HomeMy WebLinkAboutVillage Squire, 1980-01, Page 5i
If you attend a community concert someday and see a bearded
man wearing earphones sitting at the front of the building with
his eyes closed, there's a good possibility you're part of a radio
broadcast in the making.
The man, more likely. than not will be Gary Moon of CKNX's
radio's FM outlet FM 102 and he's trying to carry on the
tradition of community program with the newest member of the
CKNX family that Doc Cruikshank started many years ago.
The man with the earphones and the eyes closed (he tapes
concerts with his eyes closed because it helps him relate to how
the audience will hear the concert when it's broadcast over the
radio) has been seen at a lot of events in the last couple of
months because the pre -Christmas period was a busy time. In
the weeks preceeding the holiday Gary Moon spent hours
attending and recording several community concerts, as well as
programs featuring five public school and 7 high school choirs
throughout the region. It then took many more hours to edit the
tapes of the sometimes Tess than tightly organized concerts into
professional -sounding radio programs.
Why all this effort for what becomes only a few hours of radio
time in the long run? It certainly isn't for the money because
Gary Moon doesn't get paid for his work at anything like his full
worth for the time he spends taping and preparing the shows. It
isn't because the station is saving money because even with the
donation of the talent by the community performers and the cost
of travel, editing time and tape can mean a one hour concert will
cost 5100 to broadcast. That's far more than it would cost to have
a disc jockey spin records for an hour and far more work and
trouble.
Yet both Gary Moon and FM 102 which he serves as program
co-ordinator continue to do community program because they
feel the need to get the community involved. They are also
"encouraged" on this road by the Canadian Radio -Television
and Telecommunications Commission, the regulatory body of
Canadian broadcasting which is promoting more community
involvement by all radio and television stations in the country.
The fact remains, however. that despite this official
"encouragement". few stations are doing as much in the area as
CKNX.
The long tradition of involvement in the community goes back
to the early days of the station when it was led by "Doc"
Cruikshank who at one time had three bands employed full time
at the station providing live music on the radio and playing to
dances throughout the region in the evenings. It was the days
before recorded music made up a major portion of the broadcast
day. the days when stations produced a large portion of their own
programming. Later television revolutionized radio programm-
ing, killing the old radio drama and variety programs in favour of
radio that could be listened to in the car on the way to work or on
the transistor radio taken anywhere. It was music, music, music
with news and information thrown in. Local programming except
for news, was dead.
Local programming never quite died at CKNX though it was
sadly reduced. Even today with the upsurge in activity especially
on FM 102, local programming still makes up a small percentage
of the air time in a 19 hour day broadcast. But the effort is still
made at the Wingham station to put local talent on the air while
many larger, richer stations stick to the inexpensive records.
Much of the credit for the amount of local programming that
does get on the air at the station goes to Gary Moon although a
fair share must also be apportioned to his superiors who back
him in his attempts when there is no economic advantage to be
gained. The reason he's at FM 102 and hasn't moved on to a
bigger station he says is that the station is doing the kind of radio
he wants to do.
Gary should certainly be tuned in to that kind of radio since he
grew up in the area served by CKNX. Born in Owen Sound, he
moved in his late public school years to Listowel where he still
lives. During his high school years he was interested in music,
not the hard rock kind but choral music and was a member of the
award-winning Listowel District Secondary School Choir that
toured Ireland several years ago.
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January 1980, Village Squire 3