Some names you may recognize from the pre-89X days:
Those pictures above represent a view of the entire studio. It was the size of a closet. If there was a third person in the room, they needed to stand.
The show focussed on "Alternative" music, including The Cure, Jane's Addiction, Sonic Youth and Pixies. You could also hear album cuts from Bob Dylan, Tom Petty and Rolling Stones. Thanks to Canadian broadcasting regulations (which require a certain percentage of Canadian artists to be be played), if an artist considered even remotely 'alternative' recorded a Neil Young song, we played it.
We also played Neil Young.
I was there almost from the beginning, thanks to Kelly Brown encouraging me to intern along with her. She was in my class at Specs Howard School of Broadcasting, and followed Greg St, James to Canada when he left WRIF in Detroit. I would not have had the radio career that I had without that invite.
The show was a lot of fun, and lasted about seven months or so. Then it was time to expand to 24 hours.
We had a lot of fun teasing the end of the Cutting Edge (well... I did, anyway). There was a time when disc jockeys were encouraged to talk and attempt to have personality. Here's a clip of me "acting" (for three hours), plus getting advice from lawyer, Lex Kuhne.
Notice the wide variety of music we used to play, including Robert Palmer and Grandmaster Flash. Also notice the fact that we gave away tickets to different (unrelated) radio station's event (!):
I've got more audio to come from the first days of the 89X Morning Show, so keep your eyes right here on The Vertical Files!
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