AFFLUENCE¢

Red Robinson on rock,
radio and Marilyn Baker

Why did you leave radio in 19592:
**} went to work for King Broad-
casting in Seattle to do an after-
noon T.V. show called Portland
Bandstand. | wanted T.V. experi-
ence, and you couldn’t get it in
Canada unless you were a CBC
annourcer.”’

Why did you come back to Van-
couver?: ‘Il came back and worked
as program director for CFUN and
made it a 24-hour top-40 station.
Where there was one Red, there
were soon seven deejays — I hired
Fred Latrimouille, Terry David
Mulligan. Those were great years,
right up until 1968. Then I started
to lose it. I was getting too old for
that kind of stuff, and I wasn’t in-
to the wild stuff like Jimi Hendrix.
I started an ad agency in 1967, but
1 never left radio. | worked for
CJOR as a program director and
did a morning radio show for
CKWxX for 12% years.”

Would you ever considcr going
back to radio full-time?: ‘‘Not on
your life. 1 paid my dues. I got up
at four a.m. every day for 12%
years. It blows your social life to
smithereens.”

On the future of rock and roll:
“All of us would like to know
where it’s going. Record sales in
Canada and the U.S. are down 35
per cent. It’s not a homogencus
society any more. The top 40 used
to be everybody’s top 40 but now
you’ve got heavy metal in one cor-
ner, club music in another corner,
country, in another, the Bryan
Adams and the Rod Stewarts in
another. I think this new genera-
tion is looking for something they
can call their own. Rock and roll is

in a rut. We don’t have lyrics and
melody anymore, as Bruce Allen
would say. I think we're looking
for that and that’s what we’re go-
ing to see in the '90s.”’

Red and Buddy Holly in 1957.

On ithe death of vinyl: ‘‘Let’s face
it, the technology of CDs is
unbelievable. The criticism I have
is the music business is so damn
arrogant that they forced it on the
public. They should have brought
it in over @ period of time. There
are approximately 2'% million
turntables in Canada and they’re
going to blow them out the back
door for CD players?”’

On “classic rock’: ‘‘When I
started playing rock and roll 1 was
part of the biggest bubble ever in
the history of the demographic
scale of youth. Today teenagers

and master of none. But I had fun.”’

ate the lowest on the demographic
scale with the least disposable in-
come and so the radios are playing
to where the biggest demographics
are — my generation, all the baby
boomers.”

What major changes in the radio
business have you seen?: ‘‘For the
radio and record business, times
have changed for the worse. The
accountants took over the record
and radio business and everything
became bottom line and they
forgot what business they were in
—— show business. But I see that
changing in the ’90s.

“We've got 21 signals in the
Lower Mainland. When you’ve got

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21 - Sunday, May 6, 1990 - North Shore News

2INFLUENCE

ts

FORMER KING of the focal deejays, Red Robinson says of his iltustrious career: “I've b

that many stations competing for
1.45 million people somebody’s
got to take a risk because they’re
going to go broke. So far it’s been
follow the leader. In the last year-
and-a-half we’ve lost CJOR as the
top station, we've lost CKO as an
information talk station. So
CKNW is sitting there with the on-
y game in town for what they
0.

You've done a lot of charity work.
Why?: ‘I’m a sucker for charities
because I'll go anywhere for kids.
My own boy has Crohn’s Disease,
has had for nine years. You can’t
help but feel great empathy fer
other kids.””

1375 MARINE DRIVE, NORTH VANCOUVER 984-9701

NEWS photo Mike Wakefield
een a jack of all trades

On politics: “I’m apolitical. I
don’t like the politics in B.C. and I
would never, never get involved. I
have no causes and I don’t want
any causes. I did help (North Van-
couver District) Mayor Marilyn
Baker with her campaign, and I
would do it again because I love
Marilyn Baker. She’s a terrific
mayeor.”’

Oa living in B.C.: “I think the
slogan for B.C. residents should be
‘Lighten Up.”’

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