Red Robinson

After 20 years and almost a thousand columns covering radio,  television, theatre, concerts and Vancouver media in general, I’m lightening my workload. Red Around Town is “retiring” from TVWeek magazine. It has been an honor to write each week.

My replacement at TVWeek is Fred Lee, who among his many assignments, is the society editor of The National Post in Vancouver.  Fred is a great guy who will bring his own special talents to the pages of the magazine.

Red Around Town will continue here on redrobinson.com — in a slightly more relaxed format than the weekly TVWeek schedule. Hey, don’t forget I’m semi-retired here!

Here’s the latest: Jon McComb has just inked a new five year contract with CKNW. The veteran talk show host is pleased to be able to continue with his program and now has the security of a long term contract… Sad to hear of the passing of Vic Waters, which we highlighted here a week ago.  Now comes word that former CHAN-TV producer Geoff Theobald has passed away from complications of Parkinson’s disease.  Geoff produced many game shows at the channel and was an incredibly talented  man when it came to creating television commercials.  I always felt that he was one of the great unsung heroes in our industry. He was 74… Rumors have it that Fred Latremouille may be moving to P.E.I. and selling his beachfront home in Tsawwassen. He would retain his getaway in Hawaii where he resides six months of the year…  My spies tell me that Dave McCormick and Dal Richards will resurface at CISL AM 650 in the fall.  Dal’s Place was an integral part of 600 AM which will go dark in November.  Dave McCormick was part of the mix of the station with his usual casual style and great music.  There was no room for these two on the new format of the station which is moving to FM. Much of the programming will be headed up by Tamara Stanners, new assistant program director at the station.

It is difficult to believe that 20 years have passed since I began writing this column for TVWeek Magazine. I inherited the column upon the passing of CKNW announcer Earle Bradford, who wrote under the byline Earle’s Court. It was many months after his death from cancer that I took over the reins, out of respect for the man and his family. My concept was different. I identified 5 categories that I wished to concentrate on each week, radio, television, concerts, film and theatre. But it was most important that the stories be about the personalities in each of these disciplines. It was not to be a society or gossip column; I would leave that to others. The main thing was that the stories be local. I would write about visiting performers like Johnny Cash if there was a local angle or about a young promising singer such as Michael Bublé who was beginning to rise in his profession. The emphasis was always on Vancouver and the Lower Mainland and it was to be a column that contained all the local entertainment news. As the years passed it became more difficult to write about local personalities as there were fewer and fewer each year. In 1988 you could list over 100 local personalities whom most of the public knew. It has shrunk drastically to the point that today most of the radio and television personalities are in news, sports and weather and most of them from television.

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The radio star has almost disappeared, as most outlets do not promote them as they once did. This has meant that a familiar voice on radio may not register with you because there is no connection from other media where their faces might be exposed. The de-emphasis on personality in the media has caused this. Looking back over the past 20 years there have been many changes. If nothing else this column became a chronicle of the entertainment comings and goings for two decades. I have every column on file and it is fascinating to go down a list of familiar people and ask “Where Are They Now?”. Some have passed away or retired but most have moved on to other fields of endeavour. With this final column I would be remiss if I didn’t thank a few people who contributed to this page. I thank Rock Manager Bruce Allen, who was always ready to cover for me when I was away. Thanks also to editor Kim Mah who kept my syntax together. And to Brent Furdyk who respected the integrity of the column. Also thanks to former Canada Wide partner Neil Soper for his support over the years. To my friend Michael Godin who helped me meet the deadline each and every week, and he did this years before I bought a computer and had to transfer my words from a Remington typewriter. Special thanks to the Legge family for putting up with me, and above all to the multitude of media luminaries who provided me with material week after week. I will miss doing this but the only constant in life is change. And a special thanks to you for being here each week.

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The weather was perfect for the huge B.C. Day celebration in Victoria. Singer Feist, who won 9 Juno Awards this past year, was just one part of the amazing performances in celebration of the province’s 150th Birthday. Also on stage Sarah McLachlan, Burton Cummings, and legendary bandleader Dal Richards. But there’s more, Jim Byrnes, blues guitarist Pat Milano and vocalist Colin James rounded out the program… Vancouver singer Jessie Farrell is at the top of the list for this year’s Canadian Country Music Awards with seven nominations for 2008, including Single of the Year, Album of the Year, Female Artist of the Year and Songwriter of the Year. Our congratulations… Seth Rogen, the talented writer-actor, who attended Vancouver’s Point Grey High School, is riding high with his latest celluloid comedy Pineapple Express, now showing at theatres. The 26 year old star was already writing movie scripts with high school pal Evan Goldberg when he was 13. He also appeared doing stand up comedy locally… Pamela Anderson, Ladysmith’s gift to the world of glitter, has a new reality show titled Girl On The Loose. This eight-episode series can be seen on E! Channel. It is interesting that she features her older brother and mother on the show…

“Click me - I talk!”

visit realmagicmushroom.com

Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn, Soviet dissident writer and Nobel Literature prize winner, has died at the age of 89. His monumental work The Gulag Archipelago is the definitive work on Stalin’s forced labour camps, where tens of millions perished… I had the pleasure of decorating the winning horse in the 9th race at Hastings Park. I had bought a “win” ticket on Krazy Koffee and the horse came through. Also on hand to decorate various winners throughout the day was Hockey Hall of Famer Jim Robson, actor Jackson Davies (Constable Constable on The Beachcombers) Canadian 1988 Olympic boxer Manny Sobral, kingpin manager of music talent Bruce Allen and other notables. Also on hand was MLA Rich Coleman, political guru Patrick Kinsella, former talk show host Gary Bannerman, Dr. Sport Greg Douglas (public relations for the track), Ross McLeod, CEO of Great Canadian Gaming Corporation, and Vice-President of media and advertising for the corporation Howard Blank. Carole and I were joined by my business associate Corby Coffin and his wife Jeanette. All in all a splendid day… Word is that after 16 years with CKNW intrepid community reporter Kevin Hayes and the management of the frequency have agreed to disagree and Hayes is without a job… Also, fill-in host and sometime reporter Andrew Dawson is leaving CKNW and heading for Regina where he will be the new morning news anchor at a station there… Sports legend Ted Reynolds has undergone three serious operations within months. He is making slow but good progress and is looking forward to going home. We wish him a full recovery.

My friend and mentor Vic Waters has passed away at 89. Vic would have celebrated  his 90th in September. A generous man, stoic by nature, he kept his personal life separate from his radio and television career.  Vic was like a surrogate father to me and Fred Latremouille at different times during his tenure as program director at CJOR. The station is now 600AM until they turn out the lights in November. Isn’t it ironic? The man most associated with the station through four decades passes on as does the station he worked for.

As a young man he took time to teach me the basics of radio and how to communicate with an audience.  Fred tells me he did the same for him. Vic also hired Frosty Forst when I left CJOR and moved to CKWX. We all owe him a debt of gratitude for our early careers and beyond.

When Vic left CJOR in 1969 he took over program duties at Premier Cablevision and pioneered programming for that channel  in the early days of access cable. I kept in touch with him over the years and I  was on hand when they inducted him into the B.C. Entertainment Hall of Fame.

Vic had an uncanny ability to take a simple idea or word and expand upon it to create a story.  He should have written books as he was an outstanding storyteller. He was admired by his peers. Radio stars (remember when we had those) such as Jack Cullen and Wilf Ray thought him to be a great deejay with impeccable taste in music of all kinds. If Cullen was wild and colorful, Vic Waters was descriptive and poetic. Cullen was a free spirit and Vic Waters was a sophisticated purveyor of words.

Vic visits me at CISL, 1995

It wasn’t all fun for Vic as program director having the likes of Pat Burns, Jack Webster, Jack Wasserman, and others to contend with. Yes, they were great talents but could try your patience with their personalities. He survived it all. He is missed by those who knew him as the consummate radio man.  Vic Waters loved radio and was as much a part of Vancouver in his time as Stanley Park and the Lions Gate Bridge.

August 30th marks my final TVWeek column. I’m lightening my workload after 20 years and my replacement is Fred Lee (I don’t suppose they would call the column Fred Around Town).  Fred has been covering the community scene in Vancouver for years, and contributes on a regular basis to many publications including the National Post.  I wish him well and hope he continues to bring our community to life through his photos and his new column.

Rumors are flying that Fred Latremouille may leave his beach house in Tsawwassen for a new beach house on Prince Edward Island where he and wife Cathy vacationed this past month.   Fred tells me the beaches are some of the best he has ever seen, and believe me, he has seen the best.  Whatever his decision we wish him the best and oh, by the way, he is not giving up his property on Maui.  Smart man.

This photo was taken backstage at the Red Robinson Show Theatre. Pictured are Grace McCarthy, her husband Ray, Boz Scaggs and myself.  I had known Grace was a big fan of Boz Scaggs going back years.  When she heard that he would be appearing at my theatre she called and arrangements were made for her and her husband to be on hand for the concert.  Boz did not disappoint.  He hasn’t lost a thing and his stage presence is one of a true professional.  A wonderful night of entertainment with one of the best.

I first want to say that I agree that it is a sad day when an incredible radio professional like Dave McCormick loses his place on the air. Dave is a truly gifted broadcaster, and an excellent man.

For my part, I was offered an amazing opportunity to work with exceptional people on a truly exciting enterprise.

For people who don’t know me, it may seem odd that I would be hired to assist with programming a new radio venture.

But, for those who are aware of my past, both personally and professionally, it comes as no surprise at all.

Music is my first love. I got into radio when I was 15 to work with music.

I, like you Red, have had the extreme pleasure of being asked to work on television as well. But, never did I stop working with music.

So, at this point in my life, after having owned and operated my own business, and worked for almost all the major radio and television chains within Canada, I am, I believe, more than qualified to handle this new programming position.

I will not just be listening to what ‘the consultants’ have to say. Having worked on the CRTC application for this incredibly exciting new Pattison Broadcast Group station, I can’t wait to help bring a whole new sound of radio to Vancouver.

This new format is very much like the ones you started your broadcast career with, Red.

The kind of format where music is what really matters.

The dj’s and the listeners actually program what we play. Not just music charts or consultants from Nashville, or Toronto, or anywhere else for that matter.

I have always admired your contribution to Vancouver’s entertainment scene Red, and thanks for calling me a lovely woman.

Yours truly,

Tamara Stanners

Gerry Marsden came to the Red Robinson Show Theatre and blew the house apart. Gerry last played here back in the late Seventies at the old Pizzazz Club in the International Plaza Hotel, just east of the Lions Gate Bridge. He sang all the fan favorites - Ferry ‘Cross the Mersey, How Do You Do It? and Don’t Let The Sun Catch You Crying. I found him to be a happy guy and it shows on stage. He has a wicked sense of humor and doesn’t take his success too seriously.

Kevin Statham photo

Gerry is one of the true icons of the British Invasion back in the Sixties and the music lives on. One fan in the audience had tatooed “Ferry “Cross the Mersey” on his back and flashed it at Gerry while he was performing.

One of Gerry’s favorite songs is You’ll Never Walk Alone from the Broadway show Carousel. It has also become the theme of his Liverpool football club. He is proud that they have adopted it. Some Liverpool football fans were in the audience and moved to the front of the stage during the performance waving Liverpool banners.  A most memorable night.

After over two decades with the Jim Pattison Broadcast Group, veteran musicologist Big Daddy Dave McCormick will do his final show on Adult Favorites CKBD AM 600 Vancouver this Friday, August 15.  After a stint at CHML Hamilton ON, he started in the Vancouver market at C-FUN in 1957.  He was music director at KMAK & KYNO Fresno CA in the early to mid 1960s, PD at KOL Seattle from 1966-67 and PD/MD at KMEN San Bernardino CA from 1967 until his return to Vancouver in 1972.  Dave is a four time BC Country Music Association Country Broadcaster of the Year and 1998 inductee into the BC Country Music Association Hall of Fame.  CKBD will flip to FM this fall as AAA The Peak CKPK-FM 100.5. (From Northwest Broadcasters)

One of the truly great radio guys has seen another change and is again without a set of headphones and a microphone. Dave McCormick and I go back a long way. I remember when he started working in Vancouver back in the Fifties. He had that honest knack of being himself and that is probably the most difficult thing to convey on radio. He never varied from this personable approach. When listening to Dave you always felt that it was a neighbour leaning over the back fence. His knowledge of music is impeccable and his love of the business is beyond question.

To have yet another radio station go “dark” and move to FM is certainly a sign of the times but to cast aside one of the city’s best communicators is not only a mistake but tragic. However, being the eternal optimist I see him resurfacing. After all Vancouver is about to have 2 more stations (in addition to the Pattison station that apparently has no room for Dave). Maybe a program director or owner at one of these outlets would have the “smarts” to hire Dave.

If I may comment after 51 years in this business, I find it ironic that the new Program Director of The Peak is a lovely woman who is best known for her work in television. Tamara Stanners is taking over the helm as I understand it. I always admired her television work but for the life of me I cannot relate to her duties as a program director unless of course (and this is the norm today) she will be working with a radio consultant and following orders. This in no way is meant to slam Tamara but when a seasoned pro such as Dave is let go and the new direction of the new station is in the hands of someone who is not known (at least to me) as a program expert I find it appalling.

Dave, it was my honor to induct you into the B.C. Entertainment Hall of Fame. You are a great guy and a great talent. I hope you don’t leave radio forever. We deserve more from you.