Welcome to Bevboy’s Blog post #2000.
When I began this humble blog in October of 2007, it was with the humble goal of producing a humble blog that didn’t have many or any misspelled words. I still stand by that.
However, over the years, by updating nearly every single day, the blog had to take on a life of its own, and find its own style. That is the nature of writing: You eventually find your own voice, even if it is a hoarse whisper against the loud talking that surrounds you. A blog is, or should be, a living, breathing thing, at least in the metaphorical sense. To the extent that I understand metaphores, as long-time readers will remember.
As you know, I have had a near life-long interest in the medium of radio. In the 1990‘s, I would call in to radio stations like CJCH and speak to jocks like John Biggs. I would pester their-then Program Director, Terry Williams. I would surreptitiously listen to the radio at work until I got in trouble for it.
I began to use Bevboy’s Blog to comment on the state of radio in Halifax, usually snarkily, and sometimes rudely. When a particular station would fire their morning jock, which it has done many times, I would state something about it. I’d mock the new jock. It wasn’t very nice.
(Don’t worry. Many of those olds posts have been re-written to remove that crap. )
In April of 2008, Karen Begin/Darian O’Toole, died. As I revealed in post 1990, I was interested in her at one point in my life. Her death a few years ago made me re-visit that period of my life. I attended her funeral, which not many people did
Those introspective blog posts attracted a lot of attention. People who had worked with Karen saw these posts and left long comments of their own. They’re still there. Start reading in the 180 series, from April of 2008. Some of her close friends left heart-felt comments there.
I started to think I was on to something, with these radio posts, at least the ones that remained positive. I reached out to Deb Smith, then the morning person at the late and very much lamented CJCH. Deb was back filling for Brian Phillips. I asked her for an interview, and she agreed.
I did a poor job of it, to put it mildly. I did an equally poor job the first time I interviewed JC Douglas. I bought a digital voice recorder and sat down with Dawn Sloane and Jeff Cogswell. Slowly, bit by bit, I learned how to conduct an interview, how to transcribe and edit an interview, and how to integrate pictures and video into an interview. It is much more of an art than it is a science.
Some 37 interviews later, I remain best known for these long online discussions with (mostly) radio peeps. Chances are pretty good that if you google Halifax radio or just “Bevboy”, you will see links to many of my interviews. Chances are also pretty good that most on air radio folks in Halifax, and in other parts of the country, have at least heard of me. Even Frank Magazine has stolen some of my pictures and used them in articles without attribution, so I must have arrived.
I remain grateful to the radio broadcasters for taking me into their working lives and talking to little old me about themselves. I still can’t get over how Nicolle Bellefontaine invited me into the C100 studio and talked to me while she was doing a show. Tom Bedell sat down with me after his show one Wednesday evening. Neil Spence sat down with me at the Live 105 studios after he had finished a show. I have been to the K-Rock boardroom so many times, I almost feel like I should be on staff.
It was a particular delight to meet Don Tremaine, Frank Cameron and Pat Connolly, all largely retired, and with so many stories to tell and little forum in which to tell them. Frank told me that when he was invited to return to the CBC for an interview, a producer there researched him by reading my interview with him, which is weird. As long as I talked to these guys, I was only able to scratch the surface of their remarkable, decades-long careers. Denyse Sibley was so kind to me as well, contacting ME for an interview. Ian Robinson should live forever. Chris Mills’ kindness to me will never be forgotten.
I thought I would devote the rest of this blog post to brief quotations, snippets, of each blog interview. I will also include a full link to each interview so that you can go ahead and read the full piece. There is a wealth of radio material in these interviews. Nearly all of them are with radio folks, but there are interviews with other people from other walks of life. Many hours of reading await you, if you but take the time.
I will have some final remarks after the following quotations. To read the full interview, just click on the hyperlink for each quotation.
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Bob Powers: Stories, to me, are what people tie into. That's what they get a hook on. I'm going to give a plug to someone else. I absolutely love Randy Bachman's "Vinyl Tap". He's first person. " When Gene Vincent came to my house for Thanksgiving dinner, he hobbled in and mom fed him…" That's real stuff! That's way more compelling than " Led Zeppelin were formed in 1968…".
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Brad Dryden: Radio is such a great job. It’s one of those jobs where I can’t believe I get paid to do this. “It beats working for a living”, is what I tell people. I’m getting to that point now where more and more people come up to me and say, “I listened to you when I was growing up. You’re the reason why I got into this business.” Which makes me sound very old. But, I’m also really flattered by that. I’m hoping that if there’s somebody reading this who listens to the show, maybe they’ll be able to gain a little insight as to why it’s the best business in the world, and decide to do it for themselves, because it really is. It’s a wonderful business, a great way to express yourself, have fun. You sit around and drink coffee and play music and laugh.
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Chris Mills, on being the last live voice on AM 920 CJCH: It was a tough morning. I kept my emotions more-or-less in check. But then Deb would get kind of emotional and I would get kind of emotional, and just before 8 o'clock when I did my very last newscast we both kind of lost it a little bit. I was starting to tear up a little bit and ... it was amazing. I went through the cast. I did a pretty good cast, a ten minute news and all that kind of stuff. And then I had scripted just a little goodbye which I read at the end. And I said, "I'm Chris Mills. For the last time at AM 92 CJCH."
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Colin and Kate on what questions they were asked in the interview before being hired at K-Rock: K: I think, when Ken and Gary both called me, it was a lot about philosophy. Whether I steered it that way, or they steered I that way, I don't really remember. But, it was really about philosophy of radio and the philosophy of the community. Because, I've always said, "If you think it's an 8-5 job, go sell shoes somewhere. That might be an 8-5 job." It's not.
So, I think it was a lot about philosophy with us.
C: Yes. Mainly it was the launch of a new station. The launch of a new station takes a lot more work than walking into a heritage station.
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Cub Carson on his nickname: I was still in college. The afternoon guy had just been let go. I went out and tried to find the most ferocious, scary-looking bear costume I could find. All I could find in my hometown was this really pansy-looking teddy bear costume. It looked like one of the cubs from the Golden Grahams commercials that were on tv at the time.
I got in there. I never took the head off. I handed my audition package with my cover letter and my demo to the program director at the time, Gord Taylor. He still didn’t know what I looked like. I bugged and bugged and bugged, and eventually he’s, “OK, fine. Listen: I don’t have a job for you right now. You’re not getting drive because you’re still in college. But, when you get out of college, let me know, and we’ll take it from there.”
I ended up winning an award, through my school, for best audition, from The Bear. It was funny that way. It was one of these things that, for a few years after that, the timing was always a little off for me to get in there. It took me 6 years to the day after applying for the job the first time, to actually get hired on full time. That happened 2 weeks after I got fired from a production gig that I had at a sports/talk radio station back in Ottawa.
From there, I remember coming in and sitting down. My boss at the time had a big, big deal about having his announcers at The Bear have some sort of an affiliation with the outdoors. We had Geoff Mauler, who has gone on to do great things with Hot 89.9, and was the only person in Canada who got on Regis. Mauler is fantastic; another Algonquin College grad. We had Mauler. Then, there was Trapper Biggs, and Grizz Michaels.
He said, “Well, here’s your job. You’re going on this weekend, over nights. Have you got a name yet?”
I said, “Well, I don’t know.”
He said, “Why don’t we call you Cubby?”
I thought, “Well, let me test it out.” I tested it out among my friends who were girls. They thought it was adorable. The guy friends thought I was saying “Chubby”. I did a full four days as “Cub Carson”, and it just stuck. It wasn’t until about a year after that that I found that I wasn’t the first “Cub Carson”. There was a
nother dj at another Bear station out in Edmonton. He spelled his name “Cubb”. The weekend I did my first on air shift at The Bear in Ottawa, he quit his job at The Bear in Edmonton. We were owned by the same company, so essentially, the Cub Carson “brand” was up for grabs. That’s the way it’s been ever since.----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Dan Barton on discussions regarding a second radio license for Evanov in Halifax: It’s a funny thing, when you apply for a radio station [license]. I’ve lost track of the number of panels I’ve sat on; I think I’ve been in front of The Commission 9 or 10 times. I could add it up if I had to, though.
You always apply for the format that you think you might launch with, or, to be honest, the one that looks sexy in front of The Commission. But, when it came time to apply for the Halifax one, there was a general feeling of, "You know what? This might be the format to go with." We had genuine research that said, "OK. There’s room for it."
The CRTC doesn’t regulate format. We could have gone in saying, "Hey, there’s room for another Country station." They could have given us another Country station license, and we could still launch with a Modern Rock [format]. It doesn’t matter.
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Darrin Harvey on his efforts to help Karen Begin get a job in the US: She had to break a few rules to even work in the U.S. She made up a resume. She got on 20/20 for that. I helped her make up that resume.
I remember it was the old Apple IIE's. That was the computer, and it was a big deal to have a computer at all. She was in there typing up, and we were making up names of theatre companies and tv shows she was on. It worked! What do you do?
BB: It was before you could really check out references the way you can now.
DH: Well, when you put on a show that is no longer on the air and say that you were on this CBC show. People just buy it. And when you met Karen, it was like, "She must have been on frigging tv! She's such a character. Absolutely".
Bevnote note: The Darrin Harvey interview remains the most-read Bevboy’s Blog post!
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Dawn Sloane on entering politics: I entered politics because I saw the need for someone that cares for the community to be there. When I first started doing things in my neighbourhood, such as helping out with litter issues, we had a gentleman who was dumping litter in our community. I found out whom to call and how to have it remedied. Then people saw me helping out with the prostitution and drug problem in the area, and so I ended up knowing who to call when there were problems. So I ended up basically doing the job without getting paid for about five years. And, it was funny because I was working for Heritage Canada at the time on contract and when someone said to me, "You seem to be getting more and more involved in community issues. You should run for Council.", I laughed at them. I said, "I'm not ready for that". And other people thought I was. And that's how this all started was I felt I could do something good for the neigbhourhood.
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Debbie Rochon on her lowest budget movie, and about not being paid for a role: I would say the lowest budget was $10 000. I want to address the other part of your question. Never mind cash the check. I didn’t change quick enough to go down and get my cash. They were paying everybody in cash before they left. I ran upstairs, got out of my costume, ran downstairs to get my few dollars, in cash. They were gone! Long gone. It’s rough out there, folks. It’s rough.
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Deb Smith on which person surprised her the most: Delta Burke. She wouldn't go in studio with us until her hair and make up had been done. Rather than wear the headphones the normal way, which would have disrupted her hair, she wore them upside down during the radio interview. She was a bit of a diva, a real southern belle.
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Denyse Sibley on Ian Robinson’s nickname for her: I hope I don't get him in trouble. 38C!
BB: Oh, my God! [jaw drops open]
DS: [laughter] He always writes "38C" on my e-mails. And that's pretty self-explanatory.
BB: I ain't going down that road.
DS: [laughter] And, do I have a nickname for him? No. He's just Ian. I don't think any of us have a nickname for Ian. He's just a great guy.
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Don Tremaine on how he broke into radio as a teenager: I went into the new CBC building and asked if they were giving tours. They said they would show me around. There was some guy going on the air; I forget who now, for a 15 minute piano recital. I looked into the window, watched him play the piano, and got the 5 dollar tour of the place. As I was getting ready to leave, this great big tall, frightfully British sort of chap appeared; and he said, "Can you act?" I said, "Well, who knows?" He said, "Come with me".
He hauled me into a studio. He parked me in front of a microphone, and took a seat on the other side. He said, "All right. You're Rob, and I'm Mother". We went through this script; no rehearsal or anything else. Anyway, I played Rob, whatever that was. He said, "Can you be here tomorrow night for rehearsal at quarter to 7?" My God, we didn't even have a phone. I used my grandmother's phone in Rockingham. I said, "I'll have to check; I think I can".
As a matter of fact, I landed a job there ... probably 2 or 3 times a week I'd appear on this little program that they had in the middle of the farm broadcast. It was a farm family saga, sort of a soap opera, The Gillens.
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Drakaina Muse on why she moved to Halifax: Well, I came here 5 years ago. Somebody told me, “Your career is doing great. You rock. You should come here to Canada, especially Halifax, because the industry is booming.”
BB: I didn’t know that!
DM: And then she sold it to me, saying, “And, it’s hot all the time.” I’m coming from the South of France. To me, hot is hot. I got here in the middle of Summer. Everybody’s wearing shorts and little t-shirts. I’m wearing my Winter jacket. But, I fell in love with the people. That’s why I stayed. I love it here. I’ve got a quiet life: A nice house with a white picket fence. I’ve got my busy Drakaina life all around it. I travel all around. But, I can come home to a quiet place with friendly neighbors.
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Floyd, on not being “that edgy” on Live 105: We’re not making people eat toenails. We’re not making people give their dads a rectal exam. Our edginess comes, I think, from our personalities. While I might be considered an edgy person, I also try to be a respectful person. I don’t try to offend people. I don’t like that; I don’t think it makes good radio.
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Frank Cameron on his very first on air radio shift: I was 17. As I recall, I was not terribly nervous because all those years of being in the basement talking to myself had kind of [helped me]. And I learned something right away at CKEC. I learned that when you're talking to the audience, you try to make conversation. I know that sounds funny, but you try to make conversation with them to get them to listen to you and to the program that you're presenting.
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Gary Tredwell on the phenomenon of Greasy Gary: I've been told that when I'm finished, 250 people will get out of their cars at the Dockyard and finally go in to work. Or at the Michelin plant: 300 people will get out of the car after I'm done, after I've hit the punch line of the joke. I just can't believe it.
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Ian Robinson on producing the final edition of The Hotline on 920 CJCH: There wasn't a dry eye in the place the last 5 minutes. We're all wrecked. And,then, Rick signs off and he kind of composes himself for a little bit and I shook his hand and said, "Great job, man. We went out in style." He goes out of the CJ studio and the entire staff is in the hallway and gave him a big clap, cheering for him. That's when he loses it, and darts back into the studio and tries to compose himself again.
To be a part of that... Next to 9/11 it was the toughest day I've ever had on the air.
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JAX on an altercation with JC Douglas: I was playing basketball off Gottingen Street. This was 3, 4 months ago. I was playing with some friends. I was walking back home. I was all sweaty. I had little shorts on and a little t-shirt. I hear these 3 honks. I thought, "Some guy’s being a jackass."
I’m not a girly girl, so I didn’t know if he was just razzing me. I turn around because I’m about to just the guy the dirty look and tell him to fuck off. Just as I’m opening my mouth, I see that it’s JC. "Hey, JAX! How are you? Just wanted to say hello."
I say, "Oh, hi, JC!" I wrote him an email after that and we laughed quite a bit. I was about to tell JC Douglas off because I thought he was a creeper, driving down Gottingen, trying to hit on me! But, he’s the programmer I thought was so cool for most of my life. I was so humiliated.
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James Taylor on his friends Penn and Teller: When they first started to get the fame that they were earning, Penn and Teller pissed off a lot of a certain stamp of magician because one of their m.o.'s is to get out there and say, "Oh, we're going to show you how it's done.” And, then do the trick in front of you; and despite the fact that they told you how it's done, you still can't see how it's done. They literally do a cups and balls act where the cups are transparent. And huge. They show you how it's done. And you still don't see how the Goddamn trick is done. When it's all over, they're still pulling crap out of these damn cups. I said, "Where the Hell was it? I don't get it."
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JC Douglas on how FM radio has changed in the last 20 years: FM was basically de-regulated around 1992. Some of the music regulations were kept on; but most of those spoken word regulations were wiped out in '92.
They were kind of an antiquated system of going back to when the CRTC felt that the FM band would be permitted to enter the public headspace, but it was meant to be a “thoughtful band”. That's why they brought in all these regulations. It's funny because in the States, for instance, FM was never regulated that way. In its earlier days, it was a more thoughtful band all on its own. It attracted a certain more thoughtful, discerning listener. They soaked up that more thoughtful end of things. In Canada, the same thing was happening, too. But, as it branched out and became more of a mass appeal kind of idea, that need for the “thoughtfulness” was decreased, depending on the radio station. I think a lot of broadcasters are happy to let the evolution of programming take a more natural course rather as opposed to its being mandated by government regulations.
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Jeff Cogswell in 2008 speculating on what the new Rogers format would be (now Lite 92.9): I wouldn't be surprised to see them be a New Rock station, infused with a little bit of alternative rock, but I find there is a fine line between those two genres anyway. And with Q104 playing New Rock as well as classic rock... I don't know. That could be a hard sell for them.
Bevboy: This was prescient because Cogsy is now morning guy at Live 105.5, the New Rock station!
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John Biggs on Brian Phillips’ return to the radio in 1988: The first time he came back, after his trouble with the law, I remember he and I about to get started for the morning, in the old building on Robie, standing by our bunks (because they definitely weren’t lockers), getting our headphones and whatever else we needed ready to go for the shift - he on CJCH, his very first morning back, and I on C100, as usual, and I could see a hesitation in his approach…which surprised me - because the only side of Brian I had known to that point was the picture of confidence. He looked me in the eye, and said, “Do you think I’m going to be okay?” I looked right back at him and said, “Jesus Christ, man, you’re Brian Phillips. Of course.”
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K8 on toning things down when she moved over to C100: My father is my #1 fan. He listens to my show every day whether he’s here or not. I wouldn’t say anything on the radio that I wouldn’t say to him. There are things that I said that he probably goes, "Oh, God!" It’s just because it’s his daughter saying it.
I didn’t really change my approach at all. I did at first a bit. I toned back a little. But, I still do the exact same thing that I did on any of the stations.
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Lisa Blackburn on her husband losing his job at KOOL FM: What really upset me was the way in which it was handled by the company. They knew I was the spouse. Even though these meetings were taking place one floor below at 8 o’clock in the morning, they still expected me to perform on the air and didn’t call me into any of the meetings with Jamie.
BB: They didn’t excuse you from the air for the day.
LB: Exactly. It was just the way in which it was handled. The fact that that all the personalities’ web pages were erased from the website before they were told they were being laid off. I found that out 2 minutes before I’m expected to do my 8 o’clock newscast.
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Megan Edwards on why she went into radio: I thought it would be so cool to work in radio, to work amongst the music, not just listening to the music and working. I don't want to sound cliche or anything, but it's magical. People listening don't know what the person looks like. They don't know what buttons they're pressing. They don't know what the room looks like that they're in. They have to make it up. They have to create it in their mind, and that's what we do. We try to help them create that vision. That's very cool. I love that idea. Radio is magical, and its almost like when someone comes in and sees the studio and sees what I do, I almost don't really like it because it's not [as] cool to them any more as it was before.
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Mel Sampson on newscaster Dave Chaulk: Dave is the consummate professional. The first day I managed to get him to laugh before we went into a newscast, I got him to say “woot! woot!” or something; and people actually came up to me the next time I was in public and said, “You got Dave Chaulk to laugh! You got him to say ‘woot! woot!’” To me, that’s what he’s like at work all the time. He’s a lot of fun. He’s not allowed to talk sports around me, though. That’s my rule. If people come into the jock lounge and start talking about football and baseball, they get kicked out.
BB: You don’t like sports?
MS: Not a sports watcher, no. I don’t know who had an rb, run-in, number something in 1985. I have no interest. I don’t go into his office and talk about shoes. I just think it’s fair that way.
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Moe Dunn on legendary 1970‘s Valley jock “Wally Milan”: Young girls loved him. And he had this look about him. I remember one stinger that he used to have on the radio: "Here's Wally! Who? Wally!" I could have thrown that out the window. But that was his. But, a couple of things about Wally Milan. He had a black belt in karate. Where he is now, I have no idea, but I always liked the guy. He showed me how to do my first night show, six to midnight. At AVR, we had a system of checks and balances, and he is the one who took me through the whole thing so that I could do it on my own the next night. He was my instructor for one night.
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Neil Spence on comments about his voice: One of the first weekends I was on the air here, I had a lady tell me that, on our Facebook page, that my voice sounded like nails on a chalkboard to her. Not to be very conceited about my own voice, I don’t perceive my voice to sound like nails on a chalkboard. To back me up, one of the first days I was on the air here, some listeners gave me the nickname "Audible Chocolate", because they liked my voice enough I guess.
I wasn’t really bothered by her comments. This is one of my pet peeves. You go on a group page for a radio station or an organization or anything like that, and you bitch and complain about things. There’s better things you can do with your time, with your life. Obviously, people are working hard to do what they’re doing. What gives you the right to complain about what they’re doing? Could you do any better?
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Nicolle Bellefontaine on the best piece of professional advice she’s ever received: It was from a writer. When I took my first writing job, the writer I was replacing (she was moving to Ontario), Monique Manatch, said, “Just don't take it personal”. Not to take it personal when someone is critiquing your work. And, she's right, because, especially in my 20's, I was very, “Oooh, I just want to be liked! Please like me and like what I do.” I'm so earnest and putting so much passion into it. I needed to grow a thick skin, and she said, “You have to have a thick skin to be a writer.” I absolutely never had a problem. I never had my feelings offended by anything that was rejected by a client. It was truly some of the best advice I ever received.
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Nikki Balch’s thoughts about hip hop: I'd probably say the most mis-understood thing about hip hop music is that, first of all, it's not misunderstood as much as a lot of people tend to think that it is. They think that we're misunderstanding these rappers, that we're misunderstanding these hip hop artists. We're understanding them; we're just not necessarily happy about what they're saying, and what they're rapping about, and what they're talking about, because it seems kind of negative.
But. the thing is, it's their lives. I think that's the biggest misunderstanding there, is that they're creating controversy for no reason. I was just talking to a friend. He is here, [but] he is from California. He was talking a little bit about the gang scene there, and how people are brought up. It's a rough go. It's hard in some of those cities that they're from. This is all they had, was to write and make their music.
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Pat Connolly on meeting Foster Hewitt: My instruction was, "You go to Toronto. You go to Mapleleaf Gardens on a Saturday afternoon and meet Mr. Hewitt in his nationally-famous gondola. He will tell you where to go from there".
[Foster Hewitt] looked at me when I walked into the booth. I was 19 years old. I was scared to death. I was skinny as a rake. He thought I was the guy from the telegraph office, that I was some kid delivering a telegram. I introduced myself. He said, "Oh, yes. How long have you been doing this?"
The gondola was a long, elevated edifice above the ice surface, near the roof. He had his own niche, right at the corner. That was Foster's Sanctum Sanctorum, and nobody but nobody ever got into Foster's booth. For whatever reason, he said, "Look: I have to be away the weekend, starting on Sunday. I'm doing a game in New York, between the Leafs and the Rangers. I want you to use my booth".
He brought the engineer in. He said, "You look after this guy. I'll be back on Monday. "
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Peter Duffy on being relevant to his readers: Bev, one of the things I used to do when I worked at the Herald: I trained myself when I would be in public, after work, going to Sobeys, get my groceries. I trained myself to look at the people around me, in the line ups, waiting to pay for my groceries. To listen and to look at them. To the woman ahead of me with her two little children, squalling away. She's tired. She just wants to get the groceries paid for and get home. I'm looking at her and thinking, "What can I write about tomorrow that's she's going to want to read?" She's going to tell the kids to be quiet while she reads takes five minutes to read Duffy. What can I possibly write to capture her attention, given the other things she has going on her in life?
And, the guy standing in front of me. He's wet. He's tired. He's on his way home from work, and it's been a rainy day, and he's had a bad day. What the Hell can I write about that will capture his attention? I think that the Herald, all media, need to go stand in the grocery store lineup for quite a while, for quite a few weeks, and just listen. And look. And figure out: What can we possibly put in our paper, on our radio station, that will capture this poor woman's attention, this woman with her kids, and this guy who's wet, and this old person who doesn't have a lot of money and she's not sure how she's going to pay for her groceries. What do we need to write about, that will get their attention? That will interest them? Help them, perhaps? But, most of all, make them buy the damn paper tomorrow?
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Robert Maillet on his attitude toward life: Nobody’s tried to pick a fight with me. I don’t have the attitude of fighting somebody. I treat people pretty good. So far, so good. No fights.
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Rob Johnson’s thoughts about taking on the PD job at KOOL FM: Kool FM was strong but not to its fullest potential. The feeling is that a lot of people had kind of forgotten about the radio station and the sense of fun and energy that should have been there but the music we were playing was just lacking. So there were just some minor little tweaks that we made, We changed the station voice [His name is Jamie Watson and he works out of Toronto] and modified the music just a little bit and basically gave the on air team a lot more leeway to be personalities and have fun at their job.
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Shane Wilson on mentoring young newscasters: I did expect people to act professionally. I did expect people to not feel that they were owed something, because it’s a job, guys. You’re being paid to come in here and do a job. Come in and do the job. I will help you all I can to do the job as best you can, but you’re coming in to do a job. In some circles, with K8 and people like that who are professionals who care about getting better, who care about what’s going on, I guess I’m a bit of a mentor. But, for other people who came through my doors in that 4 year period, maybe I’m just a grumpy old bastard. And, you know what? Either title, I accept, because at times I was a grumpy old bastard. Then, other times, with people who wanted to learn and who were willing to learn and had good attitudes, I would bend over backwards.
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Steve Vernon on book editors: [With] the first ghost story collection I released, "Haunted Harbours", there was an awful lot of editing. The second book I released, through Nimbus, "Wicked Woods", very little editing. It was because I paid attention to what they told me the first time around.
There's always editing; you're not going to get away from it. You have to be careful if you're an up-and-coming writer, not to start believing in your own p.r. too much and thinking, "OK, my words are sacred. You can't mess with them." Because editors know what they're talking about, as a rule.
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Tom Bedell’s thoughts on CBC Radio’s Weekend Mornings With Stan Carew: I love it. That's some of the best radio in Halifax right there. It's just so far outside the box. They don't have advertisers that they have to please. They don't have to please anybody really. They can play Maritime music twenty-four hours a day if they want. It's their mandate.
He can play the weird old stuff. He can play some rock stuff if he wants to. I remember a few years ago listening to him playing a Bob Dylan song off a Hank Williams tribute album that just came out. I thought, "You're kidding me. That's fantastic."
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And, there you have it. Bevboy’s Blog post 2000 is over and done with. But, the Blog itself is anything but finished. The latest series of “year” posts is not over. Post 2001 will contain my recollections of both 2000 and 2001, and it will continue at least until post 2012. After that, if you are interested, I will go back as far as my recollections will let me, back when I was 5 or so, which would be 1969. Let me know if you want to read these memories as well. Note that most of these posts would be much shorter!
See you tomorrow.
Bevboy
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