Transcript
Speaker: Hi it's Dan here for Dusty Vists Radio. This is a podcast with liner notes revealing chats with candidates right for musicnet.
Speaker: Today I'm very honored to have as my guest, VJ DJ, TV host and iconic music personality, Stu Jeffries. We'll be talking about music and the evolution of the music scene. We'll get some other insights as well about the Canadian music scene from someone who's been there for many decades. Of course, Stu is a very well known as popular host of Good Rockin' Tonight. He was a VJ on that and Switchback and so much more, which we'll get into in our conversation. So how are you doing, Stu? Thanks for joining me. I'm very well, Dan. Thanks for having me. It's awesome.
Speaker: Well, I appreciate that. So you're actually a BC native, but you ended up in Winnipeg. What's the deal with that? It says here that you were born in Richmond, which is about 20 minutes from where I'm sitting right now. Right. Yeah, I was born there and my parents divorced, I think, when I was about four.
Speaker: and my mother had, and I'm over it, my mother had a, her mom and dad, or my grandparents lived in Winnipeg at the time, and she was basically a single mom of four, so had to move from Richmond to Winnipeg where my grandparents lived, just so that they could be of some help in raising us. And then, yeah, I was raised in Winnipeg for, I think I left when I was 18, just turned 19 to start my broadcasting career in Yorkton.
Speaker: Yeah, I left the West Coast, it was against my will, I had no say in the matter. We were going whether I liked it or not. Well, it's interesting because I've spoken to many people from Winnipeg and it's rather fortuitous that you ended up there because the music scene was super vibrant, like way above its pay grade in a sense, right? Yeah, crazy too. I love when you say that and when people from Winnipeg or no people from Winnipeg say that.
Speaker: It's hard to make people understand that aren't from there, just how vibrant and how alive the music scene was, the radio scene. Hearing people Winnipeg talk, it dulls them. But it was a very special place to be, and I was fortunate to be raised there at a time when it was at its peak.
Speaker: Well, yeah. And it's funny because I've made the point before is Sam Feldman said one time that in the Canadian population, our contribution in music is disproportional to the population. And the same is certainly true of Winnipeg. Yeah. Oh, absolutely. And it is. I firmly believe it is all.
Speaker: you know, the cold and the and the severity of the seasons that kind of forces everybody indoors more than outdoors and you spend more time in your friend's basement jamming, you know, or in my case, making radio shows or whatever to kind of kill the time. And it's the music that kind of gets you through that. Yeah, hockey and music, I guess. No kidding. Yeah. Yeah.
Speaker: Did you ever have any aspirations to actually play music? You know what? I have started to play the guitar probably a thousand times in my life. I have two acoustic guitars in this house. I've got three boys. We've all picked it up at one time or another. And just when the fingers get calloused,
Speaker: and you think yeah i'm finally into it i get bored i can stop and then my fingers hurt again i don't wanna do it anymore so i thought you know i'm not gonna play it i might as well play the music that everybody else is making figure that makes me sort of made more sense. No very cool and then and so you had aspirations obviously when you were younger but how did your first foray into the music business into the production business happen.
Speaker: Oh, I was lucky and it was all timing. I went to the National Institute of Broadcasting in Winnipeg. I knew I wanted to do radio when I was, oh God, like six, seven, eight years old. I can remember being a kid and just being captivated by it. I loved it so much. And I didn't think that there
Speaker: was an opportunity for me to do it. I thought only special people got to do that. When you're a kid, you think all these weird things, right? Like you must have have to have been born with a really deep voice and a cool name and a, you know, and that's, that was some of the prerequisites. I never, I had no idea that I could do it. And then when somebody said, yeah, no, there's a broadcasting school and you can.
Speaker: As soon as I was aware of that, then it was all about saving money to do it. And once the course was a bit suspect, once the course was finished, I made a bunch of little reel -to -reels with my audition and sent them out to any radio station I could think of.
Speaker: I work with from from the broadcast dialogue magazine at the time it wasn't called broadcast dialogue I think it's called broadcasting and at the back there were the names and addresses of program directors and stations all across Canada so I just randomly you know pick the whole bunch and sent it off and got rejected by everybody and for good reason and then my tape ended up on the desk of Gary Lawrence who was the new PD at CJGX in Yorkton and he had just fired a guy
Speaker: and my tape just happened to be there so good enough for me do you want to come down and work and i was like yeah and so that was nineteen seventy nine that's when it started and i've been doing it ever since. Very cool well again you're starting the smaller markets you're out in the middle of canada and you go to a smaller market where they need people and that's your kind of foot in the door you go around the barn to get in the door as they say for sure and i was not you know.
Speaker: It sounds so old person when you're talking to people that are young and want to get into the business where you talk about, you know, it is really all about dues paying. And as much as it sounds like, oh, you're just being one of those guys, it's true. And there are not anywhere near as many opportunities to put your foot in the door of a small market and learn your stuff.
Speaker: as there used to be. And it's just because, you know, stations merge. Nobody, I don't think anybody has an all night show anymore that's live. Like it's a shame, really. But that's where you, man, that's where you cut your teeth and you do everything, you learn everything.
Speaker: And it's not by design, really, it's just that's what happens in small markets. You are not just a radio announcer. You are everything at that station or eventually will be everything at that station. And by that, you know, you learn and it it doesn't happen anymore. And it really is a shame because, you know,
Speaker: The broadcasters that came out of that era and the era before me, of course, and before that era, amazing broadcasters. And you can tell they were ones that really, you know, put the nose to the grindstone and worked hard.
Speaker: Well, since you make a good point, because it's very parallel to the music business, you know, when there was a vibrant club scene and you could go on tour and you know, your band isn't very good and you get fired and then you make it better. And then you change a couple of members and you just pay your dues and you play six nights a week and you, and you burn yourself out and you get back up off the mat. And in those days, many musicians have made the same comment that those, those aren't there. That market isn't there anymore.
Speaker: No, and you don't get a chance really, right? Like you don't get a chance to stink, like a chance to, um, to, to really sort of, okay, man, I blew that. What am I going to do next time around? Um, you know, and oh my God, I was horrendous in your, like horrendous. And I thought though, after six weeks, why isn't the world come crawling to or calling to me to give me jobs everywhere? Cause I'm so good. And I was just God awful, but you learn that, right? And, and you,
Speaker: It's a great way of putting it. You hit the ground and then you come back up and you go, okay, wait, I'm not doing that again. Or maybe I did do that again because I didn't learn the first time, but eventually you get it and you get better and better and better. And it's funny in this business, in my end anyways, with radio, particularly radio and television, you do get better. It's like golf. You do get better all the time, even if you've been doing it for a long time.
Speaker: Yeah, no, it's a good point because you have to improve. If your passion is there, you just find a way to improve. That's right. It sounds like that's what you did. You ended up, you did a couple of radio deals, and then how did you end up with the Good Rockin' Tonight gig? Again. Am I missing a lot of stuff in between there? No, super, super lucky.
Speaker: I was in Regina at the time. I was in Yorktown for about a year and a half, and then Regina at CJME, which that was where, boy, we talk about cutting teeth. That was six, seven years there, I think I was. And I, oh God, I learned so much from the time I walked through that door to the time I left to move up back out to Vancouver, crazy. But it was 1980.
Speaker: I guess I want to say 84, 85, something like that. And CBC, as my third year in Regina, CBC had put up this notice on radio stations, bulletin boards, everywhere that they were auditioning for a show. And the show was called The Fame Game, and it was a contest that CBC had put together, a battle of the bands in the capital cities of each province.
Speaker: I'm familiar with that. Right. So they'd showcase the bands. My showcase was that Northern Pikes was in there. Noise and the Boys, Dana Radford's band. They were so cool. I can't. Motet. There were a couple of us I can't remember. Anyway, so it's a Battle of the Bands thing and they were looking for a host. And I can see it to this day. I'm looking at this notice on the bulletin board going, yeah, I don't think so. And Dave Mitchell, who was doing Afternoon Drive in Regina at the time, walked by and he said, are you going to go?
Speaker: And I said, nah. He said, well, I'm going. He said, if I'm going, then you're going. So I said, OK, fine. Good deal. Let's just do it. And I went there for the audition and you just sat in this room and there's a camera on you.
Speaker: and the production assistant and she had a stopwatch and she basically said, well, all I want you to do is look down the camera lens and talk for five minutes. Don't stop. Even if you think you've run out of stuff, just try, just keep talking. So it was an, I guess it was a really rough sort of example of how do you look in the camera and how fast are you on your feet? I suppose. And I said, okay, cool. And I started talking about radio cause it's the thing that I knew and I loved and how I got into it.
Speaker: And I remember at one point I stopped and I said, I guess that's it. And she hit the stopwatch. She went four minutes and 57 seconds. And it was like, I thought, okay, that's cool. It was a fun experience and I'm glad for it. The next day I got a call from Steve Glassman who was producing the show that said, you know what, as soon as you were in front of the camera doing your thing, we knew that you were the guy for the job. And I was like, oh my God, really?
Speaker: Yeah, and so I got the Fame Game host and then Ken Gibson, who was the producer of Good Rockin' Tonight in Vancouver, saw that show that I hosted and hung on to the tape. I guess he saw something in me that he liked. And when Mulligan left the show in 85, I want to say, he phoned me and asked me if I'd be interested. And to be honest with you, Dan, I was like, I love the radio so much. And when videos were really starting to crash through,
Speaker: I was kind of an anti -video guy because I found it took away from the imagination of the song and that people were, I thought it was just like a fad, like it's not going to last too long, right? I don't know anything. But I was a very staunch radio guy. But I said, sure, because, you know, the money was great and I was broke. And, you know, I said, of course I'd be interested. And it ended up being, I was on there for eight and a half seasons. So it was crazy how it happened.
Speaker: It was great. And then you wonder about how those things happen, but you had that, you know, maybe you're a bit raw. You're not used to TV, but you've got that effervescent personality. You've got that smile on your face. You had the blonde locks. You know what I think too, and also a certain element, and I'm not being funny here, a certain element of stupidity, like you.
Speaker: you're too stupid to be scared. And you're so into what you do. I was such a proud radio guy and was very confident in my abilities, even though I had no business being confident. It's all a great big cover up. But so I think that element of being too dumb to know any better enters into that a lot too. I think there's a lot to be said for this. Well, I don't even really like this medium in the first place, but why not?
Speaker: Right. And you get to go a little crazy and before you know it, it works out. Well, I've often used that expression that, that, that I heard years ago that kids, young people don't know what they can't do. Exactly. Yeah, sure. I'll try that. Yeah. And that youth is wasted on the young too is another good one, right? Year two. And then you don't even realize what you've got. Cause you're so dumb, right? It's funny.
Speaker: Well, and then and then you got sort of thrust in the middle of it, like the video craze came in. Yeah. And then, you know, it's funny, I watched some of the the old episodes and stuff. And of course, I was a big fan. I watched Good Rockin' Tonight lots of times and was a big fan of it. But so I had some nostalgia looking back and brought back some good memories. But the video craze came in and the bands were cranking out the videos and then the announcers, the VJs, it gave background and commentary on them. So there was a whole sort of package of things that came along with that. Right. Getting information. Yes. And it wasn't as like, I mean, I think now
Speaker: the information that we have available to us within seconds. Imagine having that information in the 80s, because I wrote the scripts to the show and it was all about trying to gather as much information as you can. A new magazine would come in, maybe the new musical express from England would come in and you would just devour it for information. And yet by the time you got it, it was already three weeks old, but that was how the information was processed. Whereas now,
Speaker: Boy, now if you put the show together, it's like there's no excuse to not have every corner covered. And then, so the video thing hit, and then Terry David Mulligan, he went to much music, right? Is that correct? That's correct, right. And he has quite the career at much as well, too.
Speaker: Oh yeah. And he was very popular. I'm from the West coast. Well, I'm from Toronto originally, but I've been out here most of my life. So Terry was very well -known and very well liked the Vancouver. That's why they came and got him. Right. So, um, did you compete with them? What was the dynamic like that? No, not at all. I think that, uh, and Terry and I have talked about this a lot of times and his aunt and have answered questions toward this sort of competition that we may or may not have had. Um, and we didn't, um, and Terry was always very gracious to me. Um,
Speaker: You know, and I think my I had a tough I don't think I guess I'm glad that I didn't hear, you know, what the industry was thinking of me taking over for Mulligan, who was so well respected in Vancouver. And and here's this kid out of Regina and who is he? And then, you know, I found out a little further down the road that just about everybody auditioned for that job at every radio station across Canada TV station.
Speaker: I had no idea. So, you know, here's me coming out to Vancouver. And it's like, who is this guy? And why him and not me, I think, and fair enough. And Mulligan had always been very respectful to me and and I to him and
Speaker: He had one time had said, you know what, I have no, I don't hold any animosity towards Stu. He's made that show his own. And when I heard those words, I thought, thanks. That's nice. That's really nice of you to say that. And it did feel from that point on that, yeah, this is my show and I'll do it my way. And if I don't, you know, and here's another thing, God, if the Internet was around then or or social media,
Speaker: I would have been ripped to shreds like there'd be nothing left of me like because people love Terry so much they wrote and but my producer to his credit can I love him for that he never let me have access to the letters that were really nasty because they were nasty like it's who the hell is this and I'm never watching the show again
Speaker: Well, I never got that. I mean, I understood at the time what happened. Like I said, we're very similar in age, so I could see what happened. He went to much music. They wanted a West Coast thing and they obviously, he was the obvious guy. Right. I think too, there was a bit of a contract issue too. I think Mully wanted a little longer deal than CBC was offering.
Speaker: And CBC offered me the same thing, too. Like it was basically they were only renewing the show in 13 week periods. So it's not like you can hang your hat on that. Right. And so I think I think I might be wrong, but I think Mully was hoping like how about a year or something like that? Make it a little more secure. And then I think he was balancing that with talks with much music. And it was sort of like, well, no, CBC is not going to sign me for long. I think the deal of much is better. I'll go there. And I'm just guessing. But I think that's what happened. Fair enough.
Speaker: So when you were on that show, were the videos play listed the same as radio? Like was there a rotation and priority and program director saying you got to play this and this? No. Well, it was Ken show. He basically decided what videos were going to be shown. And then it was also.
Speaker: what groups were rolling into town, what interviews we had. And then he would match that with their latest videos. So it was always new. It was always fresh. And he kind of stayed away from the hip hop and rap scene and just kind of kept it pretty mainstream. But that guy,
Speaker: You know, and he was older. Like I think Ken, when I started there, I was 24, Ken was 50 and maybe, maybe past that. And you would think a guy that age into videos and stuff, you know, and he was very, he's an English guy, super proper, super, you know, button down. And you would think, no, this guy, no rock. And like he did, and he, he, he knew charts. He knew he had an ear for a hit. And he, yeah, he put that show together.
Speaker: every week with sort of that in mind. Who did he see is up and coming? And again, what interviews that we had done and were available.
Speaker: Well, the reason I asked that is cause I, you know, I talked to Erica and I talked to Christopher Ward and stuff. And the point that they both made was how unscripted everything was, how it was just helter skelter half the time. Right. And they were, well, they were like 24 seven, right? We were only once a week. So it was a lot easier for us to have a good plan. Uh, and, um, I didn't have to be thinking on my feet all the time. I wrote the script. So it was already there in front of me and all that stuff. It was a lot safer if we had to do that every week, every day of the week. Yeah. Totally different story.
Speaker: Well, and adrenaline rushes with people coming in. You haven't had prep time. They're basically going to give you a seven minute spot and they haven't told you what you're going to do. That's right. And suddenly, you know, somebody shoves a bio in your face of some band you've never heard of before, artists. And you're like, okay, you're quickly skimming through and now you've got to do an interview with them. Yeah, crazy. Wow. And I did watch the behind the scenes video from
Speaker: your 500th episode in 1993, I guess it was. It looked like you were having fun and there was lots of people around like your floor directors and all the people, producers and stuff. So you were pretty looked after there, I would say. For sure. And I got to love that video because it's such a scrapbook, a minute and a half scrapbook of who we worked with at the time.
Speaker: Yeah, and you can see when I'm talking to that elderly guy, that's Ken, who always had just a little bit of information to pass on to you that you might not have had. He knew what the script was going in, but he might just say before it starts, you might want to add this, this, and this. Why don't we try this? And he was like,
Speaker: certainly super open but always like very hands -on and I like that because he guided me through that era. It was pretty tough at first so my TV experience was next to nothing and he helped me along a great deal there.
Speaker: Yeah. Good point because you don't want to drive into the ditch here. The guy's keeping you on the road, right? That's right. Yes. And then you did a bunch of other stuff like you did the movie segments and the soundtracks. Right. And the specials. We did those specials too all the time. The movies that came later in Good Rockin's era, we were invited on a movie junket. The very first one was
Speaker: Steve Gutenberg in the bedroom window. He did that Hitchcock thing following up his role on Police Academy. So it's a young Steve and it was in San Francisco. I had never been on a movie junket before. I had no idea how they worked.
Speaker: And so the movie company flew you out, put you in a beautiful hotel, paid for all your meals, whatever you needed. You'd watch the movie and then the next day you would interview the stars of the movie. And because we were a presenter and not a critic, it was pretty easy for us. It was all about, tell me about the role you play, what you liked about the role, working with the director stuff, very softball type questions, but all in the final goal just to present the movie to you and then you decide if you like it or not.
Speaker: And so that opened the door to a ton of that. It was almost like once every two weeks I was flying somewhere to do and talking with, you know, big stars. And again,
Speaker: still pretty young and stupid. Like, I think now if that was my, you know, job, you have a totally different take on celebrities and, you know, back then it was just fun. Now it's sort of like, you know, I don't think I could do it. I don't think I could care enough about a celebrity to, and I mean that in the nicest way. I just don't think it's such a totally different world, you know, that they live in and I think that
Speaker: You know, we rely a little bit too much on what they have to say sometimes I don't know if I could if I could do it again, but back then it was a lot of fun Well, I guess with the interview prep too often think of that for myself having done over a hundred of these now, you know You don't want to get caught with your pants down You don't want to say something stupid or ask a dumb question that you should already know the answer to for sure for sure and you don't you know, that's the that's the one part of it and then the other part is
Speaker: How important is what, you know, how important is what you're doing to the overall thing of the show that you're doing? You know what I mean? Like what exactly is, what is its importance? What do you need to bring back? What kind of information do you need to throw forward? And as I said, it was like, if we were presenters, pretty easy. It was like, I play Joe, he's in the army.
Speaker: Uh, he encounters an alien. That's what this movie is about. And then we would just show clips of it. And there you go. It was fun mingling with, um, you know, some of the, I have to tell you, this is funny. I had this thought in this the other day and I can't believe I've forgotten about it until now. Roger Ebert and Gene Siskel. And over those guys, Cisco and Ebert walked in on a, in the hospitality suite.
Speaker: of the junk that we were on, I can't remember the movie, but they walked in and I swear to God, he had a whole bunch of journalists and people, you know, newspaper and radio and TV all in the same room talking to each other. Everybody went quiet and they just watched him walk up, Gene says, or Ebert grabs some chicken wings and Cisco grabs a drink and they're kind of talking to each other and then they walked out again. And it was like, oh my God, the biggest celebrities in the world. Like we're talking to movie stars and these were like the legends coming in. It was so funny.
Speaker: Well, I mean you interviewed some pretty, but you interviewed Paul McCartney, right? Did you go Chris Farley on, on them when you, yeah, that was awesome. So Dan, this is the cool story about that though. I, I, I said,
Speaker: I did an interview when I got the good rocking job with CBC Regina and they were very nice to me. And the person who was doing the interview asked, so who, what kind of artists would make you, you know, nervous or whatever, or what would blow your mind? And I said immediately, Mark Knopfler from Dire Straits, who I still love and Paul McCartney. And I said, I think I would have to, I think I would be super nervous. I would have to take a deep breath and make sure I didn't blow the questions and stuff.
Speaker: Uh, and I got a chance through good rock and to talk to both of those guys and McCartney was in Montreal, uh, on the flowers in the dirt tour. And I'll never forget. I'm sitting in my office in Vancouver. Uh, Ken comes in and he says, remember how you said you would, uh, you know, retire after interviewing Paul McCartney. And I was like, yeah, he goes, why you got the interview? Uh, it's this weekend in Montreal. And I'm like, oh, so we go out there and it's like, I'm freaking.
Speaker: And Ken comes to my room and we sit down and we start talking about questions that we're going to ask him. And then Ken says, well, you know, obviously we've got to cover the Beatles. And I'm like, oh, like I know that that that we need to. But how many times has he done it? And I don't want him to get mad. You know what I mean? Like, I don't want him to go roll his eyes like, oh, boy, here we go again. But, you know, Ken was obviously right. You're talking to McCartney. The Beatles are going to come up. Yeah. So we've sort of came up with these questions that we would ask him to kind of sort of
Speaker: tiptoe around it and see where it goes. So the interview started and I can't remember what my very first question was, but Paul answered that question and then took me on this wonderful like two and a half minute sound bite tour of he, the Beatles getting together with Lennon doing this, this, this, this, and then coming full circle.
Speaker: and answered just about the first five or six questions that I had in that little segment. And I remember while he's answering all, I'm nodding my head and I'm very interested obviously, but in my head I'm going, oh my God, it's freaking Paul McCartney. Holy shit, I'm talking to Paul McCartney. It was so, yeah, so in that way I Farley, but I made sure I didn't, you know, zone out completely. And he was,
Speaker: What a wonderful dude. What a wonderful, wonderful dude. Never forget it. You didn't say to him, well, you're Paul McCartney. Yes, I am. I'm blowing it. I'm just blowing.
Speaker: So that was going on in your head. Yeah, exactly. Exactly. But he was, you know what, he, and, you know, I got a picture with him afterwards and I, that's great. I like, that's why I cherish it. And of course I made them into Christmas cards, sent them to all my friends saying Merry Christmas from me and what's his name. It was like awesome.
Speaker: Well, I mean, in an event, I mean, through your career, you talk to like Tom Jones and Robert Plant and Phil Collins and, you know, you talk to everybody basically at some point. So it becomes, I don't want to say clinical, but I mean, at some point you're like, you know what? I mean, I'm the interviewer. You're the guy. Yeah. And it's, and it, yeah. And it, uh, you know, after a while you realize you're asking a lot of the same questions all the time. And, um, and you kind of hope the one thing that I learned, um, and that I kinda, I sort of.
Speaker: pride myself on now is that my interviews, even when I do them today, are more conversational than interviewee. If there's one thing I learned and I loved and I got respect for was I listened to what they had to say. You know this when you talk to people. It's one thing to have 20 of the most brilliant questions in the world, but it's not worth a rat's ass if you're not able to apply them to a conversation you're having.
Speaker: like you may be talking with whomever and suddenly they go down a road where you, you know, none of the questions had anticipated that road, but when you're having a conversation, you can go down that road with them and then bring it back if you need to or find out something else. But if you don't listen, you miss it all, right? If you're concentrating on the 20 questions you have to ask, you miss it. And I knew my producer, Ken, I know it drove him nuts sometimes. We had some really great questions and I would never look down at them, depending on where the conversation was going. And he was like,
Speaker: Why didn't you ask that? Well, he was talking about this and I wanted to talk about that. So, you know, it made him crazy a little bit, but it was I love that I I'd much rather be a fly on the wall for a conversation than a 20 question interview. Yeah. No, that's a good point. And it's a push pull because, you know, I like to direct the conversation to a certain extent, but you have to let it go where it goes. For sure. So it's a push pull. Right. And also to be able to rein it back when, you know, it's getting a little bit too ridiculous and whatever. Yeah. Yeah.
Speaker: Well, interesting. And then, and then how important was the Canadian artists? Like you interviewed, you know, Gil and Rick from Triumph. I've talked to both of those guys and the great guys, great interviews and just real down to earth guys. But, but you had the Canadian content, so you had the can con aspect of it, but you were also, it seems to me, interested in the Canadian music scene. Oh, loved it. I love the Canadian. And in the eighties, it was thriving and it was exciting. And even in the early nineties, it was exciting while the show was on. Um, I mean,
Speaker: Corey and Brian and Platinum Blonde and Honeymoon Suite, Kim Mitchell, who was just, Kim is like one of the coolest dudes in rock and roll. And one of the first guys that I talked to, and he was so unbelievably supportive of me and knew that I was new and, you know, a little bit wet behind the ears and he was just so helpful in accommodating and all these guys were. And two,
Speaker: They were Canadian rock and roll, right? So yeah, you know you had that royalty on TV show once a week and of course and being Canadian artists More than accommodating it, you know, it's like how much time do you need you got it? You know, there was never there was never any you've got ten minutes and then you got to get the hell out of here Those guys were great. God. I loved I loved every minute about a blue rodeo when they first started out that debut album I can see them coming into the studio talking about aspirations and things and
Speaker: Yeah, so cool. Well good boy. I love Kim Mitchell. I got to open for him one time here in Vernon about 10 years ago So I got to meet him finally cuz I've never met him before but great guy isn't he a great guy? He's just a Kim's Canadian man. Kim is just Canadian. Yeah. Yeah
Speaker: And then I watched the behind the vinyl with the Sultans of Swing, which was really cool. That struck me on a number of levels. But the fact that you really liked Mark Knopfler, you and I are very similar in our tastes. And when that song came out and there was a poll that was done some years ago and it said, what are the songs that you never get tired of hearing? Like if you had to make a list of those songs, right? And that was one of the songs for me was Sultans of Swing.
Speaker: Every time it comes on, I turn it up and I listen to the whole song. I love it. It is such a classic. I just saw an interview with Mark.
Speaker: I guess years down the line and he said, he said he came home, he did a show and he did Sultans and he felt, I'm trying to, I think the essence of it was he felt like he didn't quite get the response from the audience that he thought he should have gotten for that song because it's so legendary. And he told his wife that and she said, well, did you do the funny bits at the end? And by the funny bit, she meant the solo, right? And he said, no. She said, well, that's why they're listening to
Speaker: That song, they want to hear the funny bits at the end. And he's like, oh, right. And he said it was kind of a lesson learned. Never leave out the important stuff, right? Cause that's why we're there. Yeah. Well, there was arpeggios at the end are great, but I mean, what you said on there was totally right. That was a breath of fresh air. When I heard that song, there's certain songs that you hear for the first time and you love them instantly. And you know that you're going to love them for the rest of your life. Isn't that funny? And it's so true. So true. And you, uh, you, um,
Speaker: Warren Zivon's Werewolves of London. When I first heard it, I remember perking up because it was different, especially with the Aoos. But then that made me get the album, Excitable Boy. And I was like, oh my God, this is amazing music and so raw and so in your face and subtle, but in your face. And I found that with Dire Straits. There was just it was like you could like I can't play guitar to save my life, but there was a talent in there that was like
Speaker: This is something, right? This is something special. So let me ask you a cheap question then. Do you have a favorite song of all songs? I know I do as a musician, but I, you know, it's kind of a hard question to answer.
Speaker: No, just all of all time. What's your favorite? What would be if you had to pick one song that really represents everything that musical that you love? I know for me, it's Carrie and Wayward Son by the by Kansas. Like to me, that song is the ultimate rock song in the world. And I want to play in its entirety on my funeral. I want them to play Carrie and Wayward Son, the whole song. And they all got to sit there and listen to it. That's awesome. That is awesome. Yeah. That's classic for sure. I guess, you know,
Speaker: Salton's has got to be up there. This is going to seem kind of weird, but I will say that Jerry Rafferty, like Baker Street, that's one of those songs that you like, whoa.
Speaker: Sultan's, Jerry Rafferty, maybe if I pick a third one. I would have to say Zep's whole lot of love and then also throw in All My Love and Fool in the Rain just because they're all so different. If you just play them back to back, it's like, what is this band? Who are they and what are they doing? They did everything. I wouldn't say that I'm a hardcore Zeppelin fan, but those three songs mean a lot too. But I say put Sultan's at the top.
Speaker: Yeah. Well, that's, no, that's cool. You wouldn't get an argument from me, but the interesting thing too, about the time that we grew up in the sixties and seventies, you know, my dad used to joke about us listening to acid rock. And I said, we listened to Kat Stevens and James Taylor, and we listened to Led Zeppelin, Deep Purple. I loved all of it.
Speaker: wide range of stuff. And then you had a wide range of fairly wide range of music and you spoke to a wide range of artists as well. Right. Right. So you really got the, and you know, you had to listen, we had the time, fortunately, even if they were new, we could listen to the album before we talked to them. We could watch a couple of videos that they've done before we talked to them. We could find out or at least guess what their influences were before we talked to them. So you could see where that conversation would go.
Speaker: And that, you know, it just gives you such a, like, I mean, my, um, you know, on Apple music, they have, uh, you know, they have like the music that you like and they call it Stu Jeffrey station or whatever your name is. They call it your radio station. Uh, when I walked the dog, I put it on all the time and it's basically music curated to my taste.
Speaker: I think it man i am in this lake zone from sort of mid -sixties to around ninety three ninety four and i'm not going any farther than that if i do it's like you know maybe for the outside but i got that's my zone right there that's where i'm
Speaker: Yeah, I mean, I would agree too, but then also the range. I'm happy listening to Anne Murray as I am listening to Whitesnake. So glad you said that. Yesterday when I was walking Millie, Snowbird came on and I rocked to that baby. That is a great song. And she's awesome. And she's awesome. Yes. Yeah. Totally great. So that's kind of a nice part of our musical tastes as well.
Speaker: Yeah. And you know what? The other thing, too, you learn is I guess it's just you get older. I try and tell this to my boys. Don't let anybody tell you that the music you listen to sucks or or why would you listen to that? It's so subjective and screw you. I like what I like and I don't have to defend it. And I can just dig it and you can dig yours and I'm not going to bug you about yours. Like, you know, go ahead, knock yourself out. But people that go after other people say, well, you know, and even you look on Facebook, there's always somebody
Speaker: that tweets, do you like real music or do you like, you know, whatever the band of the day is? And you're like, come on, dude, really? You want to be that guy? Yeah, it's like, no, we like what we like.
Speaker: Well, for sure. And it's, if you use a food analogy, you know, some people like tacos and some people don't, but whatever, fill your, fill your, fill your boots, man, whatever. Yeah. Like live and let live, man. Well, the other thing that struck me about your stuff is that you made some friends along the way too. I watched the interview you did with Alan Frew. That was quite touching. Yeah. It was a kind of a personal conversation more than just an interview or an interviewee. It was a couple of friends. Yeah, for sure. And he, like with Glass Tiger, um,
Speaker: You know, I've always told the guys, same with bare naked ladies. I've always said that, you know, I grew up and not grew up. I grew old with you guys. Like it's almost like we all grew up together in the same era now. And obviously their level of success, you know, far, far past his mind. But we were learning our thing together. And Glass Tiger, bare naked ladies with two that I always think of and Corey Hart to who was
Speaker: I would call him one of these great friends that I don't see a lot of, but whenever I do, I am reminded of why I like him and why he is so... He's just a good guy and he's one of those guys that was very supportive of me and he didn't have to be.
Speaker: You know, and he was and you know, I'll never forget that and yeah, you do kind of although I've said before you got to be Careful on when you think you've connected with somebody when I it was in the early 991. I think we were flown out to Los Angeles to go to the on the Queen Mary and we were going to celebrate Queen signing with Hollywood Records And Freddie Mercury was sick at the time, but nobody knew how sick and he didn't make the trip
Speaker: but Brian May did and Roger Taylor did. And so we had interviews with both of them. And in my interview with Brian May, what a gentleman. I mean, it went just, it was so good. And at the end of the interview, he was very effusive. He said, you know, I really enjoyed this. Those were such great questions. Thank you so much. This was super enjoyable. And he really looked genuine. And I'm sure he was at the time. And I was thinking, oh my God, Brian May likes me. This is really cool. And I said, well, we'll see you tonight on The Queen Mary. And he goes, absolutely look forward to it.
Speaker: And so a couple hours later, we're on the Queen Mary and Brian is introduced and Roger Taylor is introduced and they're kind of walking along this thing that's kind of roped off and I see him come towards me and he looks at me and I'm thinking, okay, I'll just hold up my hand. Okay, Brian, hey, great to see you again. And he's going to say some nice things. So I held up my hand for him to shake my hand. He puts his empty glass into it and says, I'll have a vodka and orange juice please.
Speaker: I could feel the blood come to my head and stuff. And I remember the cameraman, who was so much music, Tony Wanamaker, he said, what happened? Because he looked at my face, and my face was just great. I'm going to crush. And I told him, and he goes, oh, that's a tough one.
Speaker: So never think you make a connection with somebody. Just because it was a good interview, he said that and then promptly forgot who I was. Well, and typically it's more than once. The interview with Alan, obviously you had associated with him many, many times. For sure. Exactly. And Brian was a one -off and I could be Joe Schlepp. He didn't really care. But it was nice of him to say those things though, but I learned a valuable lesson in that for sure.
Speaker: Well, it's funny too, because some interviews, obviously, you've interviewed people who are intoxicated or maybe full of themselves. How do you deal with that? Yeah, it didn't happen that often, but when it did, yeah, it wasn't very good. We went to the UK for a week to do just a ton of interviews.
Speaker: Like we had some scheduled, Phil Collins was one. I forget some of the big players that we talked to, but then there were others that just we picked up along the way. So it was one of those cases where I was in the elevator going up to whatever a record company office to interview some band. And I was reading their bio on the way up. I had no idea who they were to try to do this interview. So it was crazy. But anyway, I talked to Mark Hollis from Talk Talk who's no longer with us and I won't speak ill of the dead, but it was, it was,
Speaker: We did probably, I want to say 30 interviews in that week, maybe even more. Yeah. And he's the only one I remember because he was so mean, like just so mean.
Speaker: it made me so mean that it made me question, do I still want to do this anymore? He was interesting. Yeah. It's just, yeah. So every time I play that song, I mean, sadly, that's the only memory I have of him. And I'm sure he mellowed with, with age before he died. But, uh, so was it, was it ego or what? No, it was like I asked a question.
Speaker: About the album that he and I can't remember what the album was. It was after it's my life. So whatever the next album was and it was, let me tell you something. I think a musician's record in a lot of ways where musicians would understand what he was trying to do, but just the guy was sort of a mainstream here.
Speaker: I don't think I picked it up necessarily. So I wanted him to explain like, what did you set out to do when you went into the studio to do this album? And he, his face turned red right away. I remember that. And he covered his mouth and as he covered his mouth, he goes, I'm not going to talk about what I had for fucking lunch. And I said, I said, I didn't ask you what you had for lunch. And then he got mad.
Speaker: And he said, look, what I wanted to do. And it was like he was lecturing me. And I thought, OK. And then that sort of rattled me. And I can't remember anything with that energy afterwards. And Huey Lewis was another one who
Speaker: You know, I always have this memory of he was touring with Bruce Hornsby, and he loved Bruce Hornsby, and I had just taken over for Terry, and Terry had interviewed Huey, and I guess the two of them had gotten along, and then when Huey saw me there, he was sort of like, well, you know, and Terry was with Much Music, and he did Huey in the other room, so they had already talked.
Speaker: So Huey basically came in and the look on his face was, who's this kid? And Ken, my producer was there and he said, we did the interview and it was okay. It was like five minutes, that's all we had. And then he said to me,
Speaker: He said, make sure you listen to this guy. And he pointed at Ken. He said, he can teach you a thing or two. And I'm like, thanks, thanks, man. That's really awesome of you to say. I appreciate it. I felt it's interesting. Yeah. I felt like my dad had just, you know, come in with me. I sucked. And it was like, okay. And it's funny, those little things, he probably doesn't even remember it, but I do like to this day. Yeah.
Speaker: Well, I think I mean some people might be hungover They might be in a bad mood or maybe their record company said you got to talk to this guy for sure. Yeah, I'm hungry I want to have lunch exactly and those things can be the worst because you're answering those questions all the time It's not like there's anything brand new being thrown at you, you know, but I if there's one thing I've learned under that if ever I was to be interviewed for anything that I Regardless of the question I have promised myself will always be more than accommodating because I know how it feels when it goes south and it's Yeah, it's not a good feeling
Speaker: Yeah, for sure. And it, it, it makes you humble too. You know, on TV and radio, when you blow it, I know. And of course, you know, everybody would be the first to tell you that you blew it too. Cause yeah. Yeah. Yeah.
Speaker: So an interesting question that I've posed to several people and I want to get your take on it is, you know, when the video craze came out in the early eighties, like I thought that that was going to be forever. I thought, okay, we've got videos now. Every major hit song is going to have a big video, like a high budge video attached to it. And that whole thing kind of had its run and then it sort of went away. And I'm not quite sure why that is.
Speaker: Yeah, but I guess people still do promo clips now and you still see a lot of that, but you're right, the craze and the actual desire for it to watch an hour long show or watch it 24 seven, video after video and interview after interview, it did kind of just go.
Speaker: And I'm not sure, I guess it's the way we sort of consume, the way we consume our music changes. And so the way we watch our music changes, I mean, we have access to, you know, a bajillion songs anytime that we want. There's no, we don't, we can, and we can stream and binge whatever we want. We don't have a schedule or an event to sit down in front of something to watch it. And nor I think do we have the time. I think we're,
Speaker: We've moved on. I think now, for better or for worse, back in the day, it was show me your video and that video might make you like the song, whereas that wasn't the way before. Now it's just show me your song. Let me hear your song. You got about seven seconds to catch my ear. If not, I'm going to click your forward button. It's just the way we consume
Speaker: It's just different. Personally, we've been given too much. We don't know what to do with it. Yeah, it's over -load, sensory overload, right? Exactly. Well, the other thing too is that some of those videos were very expensive, obviously, the big hair videos and stuff. They all looked the same, but then some of the concept videos were just weird. Totally. That was right off the top when we were talking about how I was an anti -video guy because I agreed with the ones that said,
Speaker: I hate for the song to be that in your head. The video that you see is how you think of the song whenever you hear the song.
Speaker: when I first heard Hungry Like the Wolf without seeing the video, I thought it was just a great song, but now when I hear it, I still think it's a great song, but now I see Simon running through the jungle and all of that stuff, whereas before, I thought it was a guy that became a wolf and he was hungry, you know, whatever. It was my image of the song, right? And so now, okay, no, it's this. Hall and Oates, who I loved and still love, I mean, they
Speaker: I think they pride prided themselves on doing goofy type videos, but it kind of wrecked it for me like private eyes I thought was a great song, but you watch that video. You're like, hey, you know, this song is really hokey Well, and I yeah, and I talked to Alfie Zapacosta about the video we get the
Speaker: Girls are jello wrestling and stuff he said he's just totally embarrassed by some director come up with a we're gonna do this ready to do that you know okay whatever yeah and you sort of and you kinda signed off on it right and then but you know what you forget is that's like looking at a scrapbook you gotta go back and see it every so often so i feel badly for those guys.
Speaker: Yeah. So it kind of ran its course and then, well, you did switch back as well. So you were doing two shows at once, is that right? That's right. Yeah. I was doing mid days in Regina, so I had not quit my radio job yet. So I would do mid days Monday to Friday, fly out Saturday morning to Vancouver, tape Good Rocket on Saturday and Sunday, and then fly back. And then when the switchback job was offered to me,
Speaker: I was working at Mornings in Edmonton, and I would do Edmonton Monday to Friday, fly out Friday. I would do Good Rockin' on Saturday, live switch back on Sunday, fly back, and then start the Monday to Friday cycle again. And again, young and stupid. Of course, I do it. Even though I was tired, I had no idea how tired I was. I would just keep going.
Speaker: And then eventually I thought, no, I got to forget about radio, traveling on radio, try and sort of base myself in Vancouver and then do that. It became a lot easier. But I found as the years went by, Herb Behring, who was a producer of Switchback in Vancouver, is one of my favorite people.
Speaker: He, man, he put together a great show and he put up with a lot for me. It was a hard time because I was doing too much and it was starting to take its toll and the whole 80s environment was starting to take its toll. Right. And you say to my boys, so what were you like in the 80s? I said, well, all I can tell you.
Speaker: is that I was in the entertainment business and on a national level and it was crazy and I found that it was too much and so after a while I was kind of burning out and he could see it and you know switch back was over and probably at a really good time I don't think I could have continued to do it I think I probably would have really messed it up had I so
Speaker: Uh, you know, it was kind of a reawakening and then things were awesome after that, but I got to love that show. That show was so, that show was so high energy. Like when it was over, it was the equivalent of collapsing. Like, Oh my God. Crazy. Well, it's interesting. I know cause Eric M had said something similar. She didn't have time at the time to actually absorb what was going on around her. Cause everything was coming at her at a hundred miles an hour. So you're just basically going.
Speaker: on autopilot doing whatever's put in front of you you're dealing with at the time. Exactly. There are a couple questions about switchback I wanted to ask you. One is how you adjusted your presentation for a younger audience because now you're into a bit of a different world because you're appealing to teens and younger people. Right. The only thing I had in my mind that I wanted to do was to not
Speaker: make fun of the kids. So it was it wanted it to be. I found that depending on who was hosting the show, because there were different hosts across Canada, I found that it was really easy when you got a kid on the phone to kind of, you know, be kind of jokey and kind of sort of make fun of that person, not really making fun of, but sort of maybe making fun of the fact that they're nervous or whatever. It's so easy to shatter a kid. Right. Like, I mean, you know, and even if you didn't mean to,
Speaker: So that was the thing for me. All I knew was I was talking to kids, they were young, and they're watching me, so I want to be their friend. And so what would a friend do? I'd let them into my room, we could play with my stuff, that sort of thing. So that was it. And then just a chance, because it was live, just a chance to turn it loose. It was pretty fun.
Speaker: I remember the very first show I did was insane. And it was 90 minutes long and it went by so fast. I couldn't believe it. And my producer of Good Rock and Ken came in because we taped the show for Good Rock and afterwards. He said, I sat down with a piece of paper and a pencil and I was going to make notes on things that maybe you should do, you know, basically critique the show for me. And he meant it in the nicest way. And he said, here's what I wrote. And he handed it to me. It was a blank piece of paper. He said, you were made to do this show. And it was like, OK, that's awesome. Because that was the other thing.
Speaker: That was the second thing that struck me though. So now instead of being a VJ or a DJ or being an on -air personality, now you're doing skits and stuff too. Yeah, exactly. And it was super.
Speaker: Ah, God. It's hard to say when you're in your 20s to people that you're working with how tired you are and how exhausting this is. When they're looking at you going, dude, the world is at your feet right now. Quit complaining and just do your job. But it's hard. And it was hard. It's hard on the brain. You just
Speaker: You're shifting gears so much and you're giving so much energy to what you're doing, particularly Switchback. But even Good Rocking, you're projecting for that camera. It's nonstop energy. You've got to hit 15 second timeouts in 30s and so on. You've got to be funny. You've got to be present. It's hard, like really hard sometimes.
Speaker: You know, I could not do that now. I'd have a straight up heart attack if I did it now. Back then, it did really take its toll. But as with anything, the years go by and I've got nothing but great memories of that. So, you know, it's also been I just do remember there were times we're doing skits and I'm like, I got nothing left. I can't do this anymore. But crazy.
Speaker: I know, well, we used to play the breakfast show all the time and we'd get there at 5 .30 in the morning. Well, we've only had two hours sleep. We're all musicians, right? So you got to pretend that you're not tired, like you're dead tired. Your eyes are like, oh, it's terrible. Yeah. Yeah. You smell like the bar you were at the night before, right? Sometimes. Yeah, exactly. It's hard. Nope. Um, so good rocking got canceled in 93, but then you went on to do some other stuff. You just sports magazine and entertainment magazine and stuff. Did you kind of wander about?
Speaker: Yeah, that's kind of a great way of putting it. I was just wondering about when good rocking was over, I think.
Speaker: One part of me was like I guess I'm not gonna work in television again for some reason I just told myself I guess that's it Which I was fine with As long as I was working in radio, I'd be happy And then some yes, just some shows just came out of that. There was the score which ran during the the double -header hockey game on the West Coast, which is great and there was There's a game oh I did game shows with Blair Murdoch, which I loved I did
Speaker: acting crazy. I was a guest on acting crazy, but also did love handles. I hosted that show. Love handles, yeah. Which I'm very proud of that. First of all, it's so much fun. And secondly, that was the first game show with same sex couples. And it was really kind of cool to be on that. I mean, it wasn't particularly good. Blair would say the same thing, but it was a lot of fun to do. So it's kind of just sort of sticking my hands into
Speaker: whatever was out there, I was, I was fortunate enough to get the odd offer every so often to do something and I never really turned it down. And, um, yeah, I had a lot of, had a lot of fun doing it, but it was kind of nice dabbling as opposed to have that as your full -time thing. Um, and it did remind me of how much I missed radio and, and, um, I was fortunate enough to be able to stay in it during all of this. And, and, uh, now, like, you know, now I'm sort of, I'm looking at retirement square in the eyes and, and, um, and happy to be doing it in radio.
Speaker: Well, it struck me about the sports magazine too, because that was kind of a jump shift, right? Yeah. Did you get slagged for that? Who was it that went on? What kind of, I think it was named now, but he went on to hockey net in Canada.
Speaker: Oh, I didn't, I didn't, I don't know if I got slag. I didn't think of people I don't think knew, you know, didn't think I had the goods to do it. And of course. You're not Stephanopoulos is who I was thinking. Oh yeah. Right. When George did that. Yeah. And then he got slagged for that. Cause he's not a hockey guy. He's a talker.
Speaker: Yeah. Oh, yeah. Strombo, right? Yeah. Because when they did the whole remake of Sportsnet, yeah, exactly. And good for him, I thought that was kind of a cool gig, but you knew it was doomed from the start because it was like, what are you guys doing? You just took a recipe for something and it's like, what are you doing? And it had nothing to do with the hosts. They were all doing what they were told. But it was like, what are you doing? Just don't mess with people's Saturday night hockey. Yeah.
Speaker: But I didn't get really slagged. For me, it was, and the way I've kind of operated all these years, which is kind of funny, is that if people think that I can't do it, or I hear that somebody says that I can't do it,
Speaker: It's one thing to say motivates me. That's cliche. For me, it makes me mad. When I get mad, I develop a really strong, not only will I show you, I'm going to ram it down your throat. You'll not only see, but you'll feel badly for saying what you said, not that people would. That's how I took it very personally.
Speaker: And I, to this day, if somebody's got something to say about my abilities or, or though he can't do that, or why is he doing that? This single person show I've been doing at boom 97 three in Toronto for now. 12 years. Uh, when we first started, it was like, no, a single person show is not going to work. It's just not, you need multiple people, you need a producer, you need a blah, blah, blah. Um,
Speaker: And that's all it took for me. It was sort of like, okay, I'm going to make you, it's going to be so hard for you to remove me from this microphone. I will show you that it can be done and I'll do it and you'll see. And it's like, I think I'm kind of looking forward to retirement because it's exhausting. I'm tired of being mad all the time.
Speaker: Well, you know what? But you make a good overall point and just owning it. I had a manager years ago was a crusty old guy. And he said to me one time, he said, when I put you on that stage, you own that state. You've peed on those corners. That is your territory. Yes. And it's, you know what? It's true, man. I mean, it's your thing and it's like, and if it's your thing, then do your thing, right? And do it like the best that you can. Absolutely. Step up or step off.
Speaker: Exactly next. Yeah, exactly. Well, so you had a little did you have a little gig at to CMT for a while? Oh, yeah, and that was also fun. Yeah, that was CMT Central who I hosted that with Alyssa Lansdale and a couple of other people along the way. And that was yeah, it was a lot of fun. Making the shift to country for the few years that I did that was also really cool. And I'm so glad I did because that's like a
Speaker: Country to me at that time was like a club that I had just been invited into that I had no idea existed. And it was like, this is really, really cool. And coming from sort of a rock and roll background where
Speaker: Rock and Roll for me at its peak in the 80s and early 90s was full of attitude. It still is with a lot of bands. Country is exactly the opposite. Country is, what can I do for you? What do you need? I give you a half hour. What, you want to do a special on me? We'll talk for three hours, like whatever. They are so accommodating and so absolutely genuine. I'm so glad I was able to do that. CMT was a lot of fun. Oh, good. It was kind of a nice move, I guess, a somewhat different world, but familiar in many ways. So you were familiar.
Speaker: It's music, right? So yeah, at the end of the day, just know your stuff. And then you ended up, of course, you mentioned boom, 97 .3 in Toronto. That's what you're doing now. Classic music, 70s to 90s. Is that what you... Yeah, 70s, 80s, 90s. And it does, you know, we drift, we pull from the 60s a bit, the 2000s a little bit later, but mostly the shoot is 70s, 80s, 90s. So
Speaker: talk about you know when you find that like that's that's my wheels man this is where i belong so yeah it's and it's like
Speaker: What I love is I know this music inside out and so it just not only makes it fun, it also makes it really easy when you know what you're doing. You're a doctor of music now at this point. Yeah, that's right. Exactly. That's right. You know what? The older you become, you become an expert after a while, right? You must be an expert. He's like 60. So what's the current state of radio? What's the future of radio?
Speaker: Ah, good question. You know, it's not good, like it really isn't. And it's not any one particular company. It's just that there are so few and they own so much. And there's not, you know, I don't know, there's just not a lot of avenues, as I mentioned off the top, there's not a lot of avenues for new people into broadcasting.
Speaker: to cut their teeth anymore. There's no all night positions anymore. Lots of syndication, particularly in small markets and medium markets, and even in the major markets, a syndication across the board for an old school announcer like me.
Speaker: It's sad to see and a lot of people lose their jobs on a regular basis and it's just the way things are right now. And I don't see a change in the future, but I will say this, we have heard the death knell for radio has been going on for years. We've heard, oh my God, the album has come out with more than one song on it. Well, no one's going to listen to radio when they can listen to their albums at home or
Speaker: the recordable cassette is out, a recordable eight track. Now people will just tape their own music and listening cars, satellite radios here. And oh my God, no one's going to listen to commercial radio anymore over and over and over again. And yet here we are as viable as ever, but just, I think a little more bruised and battered, but still very much a part of the landscape. And I don't see that changing. I just see, you know, the amount of opportunities changing.
Speaker: Yeah. And some good points in there, obviously radio is not going to die because we still, I still listen to radio every day. I mean, when I drive in my car, there's still some viable radio stations, but it's not, you know, like you and I lived in a time when it's not going to come back. When bands were breaking, the primary source for new music was radio and stuff. That's just not the case. It was radio. Right. History.
Speaker: And the energy that was involved in that, I was so fortunate to grow up to 70s radio where they were doing all their business over the intros of songs, right? Like it was as a magical time, magical time. Very, very good. So it's not the primary source, but it's still surviving. And I get what you mean about the, like the overnight shows are all just prerecorded, right? And they just run the.
Speaker: Yeah, yeah. And it's a shame because really, what would it cost you? 400 bucks. Just put somebody in there to learn. And believe me, if you were as passionate about radio as I am, or you are, or anybody, if you're passionate, you'll work for peanuts just for an opportunity
Speaker: Uh, to show your stuff and we all have done that and draw listeners, you know, you kind of draw listeners, right? Sure. Draw listeners. And you know what? Have somebody call you and say you stink. And then what do you do from there? You know what I mean? Like it's, it's all, it's all part of it. Yeah. So did you ever have any aspirations of, you know, going to the U S or being a U S broadcaster or moving there? No, not really. Only when I was, uh, I was out of work for a brief while in, uh, I want to say oh eight.
Speaker: something like that. It didn't last for too long, but I was looking at all kinds of opportunities south of the border.
Speaker: There was a couple that kind of came up, but when I say kind of, I don't think that, well, maybe it would have materialized into something, but I don't think my heart was in it. I thought for a moment that maybe it's time for a complete change and we'll just sort of look at a different radio landscape and south of the border kind of appealed to me. And then I heard that Guam had this kick -ass radio station. I thought, well, wouldn't you like to work in Guam? That would be pretty cool. But I never, you know, I never sort of went after it too hard. And then I found myself back on my feet again here in Toronto and on
Speaker: And, um, you know, that's where I've been ever since. So it's good. Yeah, you do, you do kind of look, you know, but also I'm a family guy, you know, I've got kids and to, and wife and to uproot. And you know, that's a, that's a major, it's a major deal now. It's not as easy as it was when you can throw all your shit in one box in the back of the
Speaker: Yeah, absolutely. I often ask the musicians, what price did you pay? What sacrifices did you make along the way? And there's a lot of big stars you know better than anybody who sacrificed a lot to be worth standing where they are. And it wasn't worth it. Some of them I've asked, is it worth it? And a couple of people said, no, it wasn't worth it. Yeah. And the sacrifices you make and the compromises that you make and
Speaker: Yeah, it's funny though. I mean, it's, and that's all part of it too. Like we said, you learn from it. And I mean, you know, I've learned so much even in the past 10, 12 years about this business and industry and me, you know, and where I fit and, you know, and, and the right and the wrong things to do. And isn't it, it's, it's a shame. You don't know that when you're younger, but when you figure it out, when you're older, it makes things a little bit easier to take. Yeah. Was anything you would change if you could do it again?
Speaker: I'd be a little bit smarter with my health probably in the younger days.
Speaker: I won't say live with no regrets because people would say that are like, come on, you've got tons of regrets. You're just not telling anybody. I have a ton of regrets and what I like to make things right in a lot of ways, absolutely. But I mean, whatever, can't do that. I thought I would have taken better care of myself. I do now and I'm healthy and everything's great, but I would have had more energy and I would have been, I would have liked to have worked on my patients game a little bit. TV is a patients game.
Speaker: It's like, hurry up and wait all the time. And I am not a patient person. And I think I was particularly hard on some people with my attitude sometimes. But yeah, you know, I would have taken better care of myself and maybe just slowed down a little bit. But but that's about it. I love what I did.
Speaker: Well, and the thing is, is that when your job is to be intense, when that camera goes on, your intensity level has to be fairly high. So it's hard to switch back and forth, right? So be Mr. Cool as a cucumber between everything and then be Mr. Intensive. Of course. Of course. And people come after talent all the time, right? They always give talent such a hard time, but it's sort of like, I'll switch positions with you. Like give this a shot for a second and you'll see it. It takes a lot out of you. And yeah, we're a pain in the ass. Absolutely. But you know what?
Speaker: Who is it? So last question, what's left to do? You said you're going to ride out your time at boom 97 .3 and possibly retire from that or anything else you need to do.
Speaker: I guess, I don't think so. Watching my guys grow up now and two are in university, one's just about going into grade 12 and watching what they do. My eldest son is into acting. My second eldest son, Leo, is into commerce and into a marketing sort of thing. So watching them grow into that and grow into young men.
Speaker: is awesome. So I take great satisfaction in that and just watching them grow.
Speaker: Uh, and I know that they look to me for, uh, you know, advice. And I know they think it's kind of cool what I've done up to this point and to have your kids look at you that way and talk to you that way is pretty awesome. Um, and I got a, my youngest, as I said, going into grade 12 soon, he's got his semi formal tonight. And he said he wants to, he wants to be sure that I'm, uh, at the door to help tie his tie. And those are the things that I just, the simple things that I just fricking live for. Right. Um, and, uh, yeah, I guess I see the retirement horse. I see it coming towards me.
Speaker: I have the best job in the world and I have had the best jobs in the world and I am fortunate enough to love them I would just say that getting up at three every day kind of takes its toll after a while even though I'm taking care of myself You're kind of like I don't know how much longer I can do that And I found that I've got a couple of hobbies that I never saw me
Speaker: doing in my life. I'm rebuilding a 1974 Honda CB450 motorcycle right now, and I'm having the time of my life. It's all YouTube and old manuals, and I'm like, I never knew I liked this. This is really cool. So I've got that. I've just got some stuff to keep me interested on the daily.
Speaker: You know, I've been fortunate to be doing it this long. I'm in like 45th and 46th year now. And I'm like, Oh, that's awesome. Well, it sounds like you're a happy guy because sometimes Oh, I am Dan. I am very happy. Yeah.
Speaker: Many thanks to Stu Jeffries for being part of the Llanternotes podcast and sharing some insights from his life in the music biz. And more information is available at boom97 .3 .com Stu Jeffries. We hope you enjoyed the podcast and invite you to subscribe to it and share it on social media so others can enjoy it as well. We also invite you to listen to Dusty Discs Radio Tuesdays and Thursdays to hear Canadian artists that you're hearing on this show. So until next time, I'm Dan here.
