TWENTY YEARS
UP THERE ON THE AIR:
I am but a
small-shot DJ, clinging precariously to the sticky meniscus of Canadian radio. I
have maintained a dedicated blog and a weekly music broadcast for twelve years.
I have been doing it even longer.
Twenty years
ago today, actually, before anyone had ever driven a car into a crowd or an
airplane into a skyscraper, I got up at 5 a.m. on a morning smelling of ozone
and newsprint and lugged a crate of L.P.s, and a bag of CDs slung on my
shoulder, downtown to Yonge and Dundas, on the eerily empty subway, to play my
first show on CKLN.FM. I was the fill-in host for Bill Grove, dark mega-far-out
jazz cogno renegade, who had recently been dismissed for one of his flammably
candid on-air comments. I had gone down to complain about his firing to the station
manager, Tim May, and he responded, astoundingly, by saying “You want a shot at
the show?”
So at 7 a.m.,
I put on the headphones, slid up the faders, said good morning, and played
Oscar Peterson’s rich solo version of Django, dedicating it to the composer, MJQ’s
John Lewis, who had just recently slipped the surly bonds for real. Then I spun
King Curtis’ boiling take on The Swinging Shepherd Blues (original title –
Blues a la Canadiana), and on to Ornette, Kerouac, Charles Lloyd...”Thanks for
keeping it real,” said a guy on the phone, and hung up. At eleven, my airwave idol, New Electronic Soul DJ, Denise Benson, came in to do her show, and gave me some
complimentary encouragement. As I left, DJ Tony Barnes confided that I needed a
course at “NO-UM school.” I think I – um – still do.
Including
those mentioned above, my thanks go out to to Ron Gaskin, Wally Dawson, Greg Lawson, Victor Baines Marshall,
Julie Hill, Ron Anichek, Stevie Connor, Daniel, Jackie, Stuart, Adonis, Amil, Tyrone, Pat, Erdine, and my DJ exemplars, David Kingston, Rainer Schwartz and Tom Shannon at CKLW, the
stalwart legions of adventurous publicists, and those promoters who understand and
empathize with talent, and mostly to all of my Orbital listeners.
My
colleagues have nurtured and informed in me a love for Canadian musicians that
I had already cultivated in twenty years of roadburn as a touring guitar
player. I have learned to listen deep and to help break artists out of their
struggle with critical obfuscation and media blind-spots, and give them
interview time, platforms to play out their visions, the odd gig, and the
chance to say, “Oh, we’re doing well on campus and community radio.” Thank you for beautifying my show with your music.
My media allegiance
has always been to the dark and querulous voices. I have alienated friends and
made enemies by criticizing the mediocrity of many of our accepted CBC/Juno
darlings, and especially their well-paid supporting cast. Consequently, only
brave outlying iconoclasts have given me significant love as I have proceeded
to wade my way through the dank and stormy programming bogs, while exposing my sometimes
scabrous attitudes, which I prefer to think of as “being funny.” My sincere
appreciation goes out to them all, most especially to Heather Kitching, my editor
and friend at Roots Music Canada.
I gratefully
maintain (even today at 5 o’clock), tenuously, a place in your ear-waves for
now. Radio Regent has officially closed its offices this past month, although
we are promised a new space if ever we manage to manifest ourselves in physical
space again. Until that time the Orbit is up, and up, but definitely, not yet, away.
Corby's Orbit Live on Radio Regent 5-7pm Friday
Corby's Orbit Blog
Corby's Orbit YouTube Channel
Corby's Orbit Podcasts
