Patrick’s book explores the fascinating history of automobiles and introduces us to the remarkable individuals who shaped the industry. They include Enzo Ferrari, Nicola Romeo, and Enrico Bernardi, to name a few. The audiobook, which clocks in at just over two hours, focuses on their contributions, including the iconic brands they founded, the engines they created, and the tracks they raced on.
What began as just a quick trip to the Kitchener Public Library turned into a five year, independent research project about the former owners of the house my family and I lived in.
When my wife and I purchased our 1930s home, we discovered that 16 different families had lived in the house between 1932 and 1997.
The first question we had: what’s wrong with the place?
Well, nothing!
The families that lived here moved in an out for different reasons and in differing circumstances. Through my research I uncovered many great stories and some amazing photos of five of the 16 former owners.
This blog focuses on John and Florence Allan. They moved to Kitchener in the early 1920s after Jack, as he was referred to, accepted the job of managing the new Capitol Theatre. In 1932 he added the Lyric Theatre to his duties.
Without even realizing it former radio news anchor Jeff Howatt helped me through a major on-air news presentation crisis I was going through.
Howatt was the afternoon news anchor at 104.5 CHUM-FM in Toronto, while I was the afternoon news anchor at DC 103.5 in Orangeville, Canada
In my opinion Howatt had the smoothest news presentation on a music radio station with a read that was flawless. He was a pleasure to listen to.
My afternoon newscasts were a disaster. Turning on the microphone turned me into an incredibly anxious person, and I couldn’t make it through a sentence in a news story without tripping over a word or five. Sensing my days were numbered I reached out for help.
“Love You Forever, it just came out of some personal experiences … I had some baggage about things that had happened to me that I had carried into that story.”
Robert Munsch
And there was along a sing-along portion to the story that the publishers at the time weren’t crazy about.
He sang it for me and I recorded what I thought at the time was a scoop; in only my second interview ever!
Robert Munsch shared stories about his life, the storytelling process and his travels across Canada where he met a legion of young fans.
The interview was recorded on my portable JVC PC 11 stereo at the kitchen table of his home. His wife was preparing a meal and at least one of his children were in the living-room.
A portion of this interview appeared on a show that was on our college radio station, which at the time broadcast to the cafeteria and the student lounge.
Which portion aired, I can’t remember but I am certain it was not the entire interview.
LISTEN:
Click the play button to listen to my interview with Robert Munsch.
I was in the media room at the 1992 JUNOS on the night Alanis Morissette won the award for Most Promising Female Vocalist and recorded the backstage question and answer session with reporters.
Someone stole my 1990 David Cassidy radio interview and has taken credit for it as their own.
I received a copy of this fraudster’s interview from someone who heard the interview and realized it was mine and let me know.
The fraudster claimed the interview was done in 1990 at a radio station they worked at. While they may have interviewed David Cassidy that year the interview that’s making the rounds on a number of podcast sites is not their interview, but a re-recorded version of mine.
The fraudster edited my interview to make it appear that David Cassidy was a guest on their music show.They deleted my voice and substituted their own, so that David Cassidy appeared to be responding to questions posed by them.Most of the questions they used were mine and word for word, Cassidy’s responses were the one’s he gave to me. Continue reading “Blog: Someone stole my David Cassidy interview”→
Journalist Cal McAffrey is assigned to cover the murder of an assistant to U.S Congressman Stephen Collins. McAffrey’s investigation about his old friend’s assistant leads to the discovery of a cover-up that involves many prominent Washington D.C. politicians. Continue reading “@themovies State of Play (2009)”→
The flu and serious injuries from a car accident didn’t stop Abbie Hoffman from talking for two-and-a-half-hours to an audience at the University of Guelph in September of 1988.
The co-founder of the 1960s counter-culture group the Youth International Party, or Yippies as they were commonly known, had a lot to say.
No surprise, he talked politics. Americans would be electing a President that November in a race that pitted George Bush against Michael Dukakis.
As well he had co-authored, with Jonathan Silvers, An Election Held Hostage which was about to be published in the October edition of Playboy Magazine. The feature discussed the arms for hostage deal and its influence on the Reagan-Carter American presidential election of 1980.
His talk at War Memorial Hall was titled Watergate to Contragate: Criminals in the White House.
Reporting the news is serious business! Reporters need to cover stories that may provoke a range of emotions from the tragic to the light hearted.
One light hearted story I was assigned to was to cover a preview of a new innovative and interactive game called Virtual Reality that would be appearing at the Canadian National Exhibition (CNE) in Toronto Canada in 1992. Continue reading “Assignment: Virtual Reality circa 1992”→
John Majhor was the first famous radio and television person I ever worked with.
The Toronto broadcaster was well known in the 1970s and 80s for his DJ work on CHUM radio, and as VJ of the first music video show in Canada called Toronto Rocks where he introduced videos and interviewed musicians. It was a show I watched regularly.
John and I worked together at two Toronto radio stations, first at 97.3 CJEZ where he was morning host and later CFRB 1010 where he filled in as a talk show host. Continue reading “John Majhor radio and tv host”→
Station to Station with Joe Pavia 
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