I’ve started doing some hosting on CBC Radio 3. It’s a great place to listen to and discover Canadian music. It’s also a cool online community. I’m on again tomorrow (Tuesday, Aug 17) from 10AM-2PM E.S.T. You can listen in and join the conversation at CBC Radio 3, or on Sirius Satellite Radio Channel 86.
I will be sitting in with the lovely and talented Craig Norris for The Craig Norris Hour from 10am-2pm E.S.T. Thursday morning. Craig’s a funny guy, and I think we’re on the same wavelength. Please join us. You can listen to the show on Sirius channel 86, or if you’re one of those lucky people who have access to a computer, you can just click on CBC Radio 3.
And while we’re on CBC, don’t forget to check out the comedy segment I put together. Subscribe to CBC’s The Know-It-Alls.
This week it’s a mixed bag of stuff including:
Have a listen and please rate and subscribe at iTunes.
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A new show featuring:
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The Knowitalls is a series heard on CBC Radio featuring Josh Holliday and Lisa Brooke as Steve Hammerstone and Tawnie Skypunch. So far there are thirty 3-minute episodes. If you have a question for The Knowitalls, leave it in the comments. Here’s #15:
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Following the success of the Not So Olympic Moments that ran on CBC Radio during the Winter Olympics in Vancouver, Steve Hammerstone and Tawnie Skypunch are back. This time around they answer listeners questions on any subject. From relationships, to science, to gardening. They know a little bit about a lot of things. Here’s an example:
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I got myself a second microphone, and invited media man Chris Mavridis to stop by for the show. We talked about all sorts of stuff from hockey to television. Oh, and some radio shop talk. Enjoy.
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A brand new podcast covering a variety of topics. Here’s the rundown?
Have a listen, or subscribe on iTunes. Thanks!
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I was interviewed recently for a radio industry website. Here’s the transcript:
How did your radio passion begin?
I loved listening to the radio as a child. It started with CHUM FM, when it was still a rock station. I remember calling up the morning show as a little kid with a joke: “How can you tell Ronald McDonald at a nudist camp? By the sesame seeds on his buns.” I loved Dr. Demento and the Sunday Funnies with Rick Hodge. In my teens, it was CFNY, and CFRB. CFNY was one of the first great heritage alternative stations in North America. My parents listened to CFRB, one of the great heritage talk stations at the time. I suppose it was lucky to be in the Toronto market when I was young. I loved talk radio, and often called up the ‘RB talk shows during my teen years; mostly Wayne McLean and Ed Needham.
Tell us how you landed your first radio gig?
OK. I’m going to give you a bit of history here. Bear with me. In high school, my goal was to become an actor/writer/director for television or film. It was almost a mantra. I was always involved in theatre and public speaking. Even though I loved radio, and was passionate about it, my main goal was TV and film. I considered going to USC for their communications program, but the tuition for foreign students was pretty huge money. I also wanted to get out of the house and go to a residential university. The program that most matched what I was after was at Windsor. I took a split Communications Studies/Drama major. My first radio show was Tuesdays 6 AM-Noon at CJAM, the university radio station. Totally open format. Strangely, it made it harder to do a show, because I’d have to program a 6 hour music shift working with vinyl. Years later I listened to some of those early shows, and I sucked. It’s one of those situations where I look back and think, if only I knew then what I know now. I think the main thing was the lack of energy in the delivery. In the middle of first year at Windsor, I decided to apply to Ryerson’s Radio and Television program, and was accepted.
The goal was still to write/act/direct for television or film. First year at Ryerson was all about radio. I won the prize for best first-year documentary for a 12-minute piece I did on “shock” comedy. It focused on Andrew Dice Clay (before he was washed up) and the type of comedy he was doing at the time. In the late spring, Clay was set to appear on Saturday Night Live, and there was controversy because cast member Nora Dunn was going to boycott the show. Opportunity knocked. At the time, CFNY (my favourite station) had a half hour newsmagazine show that ran weekdays at 9:30 AM. I cold called Mary-Ellen Benninger, the host of the show, and mentioned I had a timely documentary. She encouraged me to send it over. After listening to it, they invited me out to Brampton. Rick Charles, the news director at the time, and Mary-Ellen were impressed with the work. They said it had changed the way they’d thought about presenting news. I was pretty flattered. At the time, nobody was doing it montage-style with pop/rock music and interview clips, all with overlap — a more produced sound. They ended up airing the piece pretty much uncut the Monday after the SNL appearance. Late in 2nd year, I started pestering the folks at CFNY for a summer gig. Right around the time I was finishing up for the summer at Ryerson, I was encouraged to apply for a full-time job that was coming open in the creative department. Maureen Bulley was the creative director, and at the time it was the most awarded creative department in Canadian radio. I sent in some samples of my work, and wrote some sample scripts from information they provided. They liked my stuff better than anything else they got, and were prepared to offer me the gig with the option of going back to school, or staying on full-time at the end of the summer. I was ecstatic. I got a gig with my favourite music station. It was an incredibly fun summer, and introduced me to the radio lifestyle. I even did some on-air work, as comedy reporter for Live in Toronto – at the time hosted by Maie Pauts. I didn’t think it could, but the summer was about to get even more interesting.
I thought it might make sense to do some short form podcasts when it strikes my fancy. The first is my take on The Academy Awards. I took scratchy notes duing the ceremony, and decipher them in front of a fancy microphone. Thanks for listening.
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