Alan Cross: Reflecting on 40 years in the radio business – National

This can be a story that begins shortly after 9 a.m. on Saturday, April 6, 1968. It was my sixth birthday, a giant deal in accordance with my dad and mom as a result of that meant I might begin Grade One within the fall. Among the many presents I acquired, I solely keep in mind one: a Lloyds transistor radio from my grandmother. I hadn’t requested for a radio nor had my dad and mom advised Grandma to get me one. But there it was, full with a 9-volt battery and single ear earplug.

Up till then, the one radio I knew was what Mother and Dad listened to within the automotive or what blared from the radio within the kitchen. To my astonishment, there have been different radio stations, many broadcasting music 24 hours a day. I quickly realized the decision letters and dial positions of not simply all of the stations in close by Winnipeg but additionally these from distant. At evening, when the ionosphere cooled and thickened, it acted as a large mirror for AM radio indicators and I used to be quickly utilizing my little Lloyds to take heed to broadcasts from Minneapolis, Denver, Chicago, Louisville and Cincinnati. Typically, frenetic Spanish may very well be heard, most likely from some 250,000-watt border-blaster station in northern Mexico.

It was magical.

I began pestering my father to take me to among the stations in Winnipeg so I might see radio being made for myself. And if we had been driving round and heard {that a} station was broadcasting remotely at, say, a furnishings retailer, I’d beg my dad and mom to cease on the retailer so I might watch because the DJ bloviated about a terrific deal on bed room suites.

By the point I acquired to highschool, I had a fairly good concept that I needed to work in radio. I noticed myself changing into a capital-J Journalist, a dogged reporter, information anchor and international correspondent. As a lot as I cherished their schtick, I used to be actually not going to finish up as a type of long-haired, fast-talking, dope-smokin’ DJs on the music stations.

My first style of sitting behind a microphone got here in 1980 in my first 12 months on the College of Winnipeg. Again then, CKUW was a minuscule closed-circuit operation, broadcasting to 1 hallway and one cafeteria. My shift was 8:30 to 9:30 a.m. on Friday mornings, which assured a listenership of just about zero. And since there was no newsroom, all I did was play information and sometimes work up the braveness to speak a few track. Hey, it was a begin.

Extra necessary was my part-time job at a grocery retailer. I realized via the native paper {that a} model new FM radio station was going to open about 20 km away in Selkirk. What’s extra, the proprietor of the station was from my little city and made a cease for milk each Friday afternoon at round 5:15 p.m., simply as I used to be filling the dairy case. Goal acquired.

I launched a full-on assault, begging for him to rent me. After many weeks, I acquired a letter inviting all employees to a pre-sign-on assembly. I’d been employed!

And so it got here to go that I made my industrial radio debut at 3:04:20 p.m. on Nov. 13, 1981. The very first thing I did was learn some sports activities scores and a climate report following the Broadcast Information report that was piped in from Toronto. I used to be an expert radio announcer!

Frankly, it wasn’t a lot. CFQX-FM was then a 5,000-watt family-owned enterprise in the course of a wheat discipline that performed elevator music. By the phrases of its license, each vocal composition needed to be counterbalanced by two instrumental picks. And since the announcers acquired to decide on their very own music, the sound of the station was extraordinarily uneven. Few native retailers cared to purchase industrial time and if nationwide manufacturers knew we existed, they didn’t care. No marvel it will definitely went bankrupt. (CFQX-FM nonetheless exists however, beneath new possession, flipped to nation in 1986 and moved from 92.9 MHz to 104.1 MHz the next 12 months. It’s now doing very properly broadcasting from downtown Winnipeg.)

Issues had been extraordinarily analogue again then. Vinyl information, reel-to-reel tapes, commercials on carts (an industrial model of the 8-track). Once I was requested to fill in for a night shift, I needed to shut down the transmitter at 12:05 a.m. after one final newscast and the taking part in of God Save the Queen. It will be the morning man’s job to modify it on once more at round 5:57 a.m. after which day out a recording of O Canada so it ended simply because the Broadcast Information report began exactly at 6:00:00 a.m.

I remained at CFQX-FM via the remainder of my time on the U of W, shifting to CJRL-AM in Kenora, Ont., beginning on July 18, 1983. The overall supervisor made me a promise: the information man was going to stop any second. As soon as he was out, I might take his place. Till then, although, I needed to play information and speak about them.

The phrase got here down simply earlier than Labour Day. The outdated newsman was completed. The job was mine. And lo, I achieved my dream of being an expert newsperson at 6 a.m. on Tuesday, Sept. 6, 1983, on the age of 21.

I hated it.

I wasn’t only a newsman. I used to be the complete newsroom. That meant all of the newsgathering, reporting and studying needed to be accomplished by me. First, newscast at 6 a.m. Prime-of-the-hour newscasts till 1 p.m. Dwelling for a nap, then out within the night to cowl city council, a union assembly for the employees on the Boise-Cascade paper mill, or some males’s fastball league sport. In mattress by 11. Rinse and repeat 5 days per week.

On day 20, I acquired a telephone name from this system director at an oddly progressive rock station known as KX-96 in Brandon, Man. I’d unsuccessfully utilized for a job again within the spring and had forgotten about that specific rejection. However now he was on the telephone providing me full-time work for the princely sum of $845 a month, a giant step up from the $825 I used to be getting in Kenora.

I left city so quick and with so little discover that my landlord despatched the sheriff after me for non-payment of hire.

My first day of labor at KX-96 was October 9, 1983. The ten months I spent there have been among the best of my life. I’ll always remember the individuals I met. I’m nonetheless in contact with a few of them.

From there, I moved to Q-94FM in Winnipeg for 2 years, first because the all-night man (brutal) and ultimately rising to music director. Then, after a disagreement over music coverage with my program director, I began in search of a brand new gig. By sheer happenstance, I ran throughout an advert in RPM Journal, as soon as the bible of the Canadian radio and information business. A station in Brampton, Ont., known as CFNY-FM was in search of a nighttime individual.

Once I learn the advert, I used to be within the means of making use of for work at Ok-97 in Edmonton and CFOX in Vancouver. I had another clean cassette for my demo tape and simply sufficient postage — 76 cents — to ship issues off. I by no means heard from Edmonton or Vancouver, however I used to be employed by CFNY 5 days later.

Packing up all the pieces into my outdated Honda Prelude, I made the trek to Brampton, arriving on the station at precisely 12 midday on Oct. 3, 1986. The station was taking part in in reception with a reporter overlaying information of the groundbreaking for what would turn into the Skydome. As the primary shovel hit the earth, I grew to become a CFNY worker.

And I’m nonetheless right here. Outdoors of a three-year hiatus when the station and I noticed different individuals (Lengthy story; purchase me a drink someday and I’ll let you know about it), I’ve been related to CFNY/102.1 the Edge in some trend ever since that October day in 1986. If I’m sincere, I assumed I’d stick round for 3 or 4 years earlier than leaping to a different station — perhaps for large bucks within the U.S. or one thing. As an alternative, I’ve spent greater than half my life with one broadcast outlet, one thing that not often occurs at present.

I nonetheless love radio, too, even after all of the adjustments and evolution. LPs gave solution to CDs and CDs had been jettisoned for laborious drive playback items. Carts? Gone. Reel-to-reel tape? Are you kidding me? I’ve survived dangerous rankings, a number of adjustments in possession, studio strikes, a parade of latest bosses, weirdo consultants, adjustments in my work schedule (and thus my way of life), the introduction of satellite tv for pc radio, the rise of streaming and a myriad of different issues.

And for individuals who assume that radio is lifeless, you’re incorrect. It’s nonetheless extraordinarily widespread, highly effective and worthwhile. About 90 per cent of the inhabitants tunes into radio each week. What would we do with out radio within the automotive? And in case you’re an artist, one of the simplest ways to unfold the phrase about your new track is to have it performed on the radio.

It’s tough, although. Radio has to evolve with the instances on this digital world, which is akin to altering the wings on an airplane whereas flying at 38,000 ft. The primary huge step was constructing a station web site within the late 90s and making a stream so that individuals can hear via their computer systems. Subsequent got here the addition of on-demand audio and video via these web sites. (Radio with footage! Who would have guessed?)

Now we’re deep into podcasts, the perfect type of on-demand audio leisure we’ve seen up to now. Relatively than combat streaming, we’re discovering methods to adapt and co-opt that know-how. We’re defending our house in your automotive’s dashboard and providing issues just like the RadioPlayer Canada app. We’re very, very deep into social media, too. And a few very good individuals are investigating different methods through which radio can serve its audiences.

I can’t consider that I’ve now been doing this for 40 years. It’s been a terrific journey and there’s (fortunately) no signal that it’s going to finish anytime quickly. That’s good as a result of I don’t know methods to do the rest. And I don’t need to.

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Alan Cross is a broadcaster with Q107 and 102.1 the Edge and a commentator for World Information.

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