CFOR news director Bob Douglas was the first newsman I met in radio. One story I heard about him illustrates how vulnerable broadcasters are to pranks. Bob was running late one day and only had time to grab a ream of news from the teletype and drag it into the news booth to get on the air. The long sheet of news stories stretched out under the studio door and into the newsroom where a prankster set fire to the trailing end. Bob rushed to get the newscast read on the air before the flames reached his desk. This was a common occurrence in the business; a playful Ronn Grimster once set fire to a commercial I was reading live on my morning show at C-HOW in Welland but I managed to read it while blowing out the flames. Bud Riley 2010
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I experienced the worst on-air breakup in my life at C-HOW and vowed never to do it again. Late getting into the news booth, I started reading the 1 o'clock news cold. News director Jack Haney, who often wrote extra material onto the wire copy, added a killer line to a story that read: "Judy Garland's London doctors ordered her to bed (with her husband) for three weeks.....". I got the giggles. Laughing faces of the staff appeared at the studio window one after the other making it worse. I started to gain control but then the next story finally did me in: "Montreal police report a drunken suspect tried to escape but ran headlong into a cement wall." I lost it completely at this point. Mike Marshall, my young operator, was now hiding under the control room desk. The faces that came to the window all had a look of horror. All the lights on the studio phone lines were lit up. When I finally uttered a nervous sign-off and left the booth, I was met with the message that I was wanted on all three phone lines. I was fired, in order, by owner Gord Burnett, VP Bob Redmond and manager Doug Manning. I gathered my stuff and left for home. The next day, Jack Haney saved my job by admitting to his editing joke and I was admitted back with the promise that I would never break up again. I did occasionally laugh on the air but always under control, even when Ronn Grimster did his best to rattle me. Bud Riley 2010
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CHUM consultant Ted Randal could monitor the station by phone from anywhere. Several times he would call me from L.A. and complain that Bud Riley was laughing in the middle of his newscast. I would tell him "If Bud is laughing, his audience will be laughing too".   (Robert MacBain, News Director 2010)
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When announcers make a mistake and miscue a record or tape, or introduce a record and the wrong thing comes up, I hate to hear them claim "technical difficulties." It is not technical difficulties, it is announcing difficulties. I don't want my department to take the blame for something we had nothing to do with.       (George Slinn, CFOR engineer 1957)
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Mac Lipson came to CHSC in the mid '70's as a talk show host, from CKFH I believe. I was his operator for the show for over a year, using the old "tape loop" delay system. Mac was quite a guy, very knowledgeable and actually took the time to listen to his callers. I remember one day a younger guy calling in on a topic, who disagreed with Mac and signed off by calling Mac a "bald-headed old fart." Of course, using the tape delay, I deleted the comment before it went to air. Mac came on the intercom to my control room and wanted to clarify what this kid called him. Then, he went on the air and proceeded to tell the world what the kid had said! Mac got into a serious accident in St. Catharines where his car rammed the bridge over the Welland Canal at Lock 1. It was thought originally that glass had got into his eyes but doctors did manage to remove the debris with no lasting damage.  Mac later had a major on-air meltdown over many issues and had to be replaced mid-show, with subsequent hospitalization.  He then moved back to his old home town of Ottawa. Mac had once been given the chance to be the manager in Ottawa of a young singer, but turned it down because he didn't think it would go anywhere. The singer was Paul Anka!              Tim Fletcher, 2010.
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You know you're an Aging Radio DJ when...
  1. You were first hired by a GM who actually worked in radio before becoming GM.
  2. Radio stations were no place for kids.
  3. You got off on the sound of "dead air" on the competitor's station.
  4. Sales guys wore Old Spice to cover the smell of liquor.
  5. You were playing Elvis' #1 hits when he was alive.
  6. Engineers could actually fix things without sending them back to the manufacturer.
  7. You worked for only ONE station, and you could name the guy who owned it.
  8. You remember when normal people listened to AM radio, and only"hippies" listened to FM.
  9. Radio stations used to have enough on-air talent to field a softball team every summer.
  10. You're at least 10 years older than the last two GMs who fired you.
  11. You used to smoke in a radio station and nobody cared.
  12. Engineers always had the worst body odor, not because they worked too hard, but because they just didn't shower that often.
  13. You know the difference between good reel-to-reel tape and cheap reel-to-reel tape.
  14. Religious radio stations were locally owned, run by an old Protestant minister and his wife, never had more than 20 listeners at any given time ... and still made money.
  15. You have a white wax pencil, a razor blade, and a spool of 3M splicing tape in your desk drawer - - just in case.
  16. You know people who actually listened to baseball games on the radio.
  17. You can post a record, run down the hall, go to the bathroom, and be back in 2:50 for the segue.
  18. The new guy you're training has never listened to an AM station. He couldn't even name one in his own home town if his life depended on it.
  19. You knew exactly where to put the tone on the end of a carted song.
  20. You spent most of the time on Friday nights giving out the high school football scores. And when they weren't phoned-in, you got really pissed off.
  21. You never thought twice about drinking from the same bottle with another DJ.
  22. You only did "make-goods" if the client complained. Otherwise, who cares?
  23. You can remember the name of the very first "girl" that was hired in your market as a DJ.
  24. Somebody would say, "You have a face for radio," and it was still funny.
  25. Sixty percent of your wardrobe has a station logo on it.
  26. You always had a screwdriver in the studio so you could take a fouled-up cart apart at a moment's notice.
  27. Agents were people like James Bond and the Man From Uncle.
  28. You would spend hours splicing and editing a parody tape until it was "just right," but didn't give a damn how bad that commercial was you recorded. Hey, I can only work with what they give me, right?
  29. You still refer to CDs as "records."
  30. Dinner? Let's see what the last shift left for me in the refrigerator.
  31. The only interaction between you and someone else prior to bedtime is, "Thank you. Please pull ahead to the second window."
  32. Your family thinks you're successful, but you know better.
  33. You played practical jokes on the air without fear of lawsuits.
  34. You've been married at least three times, or never married at all.
  35. You answer your home phone with the station call letters.
  36. You used to fight with the news guy over air time. After all, what was more important: your joke about your ex-wife, or that tornado warning?
  37. You knew how to change the ribbon on the teletype machine, but you hated to do it because "...that's the news guy's job."
  38. You had listeners who only tuned in for the news ... and not you. You could never figure that out.
  39. You know at least three people in sales who take credit for you keeping your job.
  40. You remember when "Rock" wasn't a bunch of guys who look and sound more like girls.
  41. You have several old aircheck cassettes in a cardboard box in your closet that you wouldn't dream of letting anyone hear anymore, but you'll never throw them out or tape over them. Never!
  42. You can still see scars on your finger when you got cut using a razor blade and cleaned out the cut with head-cleaning alcohol and an extra long cotton swab on a wooden stick.
  43. You still have nightmares of a song running out and not being able to find the control room door.
  44. You've ever told a listener, "Yeah. I'll get that right on for you."
  45. You have a couple of old transistor radios around the house with corroded batteries inside them.
  46. People who ride in your car exclaim, "Why is your radio so loud?"
  47. You remember how upset people used to get about Richard Nixon.
  48. You have at least 19 pictures of you with famous people whom you haven't seen since, and wouldn't know you today if you bit 'em on the ass.
  49. You wish you could have been on "Name That Tune" because you would have won a million bucks.
  50. You even REMEMBER "Name That Tune".
  51. You were a half-hour late for an appearance and blamed it on the directions you received from the salesperson.
  52. You've run a phone contest and nobody called, so you made up a name and gave the tickets to your cousin.
  53. You remember when people actually thought radio was important.  
                                                                                                                     Jiggs McDonald