Canuck torture?

She took 8 years off from touring, but according to her web site she's back on the road and has a new album coming out.

And she's still smokin' hot.

http://www.alannahmyles.com/alannahmyles.htm

 

I remember that song, JJ. You're right, once in a while AM radio, whether it was CFTR, CHUM or CKCO did break free and play what it wanted in those days.

That approach was taken to an extreme on FM by CFNY, which in its earliest days in Brampton had no playlist and no format and they always boasted you'd never hear a song twice in a 24-hour period. You could hear anything at any time. You could walk in off the street and request something and it would be played a short time later. I once called up - half cut - and requested Hendrix, Sinatra and the Sex Pistols and they played it. They played stuff like Elvis Costello, the Clash, Stranglers, Jam and all kinds of other stuff nobody else would touch at that time. It was the greatest radio station anywhere.

But those days are long gone. It's been Radio Corporate for several years now.

 

"Gaslight" is a great old Canuck rocker. David Clayton-Thomas's voice is an acquired tatse IMO.

 

I agree if you're talking about his BS&T output. Dreck, dreck, dreck. Did I mention it was dreck?

But when he was singing R&B-flavoured rock in Toronto in the '60s, stuff like the two songs I mentioned above, he absolutely wailed. The wildness of Ronnie Hawkins combined with the range of Burton Cummings is the best way I can describe it.

 

Funny, that's how I would have described the great Nazi Dog, lead singer of Toronto's legendary Viletones.

 

I used to work at the Nevada Bob's down the road from the old CFNY studio. "Humble" Howard Glassman fancied himself a golfer and would run down to our store during news breaks to drop off his clubs to get regripped or reweighted or whatever the fuck, just in time for his seemingly daily afternoon teeoff. Seems strange, but he had the morning drive shift and our store was obviously closed when he'd get in in the morning.

So one day, I didn't get his clubs done in time for his round that afternoon. He lost it on me. I distinctly remember hearing the words "Do you know who I am?" when I was receiving my dressing-down.

And then he bitched about it on the air the next morning. I was honoured.

 

Apparently, for all my listening to CFTR and CHOG (The Hog!) in the late '80s and '90s, I wasn't listening to enough Toronto radio to give me even the slightest hint as to who the fuck Howard Glassman is.

Then again, we couldn't get the FM stations up here back then and the only way we get them now is on satellite TV, so I never had the opportunity to tune in CFNY. Did I miss anything?

 

This was back in 1995, when their morning team was "Humble and Fred" (Humble Howard Glassman and Fred Patterson). Actually yeah, you did miss something. They had a good run from 1993-97 (they tried to copy Stern when Q107 picked him up in '97, and then they started to suck). They were edgy and funny, something they lost when they went elsewhere.

And I've heard that the reason that Humble Howard is no longer Ed The Sock's sidekick on CITY-TV is also temper-related. Apparently he had an audience member pinned up against the wall in the studio during a commercial break, because the guy was heckling him or something.

And when AM640 was The Hog, they had a great slogan.  Remember it?





























"Everybody sucks but us."

 

I do remember. I also remember this particular voicer coming out of a commercial and back to the music:

"Waiting for New Kids? (pause) Keep waiting! 640! (snort-snort-snort) The Hog!"

My little sister's rage-filled reactions to those voicers, though, were nothing compared to those of my parents the day The Hog signed on the air and replaced CFGM, the longtime country station. They weren't aware the format was changing until it was too late -- I can't remember the song that greeted them when they clicked the radio on that morning but I think it was by the Crue, who were flying high off the "Dr. Feelgood" album at the time.

The parental units were puzzled at first and then, as the realization sank in, became monumentally pissed off. It was classic funny shit.

 

I'm talking about 'NY long before Humble Howard, who was shit, and Freddie P (a good Brampton guy). Back in the days of Dave Marsden, the All Night Andre, Live Earl Jive and Pete and Geets.

Wow, The Hog, there's one from the past. How long did that last? Six months?

 

Oh, I know.  I recognize your appreciation widely outspans mine.  I kinda remember those days, definitely remember Pete and Geets.  I also remember AM790 CKMW, who was a sister station I believe, and who sponsored Sea Bass' baseball team in Squirt.