CKNW Editorial
for April 14, 2000

I thought that since today’s program will be taken up with last night’s roast, a bit of reminiscing would not be amiss. I’m in my 20^th year of broadcasting now, over 15 of that with CKNW. What I often have trouble remembering is that many listeners don’t recall the days I was in government for the very good reason that they weren’t even born yet … well I was in the Bill Bennett government, holding down several portfolios … leaving in the beginning of 1981 to take the late Pat Burns morning show at what was then CJOR … I did so because Jack Webster recommended me, as yet unheard, to Jimmy Pattison. Burns, which shows the class of CJOR then, heard he was being replaced on a newscast broadcast during his show … yet minutes before I was to go on air he called me up and, in the old show biz parlance said "break a leg, kid" … Pat was indeed a class act as was Jack. Webster took me to lunch before I got started – I paid, naturally - and gave me some advice amongst which was the invaluable observation that the very best of broadcasters can have a panicky loss of memory and thus to have the name of the person I was interviewing written down in front of you. Even if it’s your mother, have "Mom" on a note by your mike, he said..

I remember the terrible anguish on getting second prize in contract negotiations with CJOR in late April 1984. I was not only broke, I was enormously in debt. I had watched the value of my house, bought at the very top of the market in February, drop below the amount of the mortgage. And I’ll never forget the next half dozen years paying off huge debts in order to avoid bankruptcy. And that wouldn’t have happened without CKNW hiring me at about ½ I was earning at CJOR.

I remember that midnight show … Nightline B.C. from midnight til 2:00AM and the fun it was … I especially remember the time I did a sexual trivia game. Now I’m no good with the kill button that deletes naughty words. I can never remember whether I hit the button and hold it for six seconds, wait six seconds then hit the button … or what. I know what to do now … it’s in the panic of the "f" word I have trouble. Well the segment went swimmingly with everyone having a good time and nothing more than the mildly risque being said. Then about 1:45 a guy said "blow job" – since Bill Clinton this phrase it’s left the proscribed list – and I knew I had to hit that button … and in due course I did. The next morning Doug Rutherford, then our program director, phoned me up to tell me how much he enjoyed the show … then he asked, what was it you bleeped out? Why do you ask, I said … because, said Doug, what come out was bleep, bleep, bleep, bleep "blow job".

It’s funny but I will have a hard time remembering today’s show when I get home … so much of what I’ve done is below the first layer of memory. And that’s because you must concentrate so hard on what you’re doing … especially if, as in my case, most of it is off the top of your head aided only by a couple of notes. But I remember three interviews as if they were yesterday.

I remember Mike Harcourt, then Premier, during the run-up to the Charlottetown Referendum. I liked Mike then and I like him now but he would have to admit that he really wasn’t up to speed on that file. Mike was the very best I ever saw at running out the clock so I suggested that day he go for two hours, not the customary hour, so I could let the audience have at him. Mike got by the first hour and then the audience went at him. It was so bad that both Ken Georgetti and Jack Munro phoned my producer and begged that we get him the "bleep’ off of there because he was being killed. Except they didn’t say "bleep". I always thought that this was the beginning of the end for Mike because he had not stood up for BC and was unable to defend himself.

The second memory, also from that time, was with Joe Clark who Brian Mulroney had put in charge of the Constitutional file then back-doored him with a last minute deal with Premier Bourassa of Quebec. Joe was a whipped man … his face was flushed and his hands shook uncontrollably. I truly felt sorry for him because I liked him. And this interview spawned about as silly an exchange as I’ve ever heard and it played for days around the country. I said to Joe … if Charlottetown passes there is no way British Columbia will ever see any of her proposed changes to the constitution pass unless, like Quebec, she threatens to secede. Then came the brilliant exchange. "Rafe, you’re wrong, wrong, wrong" said Joe to which I snappily replied "I’m right, right, right."

The third interview I remember very well was a debate I arranged between Bill Rich, then a vice president of Alcan, and Ben Meisner, then and now a very popular talk show host in Prince George. Until that moment, I had been neutral on the Kemano Completion Project. After the interview was over and I heard the cool, carefully prepared spin Rich put on things, the bottom line of which seemed to me was the less water for the fish the better they’ll like it and the passionate, often fact short but emotion full arguments of Ben. From that moment on I decided to get the hard facts. I did, the project was tubed and the show was awarded the most prestigious media award in the country, the Michener.

My favourite person to interview? No question, Kim Campbell but followed very closely by Ken Georgetti.

The best thing to happen to me? Easy … the arrival on the scene of Carolyn Haarer (who's now living in Georgia), Shiral Tobin and Ali Hounsell who saw the wisdom of not fighting or trying to minimize whatever I was passionate about and editorializing on … but playing to it and using the editorial not as an adjunct to the program but an integral part of it.

There is a lot more I could say but there isn’t time … perhaps another day. Let me close by saying how privileged I’ve been to work at CKNW and I say that in spite of many very passionate and all holds barred fights. They have always stood behind me and that hasn’t always been easy. But they have made me the luckiest man in the world because unlike so many people, I actually look forward to Monday morning. And no … I’m not retiring. I have 2 1/2 years to go on my contract and, God willing, I’ll see that out and hopefully, again God willing, then some.