Music

Submitted by Michael E. Williams

Photo Credit: Camelia Linta

Needless to say, surviving the business in Canada is not easy. MuchMusic gave new hope to all in 1984.   Record companies scrambled to fill the airwaves with Canadian artists.

Occasionally the music business executives attempted to manufacture groups to fill a certain need or void in the pop landscape.  In Montreal, it was the disco business that created music with no artist attached to the music, just a producer, while in Toronto successful bands created to fill The New Romantics. The trend was big and MuchMusic put a face to that just in time for the video age.

I remember sitting in Bruce Barrow’s office, discussing Platinum Blonde’s explosion upon the scene, fuelled by young girls, cool tunes and Celtic accents...musically they got better. They survived; most did not and for good reason. Manufactured music and bands is where the music business sucks the soul out of music and at its best, it becomes music by committee not a band.

Submitted by Michael E. Williams

My chance meeting with Mike Love of the Beach Boy at WNCR, in the Penthouse of the old Stouffers Hotel in downtown Cleveland's Playhouse Square, went down Saturday, November 20th 1971.

I was an intern at the station answering phones and learning radio from David Spero who was a pioneering Dj and manager. (He is currently with The Rock 'n' Roll Hall of Fame.).

I would go to hang out with the Dj’s (David, Billy Bass, Doyle, Shauna, Denny Saunders and Jeff Gelb, Martin Perlich). The place was pure magic high above city where the view was great. The smell of sandalwood and patchouli permeated the air, when you got off the elevator.

One night The Beach Boys were in town at The Music Hall in support of their classic new release, "Surfs Up”. After the show Mike Love was stopping by the station to say hi and go on the air. The salesmen, record company staff and announcers would often invite artists back to the station after concerts to go live on air and to hang out. Not like today where interviews are never heard on air, just on line. But in 1971 it was all the fun, going live was the way we did it!

The action and studio buzz elevated as Mike Love came in. We ordered food and got comfortable as he talked about his devotion to Transcendental Meditation and the new record.

By Michael E. Williams

First there was “Soul in the City”, a radio show in Montreal, that ran every Saturday from 6-midnight on CKGM from about 1981-1984. I designed it to showcase all types of musical talent. There was no music or guest off limits. Our guest list included: Stray Cats, Tina Turner, Fat Boys, Run DMC, Gladys Knight, and all the other artist of the day, local and international. I booked them, called them, engineered, hosted and edited the interviews. It became a hit live radio show with ratings that were historic considering that people pretty much stopped listening to AM Radio once the great Ralph Lockwood era ended (1972-1981). Geoff Sterling had actually declared at a staff meeting that he could broadcast to more people by standing on top of the station, using a bullhorn. He was right, until “Soul in the City” (originally called “Club 980”).

Recently I thought of reviving the show ‘til I talked to a local (Toronto) Program Director that referred to the music as geriatric…?   Today, however, most radio stations (greatest hits formats) are in the hands of people half the age of the music they are being told to play on air.  Part of the deal for me is that you have to trust me to select the music I play!

Submitted by Cashbox Canada

Dave Charles is a global broadcast and creative media strategist with over four decades of radio, talent development, and new format creation in over 45 countries. After the success of launching Toronto’s now-iconic classic rock station Q107 with business partner John Parikhal in 1977, he formed one of Canada’s top consulting and research companies, Joint Communications Corp, consulting both mainstream radio groups and multinational music companies in Canada, U.S., U.K., Europe and Australia.

Dave will be doing a weekly stint at the Mediazoic studio, on behalf of his current company, Media Results International, and helping program and roll out an exciting new stable of stations and partners over the next few months. Even better, he'll be taking that classic radio voice of his, the one that voiced the spots since Day One of the Mediazoic Era, and bringing it into the studio booth to helm his own Mediazoic radio show, entitled "In My Room".