Overheard at the Press Club
I was knocking back a few after work in the Press Club on Friday when George Clark came in with a big crowd of celebrants from the 85th anniversary party for CFPL-AM Radio.
Apparently it was big doin's that day in the studio with lots of retired or moved-on broadcasters dropping by to sit behind the ol' mike for a while and reminisce.
During Bill Brady's hour, first-time caller/long time listener 'Gladys' finally got through. Brady hosted a morning open-line talk show in the 1970s and was known as 'Mister CFPL Radio.' Gladys was representative of Brady's core demographic of elderly shut-ins. He hasn't been on the air in three decades. But no one told Gladys, who has been waiting all that time for him to pick up the phone. But Brady took it all in stride because her call was indistinguishable from all the others he received so many years ago. ... "Oh, hello is this Mr. Brady? Hello. Hello? Oh, there you are. ... Bill, I'm worried about my cat."
Bill himself told the story about the time he was hosting his annual Bunny Bundle fundraiser in the studio with his partner Howdy Doody and one of the kids in the Peanut Gallery couldn't hold it in any longer and urinated into a potted plant. "I couldn't have told that story back then," Brady chuckled. "Boy, times sure have changed."
Speaking of the ten words you cannot say on the radio - another former morning open-line host Gord ("Hot Talk") Harris told the following story at the Press Club - "It seems that a priest, a rabbi, former phone-in hosts Wayne McLean and Jim Chapman and a duck walk into this lesbian bar. The kangaroo who's tending bar says to them," ... No, on second thought there's certain stories that Shouldn't be repeated. Times haven't changed that much.
Current morning talk-show guy John Wilson and his predecesor George Clark arm-wrestled for the title of 'Mr. Excitement.' After an hour, the match was called as a tie because even though it was live radio, no one called in to cheer them on.
Ann Hutchison and Kate Young reminisced about how Ann took over the afternoon phone-in show in the early 1980s when Kate left for the TV station - and no one could tell the difference.
Former sports guy Gary Alan Price told the story of the time he and Pete (The Godfather) James were in Vegas and ran into Bob McCowan and Jim Rome - and kicked both their asses. And could do it again too if they wanted to.
Current morning man & funny-guy Joe Duchene had an asthma attack in the studio and almost died because everyone just assumed that all the wheezing was Joe laughing at one of his own jokes.
Nationally-heard loudmouth and pontificator Charles Adler came to town to host his own afternoon talk show live from the CFPL-AM studio and join in the celebrations. At one point, former morning man Peter Garland called up. He did his Aunt Flabby imitation - not heard on the radio in decades. But heard just the night before in the Press Club.
Garland then told Adler the story of how Open-Line Radio was invented right there at CFPL back in the early 1960s when morning man John Dickens got a phone call from an irate caller who didn't like the Beatles song he was playing - and so John held the telepone receiver right up to the microphone, let the old coot scream some more about "it's nothing but Yeah, yeah, yeah" and then he responded ON THE AIR!
Unfortunately after Garland's story, Adler inadvertently left the phone off the hook and no other callers were able to get through. No one noticed because Charles was doing one of his never-ending monologues about why the NDP are such gutless weinies who don't support our troops. Callers were finally able to get through after Charles ordered out for pizza and hung up the phone properly.
Congratulations CFPL - that was quite a day. Let's do it all again in about 15 years.
Apparently it was big doin's that day in the studio with lots of retired or moved-on broadcasters dropping by to sit behind the ol' mike for a while and reminisce.
During Bill Brady's hour, first-time caller/long time listener 'Gladys' finally got through. Brady hosted a morning open-line talk show in the 1970s and was known as 'Mister CFPL Radio.' Gladys was representative of Brady's core demographic of elderly shut-ins. He hasn't been on the air in three decades. But no one told Gladys, who has been waiting all that time for him to pick up the phone. But Brady took it all in stride because her call was indistinguishable from all the others he received so many years ago. ... "Oh, hello is this Mr. Brady? Hello. Hello? Oh, there you are. ... Bill, I'm worried about my cat."
Bill himself told the story about the time he was hosting his annual Bunny Bundle fundraiser in the studio with his partner Howdy Doody and one of the kids in the Peanut Gallery couldn't hold it in any longer and urinated into a potted plant. "I couldn't have told that story back then," Brady chuckled. "Boy, times sure have changed."
Speaking of the ten words you cannot say on the radio - another former morning open-line host Gord ("Hot Talk") Harris told the following story at the Press Club - "It seems that a priest, a rabbi, former phone-in hosts Wayne McLean and Jim Chapman and a duck walk into this lesbian bar. The kangaroo who's tending bar says to them," ... No, on second thought there's certain stories that Shouldn't be repeated. Times haven't changed that much.
Current morning talk-show guy John Wilson and his predecesor George Clark arm-wrestled for the title of 'Mr. Excitement.' After an hour, the match was called as a tie because even though it was live radio, no one called in to cheer them on.
Ann Hutchison and Kate Young reminisced about how Ann took over the afternoon phone-in show in the early 1980s when Kate left for the TV station - and no one could tell the difference.
Former sports guy Gary Alan Price told the story of the time he and Pete (The Godfather) James were in Vegas and ran into Bob McCowan and Jim Rome - and kicked both their asses. And could do it again too if they wanted to.
Current morning man & funny-guy Joe Duchene had an asthma attack in the studio and almost died because everyone just assumed that all the wheezing was Joe laughing at one of his own jokes.
Nationally-heard loudmouth and pontificator Charles Adler came to town to host his own afternoon talk show live from the CFPL-AM studio and join in the celebrations. At one point, former morning man Peter Garland called up. He did his Aunt Flabby imitation - not heard on the radio in decades. But heard just the night before in the Press Club.
Garland then told Adler the story of how Open-Line Radio was invented right there at CFPL back in the early 1960s when morning man John Dickens got a phone call from an irate caller who didn't like the Beatles song he was playing - and so John held the telepone receiver right up to the microphone, let the old coot scream some more about "it's nothing but Yeah, yeah, yeah" and then he responded ON THE AIR!
Unfortunately after Garland's story, Adler inadvertently left the phone off the hook and no other callers were able to get through. No one noticed because Charles was doing one of his never-ending monologues about why the NDP are such gutless weinies who don't support our troops. Callers were finally able to get through after Charles ordered out for pizza and hung up the phone properly.
Congratulations CFPL - that was quite a day. Let's do it all again in about 15 years.
posted by Sonny Drysdale at 1:52 AM
11 Comments:
Sonny, I'm surprised you haven't talked about CJBK and winning that Harvey's meal package for identifying "Mary Anne" from the cast of Gilligan's Island.
Butch there are some trivia questions soooo easy that you just don't feel right bragging about it. It would be unseemly.
I am, however looking forward to those charcoal-broiled double cheese-burgers with bacon.
And eating all four of them myself. What my family don't know won't hurt them.
Cheese and bacon, that's the key isn't it?
Speaking of bacon, ol' Sugar Scoop is over at London Fog achin' for the bacon.
She's finally professed her undying love for me and admitted her willingness to prostrate herself at my feet as required.
What is in those old marriage vows? Something about "obedience"?
Regarding CFPL, I'm still mourning the loss of Hugh Bremner, the dean of London broadcast journalism.
When I was a little fella, the only way I could fall asleep at night is asking my parents, "Did Hugh Bremner do the news tonight? Did he say everyhting is OK?"
You had best get Honey Pot out of your head Butch.
Paul Berton has a crush on her.
Twice in the past week, she's been quoted on the opinion pages for comments she's made on Paul's Freeps blog.
Let me see, a toss up between Butch and Berton.....where is old Normie when you need a date?
hahahahahaha, I didn't know that Sonny, I haven't bought a free press since 1995.
I bet that Berton needs an ambassador to get people using his blogs. Can you two think of anyone sweeter or gentler than I, to do just that job?
I just know I exude diplomacy and cheer while I ply my journalistic rigour.
"Journalistic rigour"?
Ya see, Sonny, she has been meeting secretly with Herman Goodden to partake of the Opus Dei self-flagellation experiments.
I always knew that Honey Pot was "bound to please."
Whew, doggie! Excuse me, while I pole vault into the woods.
Hey, Honey Bunch, I see where Karzai, your favourite Afghani meat puppet, now wants to sit down and break opium-seed bread with the evil Taliban -- something federal NDP leader Jack Layton has been advocating for months.
You know, save thousands of lives, further maiming, prevent more devastation and possibly reach a compromise?
Recently, you were quoting Karzai when he was purportedly begging Canadian troops to remain in Afghanistan to protect his bacon.
Still feel the same about Karzai? -- or are you now taking cover in the rhubarb patch, which is your normal cut-and-run tactic when you're caught with your satin knickers down around your ankles?
He is playing poker. He offered and they said no....well they said yes, as long as he made the females wear the garbage bags over their heads again, and no one thinks un-islamic thoughts, as creepy as they are.
Good chance he has given up, and to save his own life, he is willing to let the taliban slaughter a couple of thousand to appease their fucked up god.
They will just have to send the troops back, because of the whining of the left who will feel guilty they have all that blood on their hands.
What about Darfur? There's rampant genocide going on there.
Should we airlift our troops in there as well?
What about China? Human rights there are practically non-existent.
You want to solve all the world's inequities by sending in our troops? That's kind of a socialist commie pinko way of thinking isn't it?
...the left are all for sending the troops into Dafur. There are troops there, but the people who live there don't want them there. They are just having so much fun killing each other, I guess.
Hey Harper is the only one who has ever told China they were fuckwits. The left were mad about that. They didn't feel that was polite. Harper was suppose to pretend China was a civilized country who cared about its people.
Someone should told China that all along, but they didn't want to insult them.
Sort of like what that prof at Columbia U did to prez "I'm a dinner jacket" They should be told constantly, all the time. Perhaps they don't know their fuckwits.
I don't think you realize what is going on buddy. Pulling the troops or not, we are at war, iffen you like it or not.
We're at war? Some war.
NATO, including Canada, invaded a sovereign country to try and capture your deranged uncle, Osama bin Laden.
Now we're justifying sticking around to fight an unwinnable guerrila war in the most rugged terrain on the planet outside of Tibet, under the guise of "human rights" for Afghanis.
It's a crock of shit and everybody with a double digit IQ knows it.
Invade China if you're so concerned about human rights. Ditto for North Korea. One big problem, right? They've got huge fucking armies. It's not about human rights. That's just the cheesy excuse. It's a strategic military occupation -- just another staging area for war in the Middle East to control the oil supplies.
The half-witted President Bush, another demented relative of yours, is the puppetmaster on this one. Him and his warmonging, Big Oil thieving cronies.
Once sanity returns to the White House, perhaps we can get the hell out of the Middle East.
You, however, who is at war with everything in the world, will continue to bang the drum of war because that's all your bitter mind knows.
How did you ever get so bitter?
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