sowny.net | The Southern Ontario/WNY Radio-TV Forum


You are not logged in. Would you like to login or register?

April 7, 2020 4:51 pm  #1


Did This Q107 Segment Really Exist?

I have to admit that when Q107 first signed on back in 1977, I was working my first job at CKEY doing 12-hour shifts, and didn’t get much chance to listen to them. So I’m wondering if anyone here can tell me if I imagined this or if it really existed.
                                                                                                                                                    
I have a hazy memory of CILQ doing a daily or perhaps weekly segment called “High Witness News.” It was purportedly a 5 minute “newscast” totally dedicated to promoting marijuana.
 
Other than prices of various kinds of weed, what else was in this segment, if it indeed ever aired and isn’t a figment of my imagination? Where did they get the info they reported and was it factual? Do any airchecks of it exist? And perhaps most importantly, it was illegal back then, and a single joint could potentially land you in the joint and saddle you with a criminal record. (My how the “high” times have changed!) Did they ever get into trouble with the authorities or the CRTC for doing this?
 
If anyone here recalls this thing or was involved in getting it to air, I’d love to learn more about how long it lasted, what time it aired and what was in it – besides sticks and seeds.

 

April 7, 2020 7:19 pm  #2


Re: Did This Q107 Segment Really Exist?

RadioActive wrote:

I have to admit that when Q107 first signed on back in 1977, I was working my first job at CKEY doing 12-hour shifts, and didn’t get much chance to listen to them. So I’m wondering if anyone here can tell me if I imagined this or if it really existed.
                                                                                                                                                    
I have a hazy memory of CILQ doing a daily or perhaps weekly segment called “High Witness News.” It was purportedly a 5 minute “newscast” totally dedicated to promoting marijuana.
 
Other than prices of various kinds of weed, what else was in this segment, if it indeed ever aired and isn’t a figment of my imagination? Where did they get the info they reported and was it factual? Do any airchecks of it exist? And perhaps most importantly, it was illegal back then, and a single joint could potentially land you in the joint and saddle you with a criminal record. (My how the “high” times have changed!) Did they ever get into trouble with the authorities or the CRTC for doing this?
 
If anyone here recalls this thing or was involved in getting it to air, I’d love to learn more about how long it lasted, what time it aired and what was in it – besides sticks and seeds.

Sounds vaguely familiar but I don't remember it. In 1977 I was much more apt to tune into to CFNY which had it's power increase a few months before Q's launch but I had been listening even before that on cable.

I googled High Witness News and came up with items mostly from 1984 and none involving Q.

Last edited by Fitz (April 7, 2020 7:20 pm)


Cool Airchecks and More:
http://www.lettheuniverseanswer.com/
 

April 7, 2020 7:32 pm  #3


Re: Did This Q107 Segment Really Exist?

I've since received a private email acknowledging that the show did, in fact, exist and a suggestion about who to contact for more background. So at least I know it wasn't my imagination! 

     Thread Starter
 

April 7, 2020 8:43 pm  #4


Re: Did This Q107 Segment Really Exist?

Fitz wrote:

I googled High Witness News and came up with items mostly from 1984 and none involving Q.

There's a scant reference to Q107 in line with that "High Witness Title" title at this page, which is a tribute piece to "Dave Charles". The section in question reads:

"It was May 22nd, 1977 when they launched Q107. Allan Slaight thought that the station should program easy adult contemporary music and wanted to call it CILK FM ‘Silk’ which probably would’ve worked as well. However, in 1977 rock was red hot. The station blasted into orbit and knocked a hole in 104.5 CHUM FM.

The first song played on Q107 was 'Hard Rock Town' by Murray McLauchlan. Q107 first and foremost developed a ‘taking it to the street’ attitude with street characters, the 6 O’Clock Rock Report, High Witness News. The late and great Mark Daily’s news. Tony Viner was the GM at the mighty Q in the beginning.

As we all know, after 40 years Q107 remains as Canada’s premiere rock radio brand."

 

April 7, 2020 9:24 pm  #5


Re: Did This Q107 Segment Really Exist?

I did a search for this using the Canadian Newsstream database available on the Toronto Public Library website, and I found one article with a reference to it. It was written by Greg Quill regarding Q's 25th anniversary, and it appeared in the Toronto Star on May 22, 2002 ... here's the relevant section.

"Q was always exceptionally well respected in the North American radio trade," says [Bob] Mackowycz, a former U of T English professor who initiated many of the station's radical and memorable program staples, including the retrospective Psychedelic Sunday, Psychedelic Snack (weekdays at noon), the recently re-launched feedback program Citizen Q, Barometer, the serious drug-culture magazine High Witness News, the live-to-air exposition of local talent, Performance, which yielded the annual Q107 Homegrown talent contest and gave dozens of local artists their first break, and the talky music-as-culture show, Six O'Clock Rock Report. He now runs the news division of the U.S. XM Satellite Radio operation in Washington, D.C.
"It was the first radio station in Canada to talk to the rock'n'roll audience as thinking individuals, and we lived on the edge. To a large extent, it made its own rules, and in Alan and (son) Gary Slaight we had owners with the courage to let that happen. That made an enormous difference."

Last edited by Lorne (April 7, 2020 9:26 pm)

 

April 7, 2020 10:01 pm  #6


Re: Did This Q107 Segment Really Exist?

Someone somewhere must have tape of a segment. I'd be curious to hear it.

Is it possible Bill Carroll was there at the time and was involved in the feature? I think he spent a few years at Q107 if memory serves. 

     Thread Starter
 

April 7, 2020 11:01 pm  #7


Re: Did This Q107 Segment Really Exist?

Well thanks to the folks that found the proof. I was mainly a CFNY listener in 1977 but the name did sound vaguely familiar as I mentioned.  One program that I did tune into on the early Q was Bob Mackowycz's 4 hour Sunday Performance. What a great show !

Last edited by Fitz (April 7, 2020 11:01 pm)


Cool Airchecks and More:
http://www.lettheuniverseanswer.com/
 

April 7, 2020 11:42 pm  #8


Re: Did This Q107 Segment Really Exist?

Found another reference to the show in the following excerpt from http://rpmimages.3345.ca/pdfs/Volume+27+No.+11+-+June+11%2C+1977.pdf ... along with the name of a forum member who might be able to help with more info.

Q107 is a progressive album oriented station aimed at "a more mature 18-34 market". [Dave] Charles feels his announcers, John Rode, Murray Smith, John Donabie, Mary-Anne (no last name), Scott Marwood and himself, are "more on top of things ... more knowledgeable. I'm sick and tired of monotoned FM announcers, where everything's a drag. That's not the station I want on the air. There's a lot of positive things happening in Toronto. We can do a lot for Toronto by displaying it as it should be."
Additional programming on Q107 will include such features as Lowdown, a consumer report geared at the target audience, Zodiac, an astrology show 'with a difference", and Highwitness News, a counterculture news report.

 

April 8, 2020 8:06 am  #9


Re: Did This Q107 Segment Really Exist?

I would not go as far as calling the early Q "progressive" despite some great programs such as Bob M's.  I will go through my old Q audio and perhaps find an ad for the program.


Cool Airchecks and More:
http://www.lettheuniverseanswer.com/
 

April 8, 2020 9:56 am  #10


Re: Did This Q107 Segment Really Exist?

It certainly wasn't there in the early days of Q; as I was the first jock hired and was there from day 1.  If it's true it came along in 2002, I would not know.

 

April 8, 2020 10:03 am  #11


Re: Did This Q107 Segment Really Exist?

One of the highlights for me was cohosting the 6 O’Clock Rock Report with Bob Mackowitz who was a brilliant student at U 0f T.  Brought in by John Parikhal.

Last edited by John D (April 8, 2020 10:04 am)

 

April 8, 2020 3:27 pm  #12


Re: Did This Q107 Segment Really Exist?

John D wrote:

It certainly wasn't there in the early days of Q; as I was the first jock hired and was there from day 1.  If it's true it came along in 2002, I would not know.

Thanks, John. I read the reference to it in the 2002 item as part of an overview of programs on the station over the years. But although in the other item the reference to it is preceded by "Additional programming on Q107 will include" I would have expected that to mean that it would have launched not too long after Q's launch in 1977. But although I did listen to Q107 on its first day and liked it ok, my preference was for top 40 stations and so I don't have any firsthand knowledge of Q's programming after that. Appreciate you responding. 

 

April 8, 2020 4:19 pm  #13


Re: Did This Q107 Segment Really Exist?

It's obviously not mentioned in this, but here are the first few minutes of Q107, as it signed on May 22, 1977. The great John Rode talks about how proud he is to be the first voice heard on the newcomer. 

Q107 Toronto Debuts

     Thread Starter