Early Victoria Radio

[devans]

Anyone know where I can find audio recording of "Wake Up" song used for Barry Bowman on CFAX 1070?

[AllseeingEye]

Well, let's try another Victoria radio voice and see if it gets any reaction. Perhaps these stories I tell are so far in the distant past that nobody remembers! Bob Aylward. Bob was an announcer at CJVI when Joe Easingwood was hired as a junior announcer and I had just started working at the station. A distinctive voice that worked all the shifts over time and eventually left to host a teen party show at CHEK TV. Bob was the early voice of Dave Armstrong's CHEK. After his work at the Cedar Hill site of CHEK, Bob went on to manage the sight and sound of Victoria's first cablevision channel. That was the one with the clock and the camera that moved left to right 24 hours a day. Later when Victoria cable actually produced programs, Bob was the producer+, and along with Daphne Goode ran the community programming for years. . Bob left media to become a travel agent.

I'm almost sorry I've just recently discovered the RW website. I can flesh out this comment a bit. My name is Rick Aylward and Bob was my dad. His media career spanned 20 years starting with CJVI in 1956, moving over to CHEK TV in 1960 where he did everything from hosting the weekend news, to voice overs, reporting, and even occasionally working in master control. In 1964 he was offered a chance to move to Portland OR to anchor the local ABC News affiliate news station, which he turned down.

Dad is definitely best remembered as the host of Club 6, a hugely popular teen dance show which ran from 1963-70. The show attracted all the major local island and coastal BC bands as well as more famous acts like the Poppy Family, Bobby Curtola, Jimmie Rogers and others. Most famously Jayne Mansfield even visited the set while on a tour of US and Canadian military bases in 1964. At its peak Club 6 had a fan club with in excess of 30,000 members spanning BC, Alberta and interestingly large numbers of members from the NW US, especially Washington and Oregon.

In 1970 dad left CHEK to become the PD of the newly launched Victoria Cablevision. He left VC and the "biz" in 1976. Very sadly and totally unexpectedly we lost Dad in June 2012, aged 78.

[Woodcarver]

I have a humorous story to relate about the legendary Bob Aylward and "Club 6". As detailed by Rick Aylward's post, "Club 6" was an immensely popular television program, essentially the Pacific Northwest’s version of Dick Clark’s “American Bandstand”.

Like “American Bandstand”, Club 6 was primarily a dance program, with a live studio audience, that played the top records of the week. Along with the “Top 10 Countdown” each show featured a live band segment, with a local band promoting a new single or album. The band usually played two songs, one in each half of the program.

On January 4, 1969, an instrumental surf music band formerly known as The Blue Diamond (now The Fabulous Blue Wabbits) appeared on "Club 6". The Blue Diamond did not have a record contract or single at the time, but earned a spot on the program by virtue of the quality of their demo tape.

As Fate would have it, The Blue Diamond’s scheduled appearance coincided with one of the worst snowstorms in British Columbia’s history. The band made it to the television studio, but the studio audience didn’t. Instead of two songs, The Blue Diamond played the whole hour. Mr.Aylward, ever the gracious host and consummate professional, didn't skip a beat. He introduced each song, interviewed the band members as if they were stars and even played the combo organ with the band for "House of the Rising Sun".

This is probably the only time in Canadian broadcast history that an unknown, unsigned instrumental surf band got their own one hour network television special hosted by Mr.Bob Aylward, one of the giants of the industry.

Thank you, Mr.Aylward for giving The Blue Diamonds their 15 seconds of fame!

[AllseeingEye]

Thanks for that Woodcarver - I heard most of the stories from dad's CHEK and Club 6 days especially having literally grown up in the old CHEK studios in Saanich - but not that one. I'm having a hard time picturing dad playing the organ as he didn't have a musical/instrument-playing bone in his body, lol. He loved giving local bands exposure on the show whenever he could. He often said the local bands particularly, as well as the 'kids' dancing on the show, were the real stars on Club 6.

[BossRadio]

As a kid I lived in Saanich,just outside Victoria in the early 60s. My earliest radio influence came via CJVI's wakeup show,featuring a live keyboard,played by Al Smith. He would play up tempo music again later in the day at five pm,on the Rolling Home show. Both of these programs were 15 to 30 minutes in length, with a staff announcer doing live copy reads. Between shows, Al was in charge of the station's music library.

[Woodcarver]

Regarding playing "House of the Rising Sun" on the Blue Diamonds broadcast, I think the band's organist was actually playing the song and Mr.Aylward was miming beside him but the camera was focused on Mr. Aylward so it looked like he was playing the part. Backing tracks, 1960's style!

[AllseeingEye]

That sounds more like it. Dad may have been a great on-air radio & TV personality but not so much playing musical instruments....which is to say not at all!