Rock Radio Scrapbook

AIRCHECK OF THE WEEK
For week of October 25, 2009
Weekly issue #552

Talent: RED ROBINSON with TEEN CANTEEN 54-84
Station: CKNX Vancouver
Date: November 8, 1984
Time: 25:36

"We were all kids having fun." - Red Robinson

Bill Haley recorded "Rock Around the Clock". Elvis Presley got radio airplay for the first time. It was 1954, rock 'n' roll had arrived and so had Red Robinson.

Born Robert Gordon Robinson in Comox, B.C., March 30, 1937, the person we know as Red Robinson got the radio bug early. In 1952, he phoned CJOR deejay Al Jordan on the air with a Jimmy Stewart impression, then followed that a week later with a Humphrey Bogart imitation. Impressed by his enthusiasm, Jordan invited the young Robinson to write scripts and do some production for his show. One day, CJOR program director Vic Waters asked Robinson if he wanted to go on the air. Waters says the young deejay-to-be "leaped across the control room, sat down and ... never looked back." On November 12, 1954, Robinson opened his first CJOR air shift with "Marie" by the Four Tunes.

Before long Robinson was commanding killer ratings at CJOR - a 52 share at one point - as the first deejay to play rock 'n' roll on a regular basis in Canada. He did three shows a day for the princely sum of $35 a week. In 1957 - lured by a $22,000 a year offer - he moved to Vancouver Top 40 giant CKWX. Robinson then went stateside in 1959 to KGW Portland, Ore., where he also did TV for the first time at KGW-TV. Robinson did a six-month stint in the U.S. Army before returning to Vancouver in 1961 at CKWX. From 1962 to 1967, he was program director at CFUN, which he turned it into one of Canada's leading Top 40 stations.

While at CFUN, Robinson got to introduce the Beatles in 1964 on the very Empire Stadium stage where he had MC'ed Elvis Presley's Vancouver appearance seven years earlier. From 1963 to 1966, he also hosted CBC-TV's "Let's Go", which featured some of Canada's best popular music acts.

Robinson returned to CJOR in 1968 as operations manager and in 1969 founded Trend Advertising (later Palmer Jarvis Advertising.) He made another return, to CKWX, where he did mornings until 1983 and also did an oldies show called Teen Diner 54-84 in 1984. Returning to the small screen, he hosted the CBC program "Trivia" in 1979-80.

From 1985 to 1993, Robinson was heard across Canada via the syndicated oldies show "Reunion". He returned to television again in 1989, hosting "Red's Classic Theatre" on KVOS-TV Bellingham, Wash., until 2001.

Robinson's final weekday radio gig was morning drive at Vancouver's CISL from 1993 until his "retirement" in 2000. From 2001 to 2007, he hosted the weekly oldies show "Red Rock Diner" on CISL. In 2007, he moved "Red Rock Diner" to CKCL Vancouver where for the first time in his 50-year-plus career he was on the FM dial.

Robinson's many honours include being named to the CAB Hall of Fame in 1997 and also being included in the deejay section of the Rock 'N' Roll Hall of Fame. He was the second inductee to the Record Magazine's Broadcaster Hall of Fame in 1991. In 2000, Robinson was named to the Rockabilly Hall of Fame.

Robinson wrapped his third, and last, stint at CKWX in November, 1984 with his oldies show Teen Canteen 54-84. In fact, he did his last Teen Canteen show on November 12, 1984 - the 30th anniversary of his first-ever show at CJOR. This aircheck is from four days before.

Hear the legendary Red Robinson here.

(Courtesy Ted Wendland/radiowest.ca)

Be sure to visit radiowest.ca, a superb radio site hosted by Ted Wendland. Airchecks, jingles, photos, logos, history and forums - radiowest.ca has it all. Rock Radio Scrapbook thanks Ted for sharing this aircheck.

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