Priscilla and Don Wright.
00:29:49 Speaker 1
And so here we go for sure.
00:29:52 Speaker 1
And it’s been a delight talking to you, Steve, and farewell to all.
00:29:57 Speaker 1
Here’s the way we signed on.
00:29:59 Speaker 1
With the troubadours.
00:30:48 Speaker 1
Well, we’ll have a little more.
00:30:51 Speaker 1
This is more than ever.
00:30:54 Speaker 1
With Royce Mac.
00:30:57 Speaker 1
And we’ll follow that by record by Ray Noble and his orchestra from Britain and one of Ray Noble’s compositions.
00:31:33 Speaker 8
Than ever.
00:31:37 Speaker 8
Miss you?
00:31:39 Speaker 8
More than ever, I still long to kiss you like a fool.
00:31:48 Speaker 8
I smiled at how far.
00:31:53 Speaker 8
Now it’s hard to keep the tears from starting more than.
00:32:02 Speaker 8
There’s that.
00:32:07 Speaker 8
Time will never fart.
00:32:11 Speaker 8
Bad burning.
00:32:14 Speaker 8
I need you, darling.
00:32:18 Speaker 8
I want you more than ever.
00:36:48 Speaker 7
I’m looking for a sweetheart.
00:36:53 Speaker 7
That I can sing my love songs.
00:36:59 Speaker 7
I’ve got a lot of girlfriends.
00:37:04 Speaker 7
But they don’t seem to.
00:37:10 Speaker 7
Are a sweetheart that I can call my very own.
00:37:20 Speaker 7
Until I find my true love, I’ll go dreaming.
00:37:33 Speaker 7
Earth to dream I’m stealing.
00:37:36 Speaker 7
Then I get that feeling.
00:37:44 Speaker 7
I don’t wanna play thing, only want the real thing.
00:37:53 Speaker 7
When I see the sweetheart that passed me by upon the street.
00:38:04 Speaker 7
I know I’ll find my sweetheart.
00:38:09 Speaker 7
One man just for me.
00:38:37 Speaker 7
When I see the sweetheart.
00:38:42 Speaker 7
Pass me by up on the street.
00:38:48 Speaker 7
I know I’ll find my sweetheart.
00:38:53 Speaker 7
One man just for me.
00:38:59 Speaker 1
Right.
00:38:59 Speaker 1
We played a lot of Western music.
00:39:01 Speaker 1
Spade, Cooley and the sons of The Pioneers.
00:39:04 Speaker 1
Here’s one of the songs they made famous and it sung for us once again, making her appearance by Kate Smith.
00:39:42 Speaker 3
Keep on moving, Dan, don’t you listen to him, Dan.
00:39:47 Speaker 4
Not a man.
00:39:48 Speaker 3
And he, Fred, for burning.
00:39:50 Speaker 3
Hand with water.
00:39:57 Speaker 3
Can you see that?
00:39:58 Speaker 3
The green tree where the.
00:40:02 Speaker 3
Free and it’s waiting there for you.
00:40:16 Speaker 10
Somebody else.
00:40:22 Speaker 10
Not much.
00:40:26 Speaker 10
It’s somebody.
00:40:29 Speaker 10
Night for love.
00:40:32 Speaker 10
Not much.
00:40:40 Speaker 10
To someone else.
00:40:43 Speaker 10
Is the thing.
00:40:46 Speaker 10
Bad man.
00:40:49 Speaker 10
To me, it’s just a Valentine.
00:40:57 Speaker 10
Let somebody else’s team be shared.
00:41:04 Speaker 10
Not much.
00:41:09 Speaker 10
Somebody else.
00:41:15 Speaker 10
Not much.
00:41:27 Speaker 9
That I can.
00:41:30 Speaker 10
It’s somebody else’s moon.
00:43:36 Speaker 2
Remember the night, the night you say I love you.
00:43:48 Speaker 2
Remember, remember you remember.
00:43:54 Speaker 2
All by all the stars above.
00:44:21 Speaker 2
You promised that you forget me, not you.
00:44:28 Speaker 2
But you forgot not to remember.
00:44:35 Speaker 10
Right.
00:45:21 Speaker 2
And after I love you.
00:45:36 Speaker 2
You forgot to remember.