I spent my first year at McGill in Arts, the second in Science, and third in Commerce. I really didn’t know what I wanted to do.
One day I ended up in the basement of the Student Union Building and discovered Radio McGill. I didn’t know it existed at the time – I don’t think most people did – but I met the general manager, who gave me a tour. I told him I was a fan of radio and interested in sports. The next thing you know, I’m on the air at Radio McGill!
It was a blast. When classes were over I’d do a show, spin some records, run contests – even though it was only a closed circuit at the time, so no one was listening. I’d give away prizes – a car, a trip, a house – but luckily no one ever called in. I’m not sure what would have happened if someone had.
I became the Sports Director, covering basketball games at the Currie Gym and football games from the stadium – that’s actually how I learned to do live play-by-play. It exposed me to the professional side of the radio business, and it turned out to be the beginning of a career I could have only dreamed about.
I remember one special event at Radio McGill that didn’t work out quite the way we’d anticipated. We were allowed a six-hour block on a commercial radio station – midnight to 6 a.m. on Sunday at CFQR – to produce a program, expand our audience, and let the public know what we were doing at Radio McGill. I’m not sure exactly how it happened, but I suggested, and everyone agreed, that it would be a nice twist to sit around a conference table and just tell jokes for six hours. What we hadn’t anticipated was that we would run of out clean jokes by about three in the morning, so the material kept getting more and more risqué. Ultimately it got us kicked off the air, never to return.
Ironically, some 20 years later, the same station hired me to host their morning show, which later became the “Aaron and Tasso Show.” It ended up being the most successful radio show in the city, and ran for almost 25 years.
If not for that fateful trip down to the basement of the Student Union Building the day that I discovered Radio McGill, I’m not sure what I’d be doing today. It served as the launching pad for a career in the business that’s lasted more than 40 years. Thanks, McGill.