CJAD RADIO, MONTREAL - THEN AND NOW

 

The day before CJAD opened for the first time at 1191 Mountain Street in Montreal, their first engineer, a dear man named Lloyd Sharkey invited my father - George Rubin of Metropolitan News on Peel Street - and me to tour the station.

 

At the beginning, CJAD was a valued part of the community. As teenagers, we attended Club 800 and, through my family's store and our visits to the station, we came to know Bob Harvie, George Bishop, Alan Cauley, Wally Dunk and Don Cameron, original members of the CJAD staff.

 

Those were the days when CJAD's personalities treated the audience with respect and appreciation - even the teenagers. The after school program, Club 800, hosted by Bob Harvie and George Bishop, played the popular records of the day for a live audience and members of the audience were treated to Toni Home Permanent kits and Kitten sweaters as a bonus. But the most important thing was that we were treated with respect and appreciation.

 

In the 1970's and 1980's, I appeared on CJAD live in studio with John Oakley, Dave Patrick, Chris Mota and other hosts and even co-hosted a couple of talk shows, giving advice to callers. And my husband, Cliff Carter - Mr. Nostalgia of RCA Records - and I were always treated with respect and appreciation by all the hosts we met at CJAD.

 

Over the years when I was very active in politics and was a working journalist, I often called in to the talk shows, and I was treated with respect. Then, some time in the 1990's something drastic changed at CJAD.

 

Perhaps taking a page from CKGM's Pat Burns - smart aleck young hosts at CJAD were now speaking with contempt to and about callers. And still - as was evidenced in Pat Burns' case, people just kept calling anyway. Some virtually begging the hosts to humiliate them.

 

When Pat Burns left Montreal, a huge crowd - almost all women - gathered at Victoria Hall in Westmount to fawn over him and tell him how they appreciated his putting them in their place. It is shocking to see how so many people display masochistic behaviour. Hit me again, Pat Burns. I deserve it. Well, apparently CJAD's management thought there was something to be gained by having their own hosts emulate Pat Burns.

When I saw how callers were being insulted and cut off by CJAD's talk show hosts in the 1990's, I promised myself I would stop listening to CJAD. It was a hard habit to break, but I have never listened to CJAD since then. From what others tell me, the practice of putting down the callers continues, and the callers keep begging for more.

 

In recent years, writing my blogs and on Facebook, I decided to include CJAD Radio among my contacts. I have ended that now.

For the background of this report, see -

 

THE PARABLE OF THE SOWER
http://phylliscartersjournal.blogspot.com/2011/01/parable-of-sower.html

 

THE POWER OF THE MEDIA OVER THE PUBLIC - CJAD TALK RADIO MONTREAL
http://phylliscartersjournal.blogspot.com/2011/01/power-of-media-over-public-cjad-talk.html