CKNW Big Al & Ted Smith TV Commercial

Radio Station TV Commercials from the past

CKNW Big Al & Ted Smith TV Commercial

Postby radiofan » Wed Feb 04, 2009 8:15 pm

In 1978 CKNW had a batch of TV commercials with Big Al Davidson as the spokesman ... This one features Big Al and then GM Ted Smith. Bob Boving is the voice over voice.

Big Al & Ted Smith 1978
Those who danced were thought to be quite insane by those who couldn't hear the music.
User avatar
radiofan
Advanced Member
 
Posts: 13719
Joined: Sun Apr 16, 2006 2:24 pm
Location: Keremeos, BC

Re: CKNW Big Al & Ted Smith TV Commercial

Postby Russ_Byth » Wed Feb 04, 2009 8:21 pm

Ah yes, Tiger and Ted. Big Al was one of a kind! And if you'll pardon the phraseology, it wasn't always that 'jockular'.
User avatar
Russ_Byth
Advanced Member
 
Posts: 1298
Joined: Thu Nov 16, 2006 9:08 pm
Location: West Kelowna

Re: CKNW Big Al & Ted Smith TV Commercial

Postby mightymouth » Wed Feb 04, 2009 9:22 pm

Russ_Byth wrote:Ah yes, Tiger and Ted. Big Al was one of a kind! And if you'll pardon the phraseology, it wasn't always that 'jockular'.


The stories of Big Al could fill this board from now to Christmas time. All unbelievable and all true. Tiger was infamous for carving someone a new orifice on the air, and then when he would run into that person, in person, would greet him with "nothing personal paly". He was a classic. Over to you John Sykes!
Don't count the days, make the days count.
User avatar
mightymouth
Advanced Member
 
Posts: 769
Joined: Thu Jan 15, 2009 9:25 pm

Re: CKNW Big Al & Ted Smith TV Commercial

Postby Russ_Byth » Wed Feb 04, 2009 9:31 pm

If I may be permitted one more entry here. Years ago, when I was just getting into this business, I was doing a 'show' for the local cable company. One of the things I did was go out and interview local celebrities. One night I was on the set of BCTV talking to John McKeachie and was asking him if he got nervous before going on TV. He told me he had talked with Al about that one day at 'NW, and all that Al had said to him was: just remember this McKeach... its showbiz!
That's stayed with me to this day. We're all performers in our own quirky ways. Like Mouth said, I'm sure there are a lot of stories about 'Big' out there. How 'bout you Radiofan? You got a favourite Al anecdote? I think LP may have cut his teeth with Al too?
User avatar
Russ_Byth
Advanced Member
 
Posts: 1298
Joined: Thu Nov 16, 2006 9:08 pm
Location: West Kelowna

Re: CKNW Big Al & Ted Smith TV Commercial

Postby yee-haw » Wed Feb 04, 2009 10:25 pm

Being a small time radio player at one time, and a radio wannabe the rest of the time (making announcements over the Home Depot PA system) The Big Al stories are sometimes hard to believe! I heard he once threw a cup of hot coffee in the face of a P.R. guy in the press box at a B.C. Lions game? And would lead his sportscasts with a story about some guy who cut him off in traffic that day? Could that kind of stuff happen on air these days? If it's all true :?
User avatar
yee-haw
Advanced Member
 
Posts: 399
Joined: Wed Dec 31, 2008 6:11 pm
Location: Parts Unknown

Re: CKNW Big Al & Ted Smith TV Commercial

Postby radiofan » Wed Feb 04, 2009 10:55 pm

There are hundreds of Big Al stories, and yes most of them are true. The ones yee-haw mentioned sound very familiar. There has been others involving tow truck drivers at the Coliseum, ashtrays being hurled at folks in the newsroom.

In the early 70s Al had a nice new Ford Bronce from Metro Ford that he was quite proud of. After a big snowfall, the NW lot had been plowed and snow was piled high. Al had to show off his 4X4 and how well it handled the snow. He had no problem making it up one rather large snowbank. The problem was when he hit the top and centered the stupid thing. All the sudden he was going nowhere fast.

And we won't talk about Al and the Sea Watch :wink:

I don't think Al ever read a sportscast. He had a few notes with scribbles on them and assorted numbers that were actually scores. He managed to ad-lib his way through a sportscast or an editorial with no umms or aahs. Big Al definately wouldn't fit into Radio 2009.
Those who danced were thought to be quite insane by those who couldn't hear the music.
User avatar
radiofan
Advanced Member
 
Posts: 13719
Joined: Sun Apr 16, 2006 2:24 pm
Location: Keremeos, BC

Re: CKNW Big Al & Ted Smith TV Commercial

Postby mightymouth » Wed Feb 04, 2009 11:40 pm

I'm telling you, if we can't make a decent post out of Big Al Davidson stories, then this Board might as well shut down. Come on Sykes! You must have a million of them!
Don't count the days, make the days count.
User avatar
mightymouth
Advanced Member
 
Posts: 769
Joined: Thu Jan 15, 2009 9:25 pm

Re: CKNW Big Al & Ted Smith TV Commercial

Postby cart_machine » Thu Feb 05, 2009 12:38 am

radiofan wrote: There has been others involving tow truck drivers at the Coliseum, ashtrays being hurled at folks in the newsroom.


RF, up until recently, I saved all the Province clippings from Al's court case. I tossed them in one of my rare clean-ups. All but one. From page six, Wednesday, March 14, 1990.

Davidson ‘warned’ against Macrae
Hired him anyway, he tells court
By Marc Edge
Staff Reporter
Al Davidson says he was warned he would regret hiring Neil Macrae as a CKNW sportscaster.
And since a run-in with Macrae got him fired after 30 years at CKNW, “Big Al” told the B.C. Supreme Court yesterday he has to admit the warning was prophetic.
Davidson, 64, is suing the radio station for $281,000 in damages for wrongful dismissal.
“He’d been to many stations and looked like he was finished and I thought I’d give him a chance,” Davidson told Justice Ian Donald.
Davidson said CKWX sports director Greg Douglas, Macrae’s former employer, called him and warned, “You’ll be sorry.”
Davidson drew the analogy of the camel and the tent, Davidson said, with Big Al bedding down after a hard day of slogging across the Sahara desert.
“The camel—Mr. Macrae—will stick his head in your tent, take your water, take your bed ... and you’ll be left in the middle of the Sahara desert to die,” Davidson says Douglas told him.
“I said, ‘That may happen at your place, but not CKNW.’”
But after being canned Oct. 23, 1987, after allegedly making death threats to Macrae at a hockey game, Davidson said Douglas’s warning proved correct.
Davidson disputed Macrae’s version of the threat, that he’s get his son to “shoot his ass off.”
“I said to Mr. Macrae—who comes over as a tough guy on the air—‘I’ve got a couple of young bucks who I think could take you on any time you want.’
“I didn’t think anything of it.”
Davidson said he would never issue a death threat of the sort Macrae reported to police. “It’s against my religion.”
But Davidson admitted he was upset after Macrae replaced him as the host of the intermission interviews on Vancouver Canucks broadcasts.
“I left I was more qualified,” he testified. The trial continues.
User avatar
cart_machine
Advanced Member
 
Posts: 1710
Joined: Tue May 09, 2006 12:52 pm
Location: The Past

Re: CKNW Big Al & Ted Smith TV Commercial

Postby johnsykes » Thu Feb 05, 2009 4:13 pm

Forgive me if I have mentioned these stories before. They are presented to you in no particular order relating to dates of events.
Tiger Al & I crossed paths in many ways...from the marine patrols to sports coverage. When I got to Vancouver in 1969, I'd never heard of the man....but when the Canucks joined the NHL a year later, I was to hear the booming voice "The National Hockey League is on the air." Al standing at this mickey mouse box stuck to the wall on the concourse of the Pacific Coliseum..a mike in hand. This was where he intro'd games and interviewed various and sundry. No chairs....no desk....just a box on the wall that Al opened and pulled out his mike.

In the Spring/Summer and Fall, we'd spend our weekends on the water....from 1970 to '76 we'd meet up on Georgia Strait or Howe Sound....tie up our boats together and pass info to each other....and occasionally other stories, not marine related.

Al went ballistic on air when I got the Radio Sports Broadcaster Award....it was early '75 when he heard about it. His Spotlight On Sport at 5.35pm was all about me and how terrible a sportscaster I was...never having anything newsy...and on he went for seven or eight minutes. It so happened, my mother of all people heard the broadcast....I have no idea why. She got on the phone and ripped him up oneside and down the other. His response, in typical Tiger fashion.....hey, it's just showbiz....John and I are good pals.

It was only weeks later that Tiger went on his annual vacation to Spain I believe it was....I was out of work, having been let go by the Whitecaps......Tiger called me and asked me to fill in for a month. That was never forgotten by yours truly.

One of my favourite stories.....Tiger's feud with a next-door neighbour......Big Al got back at him by removing the muffler on his lawn mower and cut his grass in the middle of the night. True story.

I attended Al Davidson's funeral for one reason. I was paying my respects to one special friend and one special broadcaster. The likes of whom we won't hear on radio any more.
User avatar
johnsykes
Advanced Member
 
Posts: 1355
Joined: Sat Apr 29, 2006 8:04 pm
Location: Abbotsford, B.C.

Re: CKNW Big Al & Ted Smith TV Commercial

Postby mightymouth » Thu Feb 05, 2009 4:31 pm

Nice memories John. Then there was the time that Al said something untoward about Jack Diamond and Exhibition Park. Diamond sued Al, but when they met on the court house steps, Al managed to not only sweet talk Diamond out of continuing with the lawsuit, but walked away with a side of beef! Al always said, "you're a nobody, unless you've been sued". He was one in a million.
Don't count the days, make the days count.
User avatar
mightymouth
Advanced Member
 
Posts: 769
Joined: Thu Jan 15, 2009 9:25 pm

Re: CKNW Big Al & Ted Smith TV Commercial

Postby Russ_Byth » Thu Feb 05, 2009 4:31 pm

Great stuff John!

I remember the lawmower story... very funny!
User avatar
Russ_Byth
Advanced Member
 
Posts: 1298
Joined: Thu Nov 16, 2006 9:08 pm
Location: West Kelowna

Re: CKNW Big Al & Ted Smith TV Commercial

Postby sparky » Thu Feb 05, 2009 7:31 pm

I had lunch with an old radio buddy today and mentioned this commercial to him. He laughed when I brought it up and he said, "You know, there was a time at NW when everyone called Big Al "Sparky".

Now I feel honoured.
"You get a bunch of clowns together and sooner or later you've got a circus"
User avatar
sparky
Advanced Member
 
Posts: 378
Joined: Sun Jul 09, 2006 12:48 pm
Location: Coldstream, BC

Re: CKNW Big Al & Ted Smith TV Commercial

Postby mightymouth » Thu Feb 05, 2009 7:51 pm

sparky wrote:I had lunch with an old radio buddy today and mentioned this commercial to him. He laughed when I brought it up and he said, "You know, there was a time at NW when everyone called Big Al "Sparky".

Now I feel honoured.


Not so fast, the Sparky tag was late in the career, after a mysterious fire on his boat!
Don't count the days, make the days count.
User avatar
mightymouth
Advanced Member
 
Posts: 769
Joined: Thu Jan 15, 2009 9:25 pm

Re: CKNW Big Al & Ted Smith TV Commercial

Postby sparky » Thu Feb 05, 2009 7:58 pm

mightymouth wrote:
sparky wrote:I had lunch with an old radio buddy today and mentioned this commercial to him. He laughed when I brought it up and he said, "You know, there was a time at NW when everyone called Big Al "Sparky".

Now I feel honoured.


Not so fast, the Sparky tag was late in the career, after a mysterious fire on his boat!


Oh great. Thanks for clarifying mighty.
"You get a bunch of clowns together and sooner or later you've got a circus"
User avatar
sparky
Advanced Member
 
Posts: 378
Joined: Sun Jul 09, 2006 12:48 pm
Location: Coldstream, BC

Re: CKNW Big Al & Ted Smith TV Commercial

Postby mightymouth » Thu Feb 05, 2009 9:45 pm

No problem. If I remember, the nickname was coinded by another Tiger, hockey player Tiger Williams. Just after Big Al got off on the arson charges, or whatever the charge was, he was interviewing Tiger Williams on the air, during the interview Williams called Al, "Sparky". Al laughed, but you can bet the cops and the judge who were probably listening weren't laughing. :sad3:
Don't count the days, make the days count.
User avatar
mightymouth
Advanced Member
 
Posts: 769
Joined: Thu Jan 15, 2009 9:25 pm

Next

Return to Radio Station TV Commercials

Who is online

Users browsing this forum: No registered users and 74 guests