Former CBC Radio host Jurgen Gothe dead

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Former CBC Radio host Jurgen Gothe dead

Postby radiofan » Fri Apr 10, 2015 7:46 am

Former CBC Radio host Jurgen Gothe dead
Food and wine writer was host of CBC Radio 2's DiscDrive for 23 years
CBC News Posted: Apr 10, 2015 6:47 AM PT Last Updated: Apr 10, 2015 6:57 AM PT


Former CBC Radio host and writer Jurgen Gothe died Thursday afternoon, his wife has confirmed.

The cause of death has not been released, but he was understood to have been undergoing treatment for cancer.

Gothe was born in Berlin in 1944.

He was best known by many CBC Radio 2 listeners as the award-winning host of DiscDrive, the national afternoon radio show featuring classical and jazz music which he hosted from Vancouver for 23 years.

He was also an award-winning food and wine writer for the Vancouver Sun, the Globe and Mail, Georgia Straight and NUVO magazine.

His wife Kate noted that it was fitting that he passed after 5 p.m. PT, during happy hour.

http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/british-c ... -1.3027822
Those who danced were thought to be quite insane by those who couldn't hear the music.
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Re: Former CBC Radio host Jurgen Gothe dead

Postby CubbyCam » Fri Apr 10, 2015 8:25 am

Another one gone too soon... Always enjoyed chatting with Jurgen when he came to the studio to record his features... A charming and erudite gentleman. My mantra continues to be "Enjoy every day." RIP Jurgen.
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Re: Former CBC Radio host Jurgen Gothe dead

Postby albertaboy4life » Fri Apr 10, 2015 11:41 am

He was quite entertaining on CBC Stereo's DiscDrive -

Still recall him referring to a piece of music as resembling the sound of a chicken in bondage. His delivery was perfect. So very, very dry.
Faster cars, younger women, older cheese, more money . . .
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Re: Former CBC Radio host Jurgen Gothe dead

Postby Tom Jeffries » Fri Apr 10, 2015 12:45 pm

A delight, and one of the lights in our business, I shall miss Jurgen.

Another loss for our Community.

RIP - and thanks for being such a delightful guy. My Wife Julie loved having him visit on "Vancouver at Noon".

Our regards to his Wife and Family.
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Re: Former CBC Radio host Jurgen Gothe dead

Postby jon » Fri Apr 10, 2015 1:14 pm

CHQM was an interesting place when Jurgen worked there. He switched from Librarian to Writer on January 1, 1972. As Librarian, he picked the music. Maurice Foisy was Program Director. There was no Music Director. Bill Bellman, Maurice and Jurgen worked together to carefully define "The Sound", but it was up to Jurgen to actually pick the music that was played. By the time he left his Record Librarian job, the station was playing almost 15% Latin-inspired -- mostly Brazilian (as we spelled it in those days) -- music, including a fair bit of CanCon. Tommy Banks' "Samba Del Sol" being the best CanCon piece in that genre at the time.

I considered Jurgen a friend as well as a co-worker. He must have liked me, too, as he offered to get me any LP I wanted for $1.50, the price the station paid record companies for the albums in their library.

For all of us at the station, he was available 24/7. The only time I had to bother him was when an entire weekend classical program was composed of a new double album, and the only copy had been warped by someone who dried it for too long after washing. Jurgen told me to pick the same selections from other albums in the record library, even though they were different orchestras, so the voice tracks would not sound too obviously wrong. And it worked. It went too short, but I did the standard CHQM classic music fill: "play anything by Vivaldi".

After Nick Frost left CHQM in August or September 1971, to help launch CKIQ Kelowna, there was no one to do the Saturday night all night show. Less than a year earlier, the AM and FM stations were off the air Sunday night after midnight for weekly maintenance on the AM transmitter, so the all-night announcer also did Saturday nights. After Nick left, Jurgen was always Plan B for Saturday nights if no one else was available. No matter who it was, after Nick left, it became a Jazz show, and nothing else. And no one did it better than Jurgen, whose Jazz collection was several times the size of the station's Jazz section in the Record Library.

I tried to see Jurgen when he came in Edmonton to do Disc Drive in November 2007. But he did not have time to talk as he was so occupied during the selections he was playing, discussing the details of the rest of the program with the CBC staff involved, both on-site and elsewhere.

I listened to a lot of Disc Drive on CBC over the years that Jurgen did it. And so did many of my friends.

Only mystery that remains is his Medicine Hat days, before coming to CHQM. Did he work in Radio there?
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Re: Former CBC Radio host Jurgen Gothe dead

Postby xwdcatvb » Fri Apr 10, 2015 9:11 pm

Nice remembrance, Jon. Jurgen's Disc Drive was a personal favorite.

Those were the days of CBC FM before Radio Two, but I dunno how 'Brazilian' might have been/might be spelt differently then, now, or in between!

O Brasileiros...
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Re: Former CBC Radio host Jurgen Gothe dead

Postby jon » Fri Apr 10, 2015 9:19 pm

I forget where, but a decade ago, on some music forum, I got a bunch of young people telling me that it was always spelled Brasilian. As a childhood stamp collector, I do remember that their stamps said Brasil and our geography classes in school always had us spell it Brazil.
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Re: Former CBC Radio host Jurgen Gothe dead

Postby jmv » Mon May 11, 2015 5:45 pm

The CBC Rewind tribute to Jurgen has been posted online, and is also available as a podcast. It's got some great audio flashbacks, from the very first Disc Drive show to the very last show. And of course, plenty of mention of cats, hammocks, and other eccentricities. No mention of the Willis Point Fire Department, however.

http://www.cbc.ca/radio/rewind/jurgen-gothe-cbc-host-music-cat-and-wine-lover-1.3060243 Full issue, 54:59

http://podcast.cbc.ca/mp3/podcasts/rewind_20150507_78238.mp3 Podcast, without any broadcast of music, 34:23

A late night segment of Nightlines with David Wisdom where they aired part of the 1970s classic The Sensuous Woman is only available online.

Any memories of Jurgen can be sent in to rewind@cbc.ca, ideally before May 14, so they can perhaps be included in the next episode (who knows, maybe if the comments are really good, they'll air it in a later episode)
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