LISTENERS Memories
If it wasn't for the listeners there never would have been a CKEY.. or any other radio station. Our listeners were as much a part of our lives as we were to them.
We took every listener comment, good or bad, very seriously. Now I'd like to hear from you again. Share with us your memories by simply emailing me and I'll make sure there or no foo-foo words and then post it on the site.
NOTE: Some comments are edited for brevity or because they might land me in court.
The comments will appear in the order they are received. After they have appeared for 60 days they will be archived so you won't wreck your wrist having to scroll down a long, long page.
In the midst of all the early 60s madness of Rock 'N Roll radio, it never got any madder than when Dave Mickie landed at CKEY. We had crowds at the front door waiting for him to arrive each evening and, in his trademark gold Lame jacket, he wowed them at our booth at the CNE more than some of the headliners in the Grandstand shows.
"OH - I so fondly remember those nights looking through the glass at my Producer. Bob Rice. I think (Gene) Kirby thought Bob was the only guy who could keep up with the fast paced show I had the pleasure to bring to Toronto thru CKEY. And let it be known - Bob never missed a cue and often brought new and exciting ideas to the show. That was my beginning and I often look fondly back to those days with everyone on Davenport Road.
And they thought Dick Clark could beat us! lol"
Dave 'Mickie' Marsden
Feb 24, 2009
More about Dave soon in the 'MY Memories' section.
Here is a listener comment from Robert Lubinski:
"Dear Mr. Rice (or should I say Capt. Bob),
I've been an avid radio listener since I was a youngster in the 1970s. My parents used to listen to CKEY so naturally I grew up listening, and I listened avidly every day for many years, until the late 1980s. I was the only teenager in the 1980s who listened to Solid Gold CKEY, everyone else was listening to top 40 CHUM and CFTR. To this day I credit my knowledge of old songs and interest in music to when I listened to CKEY. I used to wake up early in the morning and listen to the morning show with an earphone until I had to get up for school. We had CKEY on in the kitchen so I could continue listening during breakfast too.
I don't recall many details from the 1970s other than a few names that I remember hearing on the radio such as Gene Kirby, Jim Paulson, Pat Murray and Eddie Luther. I do remember the news with Joe Morgan and Pete McGarvey and of course the "Dialogue" segment with Pierre Berton and Charles Templeton. My more detailed memories are from the 1980s, from the end of the AC (Adult Contemporary) music period, the news/talk radio period, and of course the "Solid Gold" era. I won (and still have) a 1 gram gold "bar" that I won in an on-air contest to name all the on-air hosts who were on at the time: Keith Rich, Lee Marshall, Dan Williamson, John Rode, Rick Hunter, Joe Andrews, Ross Carlin and one other I just can't remember now who did weekends – maybe it was Bob Van Dyke.
I clipped out a Sun contest page where listeners could fill in a word bubble for Robert Payne and Keith Rich saying "I guess we know why we haven't had a traffic report in a while", and you in the background floating to the ground under a parachute. Somewhere I have a cassette recording of a Year in Review segment of "Trash by the Cash" with Robert Payne, Jay Nelson and yourself completely cracking up after reading a story "Sheep Gives Birth to Human Baby". The producer had to put on the "We Will Resume Normal Broadcasting Shortly" as you had all totally lost it. Everyone finally managed to pull it together until the next story, of a toll taker who lost his artificial arm and then that was where the clip ended. It's not a very long recording, but I may even have some other bits recorded, as I used to record a lot of stuff from the radio then. Unfortunately I probably recorded over a lot of what I recorded. I wish I'd recorded a segment of Elwood Glover hosting the Simpson's Carolers and more of the morning and afternoon shows. Actually, I might have even have a recording of one of Dick Young's "World's Worst Jokes".
CKEY was a great station when I was listening, and I was sorry to see it fade away the way it did, but I'm glad to hear that you're working on telling the story. You might be more interested in material from the 1960s and 1970s, but if you're interested, and whenever you're ready, I'd be happy to send a copy of whatever I have to you.
I just wanted to get an email to you while these memories came to mind!
Best Regards,
Robert Lubinski
Feb 25, 2009"
Just in (as the news folk say) from Robert:
"A few more memories – my mom and I went to a Blue Jays game as part of a promotion organized by Mark Hebscher and his team when he was doing his sports talk show one summer, and some of the names I remember from the newscasts from way back – Phil Godin, Ian Brownlee, Bob Crabbe, and John Youannou was the police beat reporter – I think he’s now the media person for the SIU. I saw him on the news and remembered that he had been on CKEY."
Feb 27, 2009
Robert, we look forward to perusing through what you have. Thanks for the flashback.
Brad Franklin joined our newsroom in 1964. Nice guy who now lives in semi-retirement on Vancouver Island.. which is even nicer!
"I remember a couple of things from that era (mine was '64-73 in Toronto and then 73-78 at Newsradio in Ottawa). One was working with Joe Morgan who used to recount his days working in New York. "All the girls there were very fond of baseball, I think. They used to say "I'll play ball with you if you'll play ball with me".".
Joe was always on the case of poor Moe Kestin, the weather guy. Moe, of course, maintained that the best piece of weather forecasting equipment he could have would be a piece of rope strung across the driveway outside his office up on Davenport. If the rope was wet it was raining, if it was swinging it was windy, if there was snow on it, etc. Moe was Jewish but Joe didn't quite see it that way. He would come into the newsroom and bark "Where's Kestin today". He would then stalk into his office where he kept a calendar and try to figure out which Jewish holiday Moe was observing.
Moe, who was a heck of a nice guy, used to get phone calls from listeners. I remember one woman saying she wanted to hang out the laundry to dry but was concerned because there was rain in the forecast and wanted to know when it would start. Moe asked her what part of the city she lived in. "The Bloor and Dufferin area", she said. Without missing a beat Moe declaimed "It will begin to rain there at four minutes after two this afternoon".
Brad Franklin
Mar 01, 2009
Brad has promised to rummage through his drawers (boxers?) and send along some stuff you might enjoy.
Ask and you shall receive. Regarding Robert Lubinski's comment about the Blue Jays game, we heard from Mark Hebscher about that very night:
"As Robert Lubinski pointed out, I took One thousand fans to a Bluejays game at the CNE in the summer of 1983. The promotion was called "Toronto's Best Sports Fans", and we dreamed it up because crowds at the CNE were notoriously quiet during those early years at the "Ex". We wanted the fans to "make some noise".
I managed to secure a thousand tickets down the left field line, and we sold them to the listeners at face value. On the day of the game, we handed out Bluejay banners to everyone, and I had a bullhorn and tried to organize cheers, chants, etc.
In the Toronto Star the next day, Alison Gordon wrote. "Hebscher looked like a banana republic dictator out there, trying to get his CKEY listeners to stand up and cheer on cue." (I had a full beard in those days, and could've been mistaken for Fidel Castro on a bad day)."
More from Mark:
"Hey Capt. Bob.
Nice to see 'EY is alive and not forgotten.
I loved working at 'EY. As I've told many people over the years, the talent level there was not to be believed. Keith Rich, Joe Morgan, Pete McGarvey, Pat Murray, Eddie Luther, Bob Rice, Jim Hunt, Robert Payne, Pierre Berton, Charles Templeton, Frank Allinson, Arnis Peterson, Bob Crabbe, Tom Gould, Stephen Lewis, Brad Diamond, John Youannou, Kathy Lynas, Phil Godin, Leslie Jones......the list goes on and on.
My show, "Sportstalk" was on every night from 6:05-8 pm and we had an absolute blast. Soon after that stint, I got a gig at Global TV co-hosting "Sportsline", but without the 'EY experience, I would never have been good enough to make the move to TV.
Thanks for the memories."
Mark Hebscher
'March 2, 2009
Great to hear from you Mark. Hope you're enjoying your current gig at CHCH-TV
Got an email from Jay Christy. He was a friend of Terry Steele who showed up at CKEY after a long stint at CHUM.. that OTHER station.
I HAVE FOND MEMORIES OF THE KEY AS I WAS A FRIEND OF TERRY STEELE’S GOING BACK TO HIS CHUM DAYS. I USED TO HANG OUT WITH JOHN MAJHOR IN THE LATE 70 EARLY 80S (1977-1984 ) AND ADMIRED TERRY’S SKILL. WE LATER HOOKED UP WHEN HE WAS AT THE KEY, HE GOT ME A CHANCE TO BE AN OPERATOR.
ANGING OUT WITH THE MAJHOR AND LATER WITH TERRY WAS A BIG PART IN MY LIFE AND I WILL NEVER FORGET THEIR FRIENDSHIP.
BOTH JOHN AND TERRY WERE KIND AND LOVING HUMAN BEINGS AND BOTH MEGA TALENTED I GOT A CHANCE TO SPEAK TO JOHN BEFORE HIS DEATH BUT SADLY NOT WITH TERRY.
THANKS FOR LISTENING."
JAY CHRISTY ( JOHN CHRISTOPHER SUTTON)
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