1 of 1- RadioActive
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Were These The Only Two Spots That Ran Overnight In T.O. Radio?
If not, they sure seemed like it. I remember working a number of overnight shifts in the mid-80s subbing for someone on vacation and it seemed like the only spots that ever got played, hour after hour after hour, were for Knob Hill Farms (The Food Terminal), and a come-on for Bowlerama (which had some locations open 24 hours in case you felt the need for a gutter ball at 4 AM.)
As both the occasional late night worker and a frequent late night listener, these two sponsors used to drive me crazy. Both commercials were endlessly boring (with an announcer droning on and on about the specials on cabbage at Knob Hill and another extolling the virtues of group midnight kegling, which definitely was not up my "alley.")
But looking back now, I suppose we all should have been grateful for them because they kept the radio stations in business after midnight, when nobody else was paying the bills. (Although I'll always contend any grocery store that sells food should never have the word "Terminal" in its copy!)
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Re: Were These The Only Two Spots That Ran Overnight In T.O. Radio?
Potatoes the same price as poinsettias?
what?
I actually liked bowling.
When I first came to Toronto in 1981 there was a place downtown called the Terraces.
It had both ice skating and roller skating... and bowling.
I did them all with friends and it was great fun.
Or maybe that just shows what a boring life I had at the time.
I've worked a lot of overnights in my time and I did not really listen to the radio because I was in radio.
But we overnight nerds did watch TV and I remember the main commercials were Crazy Joe's furniture and old TV shows shown on, I believe CHCH.
When I got home I used to lull myself to sleep watching that strange mesmerizing show in CITY TV, Night Drive.
It was a gyro camera on top of a car that just drove around empty overnight Toronto streets with soft music in the background.
- Radiowiz
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Re: Were These The Only Two Spots That Ran Overnight In T.O. Radio?
Wow, when looking that far back, I CLEARLY remember also hearing the Bay jingles of that time on the radio. "It's hard not to think of the BAY"
Last edited by Radiowiz (July 14, 2024 11:41 pm)
RadioWiz & RadioQuiz are NOT the same person.
RadioWiz & THE Wiz are NOT the same person.
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My first few days at CJKL they turned the transmitter on so I could learn the board and format overnight from midnight to 6. There was only one commercial for R&M Furniture and it ran 6 times an hour. 36 of one read. "Those were the days!"
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Re: Were These The Only Two Spots That Ran Overnight In T.O. Radio?
newsguy1 wrote:
When I got home I used to lull myself to sleep watching that strange mesmerizing show in CITY TV, Night Drive.
It was a gyro camera on top of a car that just drove around empty overnight Toronto streets with soft music in the background.
The "Night" series (Night Ride, Night Walk and Night Moves) was actually a Global thing from 1986, and Global aired the shows almost nightly until about 1993. Steadicam shots around Toronto, and some of the footage was shown in reverse slow motion... not likely that insomniacs would really notice. 
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Thread Starter- pinto
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Re: Were These The Only Two Spots That Ran Overnight In T.O. Radio?
Hated voicing those Knob Hill spots!!
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Yeah, I always pitied the guy who had to read that horrible copy about potatoes for 50 cents and toilet tissue just $2! It doesn't matter how good you are on air, you just couldn't make that interesting. When I was at CKEY, I knew the guy who voiced those commercials. He absolutely hated reading that dreck! But pro that he was, he did it as best as he could.
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Thread Starter- mace
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Re: Were These The Only Two Spots That Ran Overnight In T.O. Radio?
I cringe everytime I hear the Food Basics "Wowza More for Less" guy.
- Radiowiz
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I cringe everytime I hear the Food Basics "Wowza More for Less" guy.
Feelings mutual. The TV ads are not any better.
Do they even know that the orange juice looks like it's on a regular shelf instead of being in a proper cooler? 
Not just that, but it only looked good when the actual orange juice was on sale.
Now at regular price, there is nothing wowza about it.
They should only show actual wowza things for the particular week in their ads & show a price for each item.
Showing people stocking up on things that are greatly OVER PRICED is beyond stupid.
Last edited by Radiowiz (July 15, 2024 8:22 am)
RadioWiz & RadioQuiz are NOT the same person.
RadioWiz & THE Wiz are NOT the same person.
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Re: Were These The Only Two Spots That Ran Overnight In T.O. Radio?
Sometimes the copy for a spot is so ridiculous, an announcer can't quite get through it. I found this in my archives from the long defunct CKEY in Toronto around 1977.
The announcer - whose name I can't recall it's been so long - was a real pro, but he was given an idiotic message to read about a local mall. And try as he might, he just couldn't get over what he was supposed to read. Fortunately, this was in a production studio and not on air or you can imagine the reaction.
This was the result.
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Thread Starter- newsguy1
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Re: Were These The Only Two Spots That Ran Overnight In T.O. Radio?
I wonder if the sponsors knew that the word Putz is Yiddish for penis?
The announcer guy seemed to know since he broke up after he read the line.
There are a lot of Yiddish words that non speakers use casually not realizing some of the meanings are quite vulgar.
Shmuck is another -- it too means penis.
Also Shtup, which means to have sex.
Madeline Kahn's character in "Blazing Saddles" was a prostitute named Lilly Von Shtup.