By Tom Harrison, The Province November 3, 2014
Vancouver radio legend Red Robinson, then 20, meets Elvis Presley before The King’s 1957 show at Empire Stadium.
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Sixty years and still rockin’.
On November 12th, Red Robinson will have completed 60 years on the radio.
He remembers, “It all began on the day after Remembrance day in 1954 when program director Vic Waters told me the afternoon show “Theme for Teens” was mine each afternoon on CJOR, but I would have to do a “live” audition at 4 p.m.
“The previous host, Al Jordan, had left town for another job. I hit the air as a bundle of nerves but was able to play my favourite R & B tunes for a solid hour. The switchboard lit up and Vic told me that the show was mine. I can even remember the first song I played, a do-wop number by the Four Tunes titled “Marie” which had been a big band hit for the Tommy Dorsey Orchestra.
“In those days I would buy my R & B records, wrapped in brown paper as if they were pornographic,” Robinson notes. “Of course, they were mostly songs by black performers and called ‘Race’ records. I played a mixed bag in those days, pop hits and R & B, which morphed into rock ’n’ roll.”
In those days, too, rock ’n’ roll was considered a flash in the pan, a fad that wouldn’t last. Vancouver needed a crusader and Robinson was it. He faced down criticism from without and from within. His belief became a career.
http://www.theprovince.com/entertainment/Vancouver+radio+legend+Robinson+marks+years/10349917/story.html
Congrats, Red.
The last King of Radio Rock and Roll. All Red, Alllll the time!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Red’s The Reason!!!
I love Red. He’s a positive person and a positive force within the community.
I’m also proud to say that I arrived in Vancouver apprx 27 years ago, and I was able to witness the very first of Red Robinson’s long list of 3,846 “retirements”.
(Only to hear him on the radio the next week).
What an achievement! I had a (long) 5 years in radio under my belt when i was hired at CKWX in November of ’82 (thanks Ted Farr!) I was terrified to learn that i’d be working with Red in the morning and Jim Fraser in the afternoon. Red was a calm, cool & welcoming presence every morning… oh that confidence and charm!… i’ve never forgotten it! (then there was Fraser at 3pm – that’s a whole ‘nuther story!) It was, and still is, a highlight of 30 years in radio to have worked with such a pro. We don’t have many legends in Canadian radio, thrilled to have had the great fortune to have worked with this one!