"MOMENTS" ( Buried Treasures Part V )
By, George Johns
In part four of Buried Treasures I was wrote about how my hearing The Jury’s first record on the air for the first time was a very special breathtaking moment for me, to put it mildly. I didn’t think there ever could be another moment as strong again. But as usual I was wrong.
Being a member of The Jury as a kid was mostly just a lot of fun in our early days. Becoming a recording artist of course was an unbelievable experience, the stuff dreams are made of. But as I wrote before, I guess every up has to have it’s down that’s how Yin and Yang works
All that travel without any kind of serious money coming in, and none on the near horizon that I could see eventually took it’s toll. Being a member of The Jury started becoming kinda frustrating for me.
At the same time the frustration was beginning to build, my part time day job at CKY on the other hand was becoming more and more fun.
I’m not sure if it was the fun or the curiosity about how radio worked that was turning me on but what ever it was I found myself spending a lot more time at the radio station and a lot less time with my guitar.
I had no idea back then that a couple of other things were already in motion and those other things were going to make the decision about what road I should take pretty easy to decide.
The first thing in a chain of events with my name on them happened shortly after Jimmy Darin ( Hilliard) left the radio station to head back to the States. Shortly there after Chuck Dann (Riley) also decided to leave, but before Chuck left he convinced management to give me his off air title. Chuck besides being an excellent on air talent was also Production Director of the station.
His claim to them was … Seeing as I was doing all the production work anyway, I deserved the title. They agreed, and that was the beginning of the end for me and my band days.
Chuck later went on to become one of America’s greatest voice over talents, so I think you could easily say that I really lucked out during my early impressionable radio years because without me even having the chops to know good from bad, it turns out I had been trained by the very best.
As I said goodbye to Chuck and thanked him for his vote I had no idea that in the not too distant future we would work together once again. Only the next time I would be his boss. I write that part with a smile on my face, because I doubt if anybody could really ever be Chuck’s boss. What colorful character !
But the radio gods weren’t done yet, wouldn’t you know it but only a couple of months after Chuck’s departure, another event occurred that really sped up all the big changes that were about happen to me.
It was sorta like the stars were all aligning with the next one, Daryl “B” ( Burlingham ) decided it was time for him to move on to a larger market so he resigned from CKY to accept a new on air position at CFUN in Vancouver, and went to work for the legendary Red Robinson.
Before Daryl left, he like Chuck also gave me with a wonderful going away gift, Daryl convinced the brass that I should have his Music Director’s title. My fate was now sealed.
Those two special gifts from a couple of very special guys set up a whole new world of opportunity for me and that world of opportunity showed up in the form of yet another “Moment”
The next “Moment” jumped started a whole new exciting life for me and my family that has yet to end. A whole new life that allowed us to live a way beyond any dreams we may have had. But much more on that a little later.
Daryl like Chuck, went on to bigger things such as Jockin’ on CKLW the BIG 8 in Detroit, after he left Vancouver then on to Radio Mecca in Canada, Toronto. In Canada, if you haven’t played Toronto you haven’t played. Daryl played and he played well.
Sadly as I mentioned before, both Chuck and Daryl have passed. I still miss them both. But I still have all the great memories of all the laughs and all the good times we had together, so they both still live on for me.
When I became both Music and Production Director of CKY it turned a part time job into a job full time job, something had to give and it was about to give real soon.
Meanwhile at the same time I was being promoted at the station the band had decided we needed one last shot at the big time and the only way to do that was improve the quality of our recordings, so we booked a session at Kay Bank studios in Minneapolis.
These studios had already produced a few top 10 hits for some other big acts, so maybe it could do the same for us.
What we needed was to record something good enough to get us American release so maybe we could go onto national fame like our band mates, The Guess Who and Neil Young.
The session in Minneapolis produced what was to to be our final record. The session itself was miserable, we had decided to take the train down and as usual somehow when we got together we always drank. By the time we hit the studio we were very hung over and sounded like S**T. But when we heard the first play back through those giant speakers it perked us up and pretty soon out came “Please Forget Her b/w Who Dat” which went on to become our biggest record. In fact it even went on to become the #1 Canadian Record in Canada.
Someone just told me the that they just saw it up on E Bay the other day for well over a hundred bucks. Oh and yes we did get that American release, but alas still no call from Dick Clark, no national fame, just more traveling and feeling a whole lot older at a time when the crowd appeared to be getting a whole lot younger.
I’m not sure if anyone could even come close to imagining what a tumultuous time this was for me. I had just become the Music and Production of CKY in Winnipeg plus had the #1 Canadian record in Canada on the charts. Hey you would think that would be enough excitement for one guy wouldn’t you.
But no! Look out now, here comes that other “Moment” I was writing about earlier. But this moment though was of the breathless moment variety, a moment that calls my bluff and forces me to decide whether I’m a musician, or a radio guy. My Daughter Candis was born.
The real funny thing about Candis’ birth that we both still laugh about was, for the nine months her mother was carrying her I was positive she was carrying around my son. I had his whole life mapped out for him, and wanted to get started on it as soon as we could after his birth.
Can you imagine my total surprise when they presented to me one of the most beautiful things I had ever seen in my life, my daughter. A daughter, are you kidding me … What the hell do you do with them?
Years later at Candis’ wedding I explained to the gathered guests that not only was I in complete shock after being presented with a brand new baby daughter, but even worse, I was without plans for her.
I told them she was a complete surprise to me then and she still is now. Candis who has done many exciting things in her life and made a father very proud many many times, now raises my Grandson Nathaniel. For Nathaniel I have a plan, it’s an old and almost withered up plan, but it’s a plan.
I love and live for breathless moments. I was told years later while studying with the Dean of Walt Disney University that life was really measured by them and if you don’t have them you wont have many memories.
I just wonder how many do you suppose your allocated in a life time. I think I have had more than my fair share because another real big one showed up showed up about fourteen years ago, when my daughter Cami was born.
As I said I live for breathless moments but enough all ready with the daughters. I’m getting tired of them pushing me around, and putting me in my place.
The birth of my first daughter Candis woke me up big time. I wasn’t much more than a kid, and barely able to take care of myself let alone a wife and a brand new baby girl. But I was starting to figure out that my raising a family and playing in a Rock & Roll band was just not coming together for me.
The strange thing that really forced my hand though was surprisingly, the success of our new record. We had also just gotten our American release which we were all very pumped about, but with that also came the pressure from the record company.
The record company wanted us to go on the road to expose the record to a whole new audience and see if we could make it a world wide hit which would get us the national fame we all had been craving.
I thought about this long and hard because I had spent a good portion of my life dreaming about this day. But deep down I knew I was not really a good enough musician to play myself home should the band break up on the road.
I had never dreamed about becoming a great guitar player, I just wanted to play a guitar on stage with a band and if I was lucky enough maybe bring a record out. Hey mission accomplished so I decided to walk away from it forever.
I must tell you, that first Saturday night at home in years was a weird weird feeling, which gave me great pause.
I guess I officially became a radio guy the day I hung up my “58 Strat”. Yep I still have it and the funny thing is, I often think about if the radio business today was anything like that back then would I have still walked away.
Come to think of it there’s nothing like the present, maybe I should just dig out the old Fender and put it in tune I could be Rockin’ and Rollin’ soon.(-: Hey c’mon, Burton, Randy, and Neil are still playing.
Although I had made my decision to be radio guy and was only a couple of months into my new full time radio gig, I was kinda getting buyers remorse. Most of my radio friends had left the station and without them radio seemed pretty boring. Just in the nick of time though wouldn’t you know it, another “Moment” showed up.
One day when I walked into the on air studio to put a new album in the record bin, midday jock George Dawes was on the phone and I heard him say … Thank you so much for the offer but I’m happy in Winnipeg and I want to stay here. When he hung up I said, hey “Doody” what was that all about. He told me that a station in Saskatoon that he had once worked at, was looking for a new PD, and they had offered him the job.
I said, wow I would love to be a PD. “Doody” then said he would call them back and tell them I was interested if I wanted him to. The next thing I knew I was on a plane to Saskatoon for a job interview.
I realized a long time ago that I got that interview mainly because of those two going away gifts I had received from Chuck and Daryl in the form of my two new radio titles.
I knew how to do Production and I knew a little about music, but I knew very little about being a Program Director. When Jimmy Darin was my PD I just carried out the tasks he needed done, but I wasn’t sure what he did and I wished I had paid more attention. The thing I remembered most about Jim was he was a very inspirational guy and the work environment he provided at the station was total fun. I knew for sure that was something I was going to try and bring to my first PD gig.
Luckily I guess, I turned out to be a quick study for the rest of it because becoming the Program Director of CKOM in Saskatoon soon turned my career into a rocket ship.
Getting into programming “full time boogie” I was consumed by radio and never thought much about my band days. But when that new CD showed up with the seven Jury cuts on it a new sense of pride swelled up inside of me as I listened to it, and once again I was very proud of being a member of The Jury
I totally understand what Sir Paul McCartney meant when he recently said, that he is more amazed now by once being a Beatle, than he ever was while he was one.
I have come full circle on this whole issue. I had spent most of my teenage years in high school writing songs and day dreaming about becoming a rock star, instead of learning much and my grades showed it.
I was sure when you had records out the world would become your oyster. I couldn’t figure out what school and being a Rock Star had in common with each other, but after years and years of practicing and playing I woke up one day and said, this sure isn’t what I was dreamin’ about. So I put all my energy into radio and forgot about the band
But now as I drove along listening to the new CD, “Buried Treasures” I cant help but wonder how many of the people driving beside me are listening to a new CD with seven of their tunes on it.
The Condo complex I live in must have at least thousand folks living in it in, how many of them do you suppose ever had a record out.
Once having a record out is now a special thing with me again after all these years. My daughter Candis who lives in the record star land of LA says she never runs into anybody that ever had a record out.
But now I’m so over the top about it all, that I’m converting one of the rooms in my condo in West Palm Beach into a music room. I have framed all my old 45′s and I’m in the midst of hanging them, along with a bunch of pictures and memorabilia I still have. Can you say obsessive.
Hell If nothing else I figure doing this will give the folks from up north something to stare at while they are visiting when the snow flies in the Motherland. They may cut short their stay though when they figure out they have to hear the hours and hours of stories that go with all that stuff hanging there.
Here’s to Chuck Dann,(Riley) Daryl “B”, Mark Parr and Jimmy Darin,(Hilliard) four great Winnipeg Dee Jays who all went on to bigger and better things and left me behind with some very high standards to live up to. But they were also kind enough to leave behind some great left overs, big left overs that I soon used to jump start a great life for a kid from Transcona.
I had no idea that as good as I thought I had it back then that I was really only in Kindergarten. As time started picking up speed, It turned out that Jimmy Darin who had done so much for me in my early days by giving me enough rope to succeed or hang myself, hadn’t really even started with me yet. Turns out he had a lot more rope waiting waiting for me.
I’ll need a few adult beverages before I can get in to all of that though.
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George A. Johns
office 954 315 1509
cell 954 868 6759
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