At 35,000 Feet With George Johns
As I write this I am flying at about 35,000 ft. on my way to a client meeting in San Francisco. I’m kinda just sitting here all relaxed, having a glass of red wine and marveling at the fact that I can check my e mails, watch a football game and write this piece on my lap top, as I wing my way from the Atlantic to the Pacific.
Travel it seems has always been involved in the the way I make my living. Back in my early days traveling with The Jury, we were touring in cars dragging trailers filled with gear behind us. Now I’m flying along almost at the speed of sound with all the gear I need in my head.
Speaking of traveling I hate to think about it but I have flown over two million miles on American Airlines alone, not to mention probably the same amount on all the others while I’ve been doing this thing called radio.
As I fly west through the darkened skies, I can’t help but peer out at the blackness and wonder about how this all came to be.
I guess the story really begins at the end, by that I mean the end of my band days. Strangely enough I started to feel like maybe it was time to move on just about the time we had the # 1 Canadian record in Canada.
But shortly before having that #1 record, a couple of very exciting things were in motion that I had little control or knowledge of. These events though turned out big enough to cause me to start thinking … Maybe it was time to give up the dream and hang up my guitar.
The first exciting things that happened was I got promoted at CKY to Music Director and Production Director almost simultaneously. These promotions took me from a part time day job, to a full time career job.
The next life changing event occurred not too long after, it was the birth of my Daughter Candis. Candis’ arrival in my world was possibly even more exciting than my hearing The Jury’s first record played on the radio for the first time. I must admit though the thrill of her birth has been much longer lasting.
During the time my wife Lana was carrying Candis, I was wrestling around with the fact that I just couldn’t see myself raising a family with the limited amount of musical skills I possessed. I had put years and years into the band, but now I was going through a few changes mentally and I needed to deal with that soon.
Everything seemed to be happening all at the same time, as the promotions at the radio station were being offered to me our record company was also pressuring us to go on an extended tour. I knew I couldn’t do both so it was choose time.
I chose the one that I believed had some sort of future to it and maybe even some stability. What was I thinking, right? But nevertheless, that was the day I put my guitar down for good and gave up on the dream. I became a full time radio guy, which I have been ever since.
As I had written earlier, the beauty of having both titles led quickly to me getting a job offer to become the new Program Director of CKOM in Saskatoon.
So there I was about six months after Candis’ birth, loading my baby girl, her mother and a few essential items into the car for our long cold drive to Saskatoon for the beginning our new future.
Taking the PD’s job at CKOM was a excellent career opportunity for me. But I have to admit it was also very scary. We were leaving family, friends, and our hometown for the complete unknown.
I sure wasn’t very popular guy with either of the two sets of Grandparents while making this career move. I was taking away their first grandchild, the one they all had been waiting a long time for.
I knew any small hopes I may have had about becoming son of the year, son in law of the year, husband of the year, or father of the year were definitely out the window with this new adventure of mine and what a long adventure it turned out to be.
The scariest thing about this first move was, I really wasn’t sure what the day to day details of being a Program Director’s were or even what they really did.
The only PD’s I had ever known were Jimmy Darin my first, and for a short while his successor, Bill Grogan.
Bill and Jim each ran things a lot differently, and seeing as I had no way yet, I thought the best thing I could do would be to try and emulate Jim’s style
The way Jim did it seemed to produce a bunch of wins for the station, not to mention we sure had a bunch of fun too as we were doing it.
Oh and did I mention that because we were having so much fun a few of us worked more hours than we ever got paid for.
Come to think of it I still work a couple of projects for Jim even now, and I still work more hours than I get paid for. How does he do it. (-:
The real truth to it was back then it was a lot more fun to hang out at the station than any place, so that’s what we did. I wonder how many radio stations today have a bunch of radio types hanging around, long after their shift is over.
When I got my my first PD shot I decided that was the kind of work environment I would try to create.
When I worked for Jim as a pup, It didn’t take me very long to figure out that he spent most of his time thinking about how to get more people to listen to the radio.
He always did big promotions and those promotions always caused talk. He also always had very colorful characters on the air. That all got so ingrained in me that to this day I cant think of a better way of doing it
Of course more people listening to the radio resulted in more ratings. More ratings led to fancy cars, fancy clothes, and big homes, Jim has always had more than his fair share of all that, and I sure needed me some.
My short term goal was to figure out how to get ratings as quickly as possible. I needed ratings quickly in order to achieve my long term goal, which was to get a job offer to return home to Winnipeg as a Program Director and live happily ever after.
But of course deep down what I really lusted after was to become the Program Director back at CKY, the station where making records and making radio had all started for me.
When I was growing up I always spent a lot of time just dreaming about becoming somebody. Trying to be somebody probably was the driving force behind a lot of things I did.
I played most sports and was pretty decent at them, but I wasn’t very big, so I turned to music and started a band.
The band thing was very very exciting, there is nothing that feels like the feeling you get when your on stage performing. During my youth I spent most of my waking hours just wondering about stardom and how really good that must feel.
One of my fondest memories is Rolly (Termite) and me, plus a few of the other band members toasting each other and shouting … “Lets get drunk and be somebody” as we downed our CC and Cokes and headed back to the stage for another set.
But eventually as fun as it was the band thing started to stall, and to make things worse I really didn’t feel like I was anybody yet. Besides that, doing the band thing wasn’t even coming close to satisfying all the pent up drive left in me.
So I had turned to radio, I figured if I ever was good enough to become the Program Director of CKY in Winnipeg, then I would definitely be somebody. Right ???
How was I to know as we drove through that frigid prairie night towards the future that we would never live in Winnipeg again. Hello Saskatoon, hello new beginning.
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George A. Johns
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