Thirty years ago we lost Canadian broadcasting legend and Hall of Famer “Jungle Jay” Nelson. Often celebrated for his years as the morning DJ at CHUM, I was his student in a broadcasting course he taught where his light-hearted, high energy approach made every moment behind the mic a joy. He taught me good microphone technique, made me promise to never say “folks”, and that just snickering and guffawing on the air uncontrollably doesn’t take any skill let alone make for great radio.
 
Quite simply, he LOVED MAKING RADIO and that was the motivation behind all the work he put into it, doing one hour of prep for every minute spent on air.

I was too young to have grown up watching him on TV to know about his pith helmet antics, but in hindsight I realized that’s why we were often on the same wavelength. If he got a kick out of me being creative he gave a sly chuckle and I endeavoured to make him chuckle as much as I could. I miss him.

He was very encouraging. At the time he was a consultant for some new stations launching and told me if another station opened I was good enough to be on the air as a host.

When I graduated his course, there was no internet yet, so I had no idea that he died shortly after at age 58. It wasn’t until years later that I made my big debut on Canada AM, CTV News, and CTV News Channel that I tried to look him up to say thank-you that I realized how lucky I was that we finished our lessons.

My favourite lesson from him was on censorship. To demonstrate he told me about a live interview he did with Cher. It was going great, she had connected with him, it felt wonderful, she was soooo relaxed, the stories she shared were amazing. She was so relaxed that she dropped an F-bomb.  

Jay said he could immediately feel everyone in the station tense up, but Cher had no idea what was going on, she didn’t even know she had said it.

Knowing that people behind him in the booth were scrambling, Jay calmly held up his hand as a signal to those behind him to do nothing. He decided to just let things play out.

He finished the interview without further incident. It was great, among the best he’d had. He then waited. Occasionally he’d look over at his colleagues who began to shake their heads “no” in surprise.  No complaints. Not one. There had been no reaction, from anywhere, to the F-bomb at all.

Jay told me not to panic with censorship concerns, just take a moment to be sure of what you’re dealing with.
Context is very important. The people listening were Cher fans, they know what she’s like. Cher hadn’t realized she had said the F word, it’s part of her everyday patter and vocabulary, so when she said it, it wasn’t to shock or give it special importance, it was simply her being her relaxed, normal self. Because Jay didn’t react, because there was no evidence something shocking had happened, it’s likely listeners would wonder if they had heard it at all. Maybe misheard a different word. No complaints, no fines, no need to panic.  

It saddens me that Jay never got to see me land on TV and radio. When I joined Moore In The Morning, John said he was amazed that I hadn’t been poached by the CBC given my diction and how carefully spoken I am and I silently thanked Jay for that.  

As I’ve done dress-up in my reports, dressing up as Paul McCartney for Rock Band on Canada AM and as a skull-faced Day of the Dead mariachi on App Central, I’ve tried to find a segment where I can wear a safari shirt and pith helmet to honour Jay, maybe call myself Jungle Kay just to strengthen the reference, but it hasn’t come together yet. One day.

Chuckle.

Last edited by Kris Abel (August 1, 2024 4:17 am)