Radio Guy Dies While Doing 'Remote' from the New Bad-Boys Appliance Superstore
The local broadcasting community was shocked this morning when they witnessed the fiery loss of one of their own in a bizarre accident during a live-remote from the new Bad Boys Appliance & Furniture Giant Warehouse store.
Along with every other morning radio-show announcer in town, Brian "Skip" Henderson of CJOE-AM was broadcasting live from the new Bad Boys outlet on Wharncliffe Road just across the street from 'Hooters.' Henderson was waiting his turn for an on-air interview with Bad Boy founder/ex-Toronto mayor/all-round Shakespearen 'Fool'-at-large Mel Lastman when he was killed almost instantly after becoming engulfed in flames and overcome by propane gas fumes - not necessarily in that order - while fiddling with the controls on a new propane Barbeque Extreme from Weber.
Veteran broadcaster Henderson was 65 and leaves behind no wife or children.
"Skip's life was his job - and his job, was his life." said CJOE general manager Gil Grady when asked how Henderson's family felt about the news. Grady - ever the philosopher - then explained, "The people of London were Skip's family." He elaborated, "It was like Skip was a member of the family in every household in London in the 45-year-old to death demographic."
According to Grady, Henderson began his long-career with CJOE after moving to town from Toronto in the early 1960s. Despite no previous experience, he was put on the air to work as a disc-jockey as soon as he claimed to be a personal friend of Tommy Hunter. It was in those early days of late-night record-spinning that Henderson earned his industry nick-name of "Butterfingers."
Grady explains that contrary to popular belief, even though most people assume the name "Skip" came about from his inexperience in handling 45 RPM singles and turntables, Henderson had actually arrived in town with that moniker and said it was given to him by his parents and that 'Skip' was really his middle name. "He took a lot of ribbing over that nick in the early days," laughs Grady.
Even though he was a humble man, Grady says that Henderson was most proud of his induction into the London Press Club's Radio Broadcaster's Hall of Fame last year. "After 45 years in the business, he was finally recognized by his peers for his accomplishments. Geez, somebody should have nominated the guy a lot earlier. He was years ahead of his time."
"If you ask me, he should have been inducted years ago just for coming up with the phrase 'Weather and traffic together.' Today, everyone uses that - although most radio people have changed it to 'traffic and weather together' because it flows better. But we all stole that from Skip. He was the originator. The man was like a poet or something."
"And he was always coming up with stuff like that," Grady adds. "Like, back in the days when we promoted him from being the late-night music guy to the 'News-talk-sports' guy in the mornings. Skip came up with this idea of giving the weather report every ten minutes. And I mean that day's weather too. So he calls it 'weather on the tens.'
"Years later, when he was doing the afternoon drive-home show, what's he do? He adapts the 'weather on the tens' concept by changing it to 'traffic on the tens.' The idea being that every ten minutes he'd give an updated traffic report. I remember him coming into my office and explaining it all to me. He had it all figured out.
" 'Ya know, Gil,' he says. 'In the morning, people only want to hear what the weather for that day is going to be. They don't give a shit about traffic in the morning because they're heading into work. But in the afternoon, they can't get away from the place fast enough and when they're headed home or off to get a cold beer, you can bet your ass they want to know what the traffic's like, what roads are closed, what intersections are tied up by an accident. And as long as someone calls in and tells me, damn right I'm gonna be the guy to give 'em that information.' "
"That's just the kinda guy he was," continues Grady. "The man was a pioneer in this industry. You want to know just what kind of visionary he was, let me tell you something - back in the early 1990s, people stopped watching television because of that new Internet thing. But for us radio guys, the computers didn't hurt our popularity at all. I mean, we were like kings!
"And at that time, we decided that Skip should have his own morning show. Not the five-to-nine a.m. time-slot mind you, but the big enchilada. That's right, the nine-to-noon slot. Now that's three hours of prime-time radio the guy's gotta fill. So what's Skip do? He steals an idea from the local daytime TV shows - and starts doing his own cooking segment. Every time he needs to take a leak or go out for a smoke he puts on a tape of bacon frying and of a knife hitting a wooden cutting board - and over top of all that, he records his voice so that you, as the listener can hear Skip saying stuff like 'Oh, that's frying up real good.' and 'Don't be afraid to put lots of diced onions in your stir-fry.' And he'd play that sucker for about twenty minutes! I tell ya, the man was a genius!"
"He tried to come up with a way to do the same thing with a decorating-advice segment but housewives actually kept calling up asking him what color to paint their walls. That always pissed him off. He'd have to run a whole batch of commercials right after that just so he could sneak out of the studio and have his break. So that idea died a quick death.
"But you know, in the 42 years I knew him, that was the only career disappointment he ever mentioned," Grady said as he wiped away a tear.
Fire officials at the scene of this morning's accident at the new Bad Boys Appliance and Furniture Giant Warehouse on Wharncliffe Road say that the official cause of death has not yet been determined but that it likely has something to do with Henderson playing with a propane valve and his ever-present DuMaurier menthol.
"Ironically," says Grady - "During the years he did his cooking-segment on the air, Skip's catchphrase was 'CJOE - now we're cooking with gas.' And for some reason, he kept using it even after he dropped the cooking and was later promoted to being our remotes-location guy. Knowing Skip, wherever he is, he's probably getting a big chuckle out of that right now."
Along with every other morning radio-show announcer in town, Brian "Skip" Henderson of CJOE-AM was broadcasting live from the new Bad Boys outlet on Wharncliffe Road just across the street from 'Hooters.' Henderson was waiting his turn for an on-air interview with Bad Boy founder/ex-Toronto mayor/all-round Shakespearen 'Fool'-at-large Mel Lastman when he was killed almost instantly after becoming engulfed in flames and overcome by propane gas fumes - not necessarily in that order - while fiddling with the controls on a new propane Barbeque Extreme from Weber.
Veteran broadcaster Henderson was 65 and leaves behind no wife or children.
"Skip's life was his job - and his job, was his life." said CJOE general manager Gil Grady when asked how Henderson's family felt about the news. Grady - ever the philosopher - then explained, "The people of London were Skip's family." He elaborated, "It was like Skip was a member of the family in every household in London in the 45-year-old to death demographic."
According to Grady, Henderson began his long-career with CJOE after moving to town from Toronto in the early 1960s. Despite no previous experience, he was put on the air to work as a disc-jockey as soon as he claimed to be a personal friend of Tommy Hunter. It was in those early days of late-night record-spinning that Henderson earned his industry nick-name of "Butterfingers."
Grady explains that contrary to popular belief, even though most people assume the name "Skip" came about from his inexperience in handling 45 RPM singles and turntables, Henderson had actually arrived in town with that moniker and said it was given to him by his parents and that 'Skip' was really his middle name. "He took a lot of ribbing over that nick in the early days," laughs Grady.
Even though he was a humble man, Grady says that Henderson was most proud of his induction into the London Press Club's Radio Broadcaster's Hall of Fame last year. "After 45 years in the business, he was finally recognized by his peers for his accomplishments. Geez, somebody should have nominated the guy a lot earlier. He was years ahead of his time."
"If you ask me, he should have been inducted years ago just for coming up with the phrase 'Weather and traffic together.' Today, everyone uses that - although most radio people have changed it to 'traffic and weather together' because it flows better. But we all stole that from Skip. He was the originator. The man was like a poet or something."
"And he was always coming up with stuff like that," Grady adds. "Like, back in the days when we promoted him from being the late-night music guy to the 'News-talk-sports' guy in the mornings. Skip came up with this idea of giving the weather report every ten minutes. And I mean that day's weather too. So he calls it 'weather on the tens.'
"Years later, when he was doing the afternoon drive-home show, what's he do? He adapts the 'weather on the tens' concept by changing it to 'traffic on the tens.' The idea being that every ten minutes he'd give an updated traffic report. I remember him coming into my office and explaining it all to me. He had it all figured out.
" 'Ya know, Gil,' he says. 'In the morning, people only want to hear what the weather for that day is going to be. They don't give a shit about traffic in the morning because they're heading into work. But in the afternoon, they can't get away from the place fast enough and when they're headed home or off to get a cold beer, you can bet your ass they want to know what the traffic's like, what roads are closed, what intersections are tied up by an accident. And as long as someone calls in and tells me, damn right I'm gonna be the guy to give 'em that information.' "
"That's just the kinda guy he was," continues Grady. "The man was a pioneer in this industry. You want to know just what kind of visionary he was, let me tell you something - back in the early 1990s, people stopped watching television because of that new Internet thing. But for us radio guys, the computers didn't hurt our popularity at all. I mean, we were like kings!
"And at that time, we decided that Skip should have his own morning show. Not the five-to-nine a.m. time-slot mind you, but the big enchilada. That's right, the nine-to-noon slot. Now that's three hours of prime-time radio the guy's gotta fill. So what's Skip do? He steals an idea from the local daytime TV shows - and starts doing his own cooking segment. Every time he needs to take a leak or go out for a smoke he puts on a tape of bacon frying and of a knife hitting a wooden cutting board - and over top of all that, he records his voice so that you, as the listener can hear Skip saying stuff like 'Oh, that's frying up real good.' and 'Don't be afraid to put lots of diced onions in your stir-fry.' And he'd play that sucker for about twenty minutes! I tell ya, the man was a genius!"
"He tried to come up with a way to do the same thing with a decorating-advice segment but housewives actually kept calling up asking him what color to paint their walls. That always pissed him off. He'd have to run a whole batch of commercials right after that just so he could sneak out of the studio and have his break. So that idea died a quick death.
"But you know, in the 42 years I knew him, that was the only career disappointment he ever mentioned," Grady said as he wiped away a tear.
Fire officials at the scene of this morning's accident at the new Bad Boys Appliance and Furniture Giant Warehouse on Wharncliffe Road say that the official cause of death has not yet been determined but that it likely has something to do with Henderson playing with a propane valve and his ever-present DuMaurier menthol.
"Ironically," says Grady - "During the years he did his cooking-segment on the air, Skip's catchphrase was 'CJOE - now we're cooking with gas.' And for some reason, he kept using it even after he dropped the cooking and was later promoted to being our remotes-location guy. Knowing Skip, wherever he is, he's probably getting a big chuckle out of that right now."
posted by Sonny Drysdale at 9:12 AM
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