by Marty Forbes
September 21, 2024
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OK…here’s a Top Fave ‘630’ memory. Sincere thanks to KJ and Myke Thomas for assisting.
Well before voice tracking and cloud technology, radio folks used reel-to-reel mylar recording tape for commercials. Once recorded they were transferred to tape cartridges that resembled 8-track cartridges (Google it).
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During the mid-to-late 70s, CHED and sister station CKXL in Calgary, would swap announcers on the nights each station held their staff Christmas parties so all staff members could attend their respective parties.
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The CHED guys came to Calgary on the CKXL party
nights and the CKXL guys returned the favour on CHED party nights.
I was in Calgary at that time, working with a highly talented Creative/Production Department and in December 1976 CHED’s Chuck Chandler was our fill-in at CKXL.
Chuck was also the host of a program on local television called Disco Daze and also gained international fame by doing live broadcasts from the Montreal hotel room where John Lennon and Yoko Ono held their bed-in. Chuck can be heard helping with the vocals to Lennon’s Give Peace a Chance, recorded in the hotel room.
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Take it from here Myke Thomas…
By 1976, CKXL was on the verge of becoming a powerhouse radio station. Calgary’s management had the same philosophy as did CHED’s management – find and hire the best talent for the job, whether it was on-air talent, sales talent, or commercial and production talent – and stay out of their way, give them their head.
Practical jokes and tricks were a hallmark at CKXL and when we heard Chuck Chandler was our Christmas fill-in, it only made sense to target Chuck’s TV show for our gag.
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A big hit back then was Disco Duck, by Rick Dees. We had the full vocal version, as well as just the instrumental version, so I rewrote the lyrics to Disco Chuck.
With the able assistance of some great talent – by name: Bev Shoberg, John Clark, Marty Forbes, Gord Eno and myself, with guest pig snorts from Wes Erickson, Gord Eno and myself – we put together
Disco Chuck, produced by Gord Eno.
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The trick was getting Chuck to play our song on air without him knowing he was doing it. Back in the day, commercials were on the cartridges noted above and the announcer/disc jockey followed a printed log of what commercials to play and when.
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We put Disco Chuck on a cartridge and added it to the log, labelled as I recall, as a car dealership commercial. He loaded the cartridge, hit the start button and Disco Chuck blared out on the air.
Chuck called us all ‘bastards’ for tricking him, but he loved our song.
Chuck Chandler passed away in November, 2017 in Victoria, B. C.
He was bigger than life, an incredible talent who left a huge mark wherever he performed and a huge contributor to the magic of
630 CHED.
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Enjoy….
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