The Marc Denis Collection

[Description by Contributor Marc Denis]

Program Title: The Best of Coffee,Tea or Pop! ® / Aéropop ®, les histoires !
Host / Researcher / Producer: Marc Denis
Air Canada In-Flight Audio cycle: July-August, 1993

From the late Eighties to the late Nineties, I had the pleasurable mandate of producing and hosting an in-flight audio program for Air Canada Airlines with carte blanche to boot. To be outlawed from entertaining in a bilingual fashion “on the air” in Montreal is one thing, let the government bureaucrats try and catch us “in the air”…around the world at 35,000 feet !

So… returning to my English-French modus operandi again, this time to a national and international audience of air travelers, I set out to interview in excess of 175 musical stars of the Fifties to the Nineties during that magic period to spice up the programs.

Included here is the 5th Anniversary of “Coffee, Tea or Pop!”®, a “Best Of” edition from the July-August of 1993 cycle run. Enjoy the hilarious anecdotes and insightful career stories of Paul McCartney, John Sebastian, Brian Wilson, Junior Walker, Lesley Gore, Paul Revere, both Phil and Don Everly, Paul Hoffert (Lighthouse), Pierre Bertrand (Beau Dommage) and many more. Le firmament des étoiles et des histoires inédites. Hey… who needs coffee or tea when pop goes down so good?

Fasten your seatbelt, drop the seat back, crank it up and enjoy !

PD Jeff Vidler at CJFM (now Mix 96) gave me the nod to take over the Sunday morning Gold show from the departing George Morris (‘Buddy Gee’, CKGM circa mid-Sixties.) They renamed it Marc Denis Reeling in the Years for the occasion. This classic Sunday morning Oldies show had been a fixture on CJFM since the mid-Seventies when I got the call to host in the early Nineties (Previous hosts: Dave Boxer, Dean Hagopian, George Morris — and what awesome company to be included in!)

Got the interviews going here as well. On this show, insight from Chicago’s Robert Lamm. ‘English with French sub-titles’ on this cut, with kudos to producer Steve Manitt (yes — the one and only producer the show ever had!!) Plusieurs invités de ‘Marc’ sur cette plage: le légendaire Michel Pagliaro, l’acteur Daniel Pilon et l’ex-chanteur-devenu réalisateur de films Allan Nicholls (JB & the Playboys.)

Sadly, after almost twenty years of Sunday morning Gold on CJFM, the show’s run finally came to an end in the summer of 1994 with yours truly … off and running again!

Good ol’ CKGM Montreal — GREAT jocks from EVERYWHERE — “board ops” 24 hours a day. Only 10,000 watts for most of its history but what a powerhouse! I was there from 1974 to 1980. PD Tom McLean liked my bilingual schtick idea and hired me in Spring of 1974 after three years in the Ottawa-Hull area (CJRC, CKCH). This was the best time I’ve had in radio, period!

This cut is from the spring of 1980, a Friday afternoon drive and Countdown show, 2-6PM. The traffic reporter is Omega Medina with appearances by the “Mais Oui Woah-Woah Tabernacle Choir’. Wo-Wo Tabarnac? Une câl.. de chorale tout-croche… mais eintait l’fun en cr…!

‘English first with lots of French sprinkles’, and on this cut, flub included.

CKOI-FM — 330,000-plus power at 96.9 — A ‘Killer” radio station! Canada’s most listened-to outlet during the mid-Eighties and beyond (book after book, 1.2 to 1.35 million listeners.) I was there from 1983 to 1986. Freelancing on TV, on commercials and in movies at this point so radio was part-time, mostly oui-kends. This ranks as very close to the second most fun I had on the radio.

Here, ‘French first with English thrown in’. Share yours truly’s frustration at the frequent in-studio interruptions (the annoying woman desperate for Corey Hart tickets for her daughter, the Hare Krishnas, etc.) Gros merci à Sylvain-Claude Filion et à Denis Proulx pour les ‘voix’ … et, à Bob Beauchamp pour la job!