Month: August 2014
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It Was 50 Years Ago Today… The Beatles!
Old friend Brian Antonson was at the Beatles’ concert and shares his eyewitness account: “50 years ago, on August 22, 1964 the Beatles arrived in Vancouver and played a brief 27 minute set at Empire Stadium. The Vancouver Sun profiled the event recently, and as the PNE gets underway for another year, it’s worth…
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Happy Anniversary, Ray Ramsay!
Ray Ramsay was a primo representative for Quality Records, RCA, and BMG in our market. He would rush the new releases to radio stations and dream up promotional ideas for his artists throughout the decades. He was always generous with us radio mooches. This was the era of radio personalities and record promoters. We worked…
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Good Rockin’ Tonight At Ken Gibson’s
Ken Gibson (above, with Jayson Hoover) was responsible for so many successful TV shows: Let’s Go, Trivia Challenge, Good Rockin’ Tonight, The Irish Rovers… and the list goes on and on. Ken held a party at his home and many of the former performers showed up for this wonderful event. Ken started the idea of a…
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Comic Genius: Williams and Winters
Many may not be aware that Robin Williams‘ comic inspiration was Jonathan Winters. Robin was an improv comic genius, as was Winters because they ran with no script and usually ad-libbed everything. Jonathan was one of the first. They appeared together when Robin arranged for Jonathan to appear on his TV series Mork and Mindy.…
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Portland Bandstand, 1959
This historic 1959 photo was taken on the set of Portland Bandstand at KGW-TV in Portland, Oregon. It was originally hosted by great Portland deejay Dick Novak. Dick was caught up in a major change at KGW Radio, where he had been the morning man. He was replaced by former CKWX morning man Bill Davis, and…
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Love Me Tender at the Capitol, 1956
The mid 1950s were a time of change, but two theatres on Granville Street’s Theatre Row, the Orpheum and the Capitol had very competitive managers. In 1956 Capitol manager Charlie Doctor (above) won the rights to show Elvis’ first movie Love Me Tender. Recognizing the many promotions I had worked with competitor Ivan Ackery at the…
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The Crickets in Vancouver, 1962
In 1962 I was program director at C-FUN Radio and had my own show on the station from 6 to 10 pm. After each show I would see who was in town and visit with them. On this particular occasion Les Vogt and I had booked the Crickets for a series of appearances in the Lower Mainland and…
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New Doc Pomus Documentary
This a documentary on one of the world’s great songwriters. Doc Pomus wrote Save The Last Dance For Me by The Drifters, Suspicion (originally written for Elvis) with Terry Stafford, A Teenager In Love for Dion and so many more. He had a knack for composing memorable songs while being confined to a wheelchair. You…