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The Man Behind Cancon Tells His Story
FYImyusicnews.ca pointed out an old story from 2014 that I'd never seen before. It's about Stan Klees, one of two men who led the charge for the Cancon rules many of us have come to decry over the years.
But in this fascinating yarn about how they got the CRTC to issue the edict, the guy who started RPM Magazine and created the now infamous MAPL logo, explains why he fought so hard for the regs, how he helped a group that his publication originally called "The Guess Whos," the part legendary radioman George "Hound Dog" Lorenz from Buffalo played in the drama, and why he sued CHUM's Bob McAdorey for libel over something that was printed in the Toronto Telegram.
“This was ‘get rid of Stan, the poster boy of Canadian content,’” says Klees. “(Bob McAdorey) said ‘I’d gladly play a Stan Klees production, unfortunately they put out an unbelievably inferior product’—that’s the libel. Actually, the quote was ‘shitty product,’ but The Telegram didn’t use the word shitty.”
I'm still against the existing Cancon rules that helped kill CKLW and contributed to the overall blandness of Canadian radio in the 70s (although I will acknowledge that it mostly succeeded in what it set out to do) but the story behind it is one I never knew and it's worth a read to learn the history behind how we got here.
Stan Klees: The Man Behind Cancon and Why It Had to Happen
- splunge
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Re: The Man Behind Cancon Tells His Story
very interesting read. thanks for the post! 
- mike marshall
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Last edited by mike marshall (May 8, 2018 3:57 pm)
- mike marshall
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Credit for the above goes to Gordon Skutle's CJCA Radio Scrapbook.
If I have all my ducks in a row, I was still doing afternoon drive at Radio 93. Teem, the soft drink, had a
4-8pm override. At this point, Shakin' All Over had already been a hit in Edmonton and it was general knowledge that the Guess Whos were, in fact, Chad Allan and the Expressions. The jocks emceed...there were 3 shows a night through the week. All were well attended.
There was no hesitation when it came to giving airplay to the Canadian bands. It seemed like there were hundreds of them in Edmonton alone. On a Friday or Saturday night, you were never far from a dance venue with great "live" music. The top Edmonton bands not only played locally, they travelled to neighbouring locales and provinces.
I can only remember doing one record hop, when I first arrived in Big E. For the most part, the jocks worked with bands. A fair number of those bands eventually found their way to Clovis and the Petty studio.. They came back with more Cancon, years before it was legislated.
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Re: The Man Behind Cancon Tells His Story
Wow, what a great addendum to the Cancon story from someone who was there in those days. Thanks, Mike!
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Thread Starter- mike marshall
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Thanks, RA. My pleasure, then and today. The next time we saw The Guess Who was when they, fleshed out, came to see us at CKLW with their next hit, These Eyes, in 1969. We were delighted.
- Fitz
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I saved quite a few of the RPM magazines that I began collecting in my teens and here's some scans. The first two are of the RPM charts pre and post the Cancon regs and you can see the rise in the MAPL's as the reg took hold. The other scans are from an article about Larry Green and a mention of the CRTC FM regs. ( hope the scans are not too big)
Last edited by Fitz (May 8, 2018 11:19 pm)
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- the original hank
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Re: The Man Behind Cancon Tells His Story
rpm... the magazine that was read from back to front.
- Fitz
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the original hank wrote:
rpm... the magazine that was read from back to front.
I don't remember that at least not on the issues that I have which range from 1970 to 1975. Just discovered that the Canadian government maintains a data base of all RPM published charts
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Re: The Man Behind Cancon Tells His Story
Actually, the most interesting part of the RPM stuff to me may be unintended. It's on the bottom right of the very last scan and it talks about a CBC special on David Marsden, promising an inside look at his "highly rated CHUM-FM evening show." It appears to be from a Corp. documentary show called "Such Is Life" and is entitled, "An Evening with David Marsden."
Now that's a rerun I'd like to see. Until then, this will have to do.
Last edited by RadioActive (May 9, 2018 8:13 am)
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Thread Starter- Fitz
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Re: The Man Behind Cancon Tells His Story
Actually, the most interesting part of the RPM stuff to me may be unintended. It's on the bottom right of the very last scan and it talks about a CBC special on David Marsden, promising an inside look at his "highly rated CHUM-FM evening show." It appears to be from a Corp. documentary show called "Such Is Life" and is entitled, "An Evening with David Marsden."
Now that's a rerun I'd like to see. Until then, this will have to do.
Yes I saw that and within a short time of that doc DM had left CHUM FM.( maybe the same month). Have a saved cutting from a article about that from the Globe. I should add that the article overstates the commercialization of CHUM FM. Yes it was not the CHUM FM of 1969 but to say that it was much like CHUM AM with fewer commercials is simply not correct. Even a year later in 1976 they played stuff like Howlin Wolf occasionally:
Last edited by Fitz (May 9, 2018 9:00 am)
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