Station to Station with Joe Pavia

Working backstage at the 1990 JUNO Awards was the most exciting reporting event I was part of early in my career.

At that point, I was at least two years in radio news. The only reporting assignments I attended in person were school board and the occasional city council meetings. While the local issues were and are still important to the taxpayers in the community, those meetings didn’t have as many famous people as one would find at a national music awards show.

My media accreditation application was accepted, my first ever, as a radio reporter for a small market station in Orangeville, Ontario called DC 103.5 FM. I was so excited! To be clear, I went purely because I could, as a reporter, get accreditation. I self-assigned myself to this event, working on the project on my own time. I drove my own car and did not file for overtime or even get paid for that matter. It sounded like it would be a good experience, and I was hoping for the best.

As the reporter, I was going there to gather audio that would be used in a feature I would produce for a noon-hour magazine show that aired on the station called “DC Digest”. As a fan, I was hoping to get a photo with actor/comedian Rick Moranis, who was hosting the JUNOs that year. While there, I was also going to ask him if he could record a station ID for the radio station’s morning man.

At the JUNOs Ceremony

The JUNOs that year took place on March 18, 1990, in Toronto, Ontario. It was the night when a singer by the name of Alannah Myles won several awards – Album of the Year for her self-titled album, Best Composer, Best Song, Single of the Year for the song Love Is, and Most Promising Female Vocalist. Steve Tyler and Joe Perry from the band Aerosmith were also there to present an award to Myles.

The duo Milli Vanilli performed and took questions from reporters. They had won a Grammy a month earlier for Best New Artist and later that same year would become embroiled in what became known as the lip-sync scandal.

It was also the awards show where singer Rod Stewart performed the Tom Waits tune Downtown Train on TV and apparently was paid a lot for the performance, from what I remember hearing at the time.

I was backstage with all the other reporters watching the televised show on closed-circuit TV. After each winner gave their speech, they were escorted backstage and took questions from reporters. I had never done this and was too intimidated to stand up and ask any questions with so many experienced reporters around.

I’ve said this before, but I believe hanging out watching what the pros did was as good or better at times than being in a classroom learning broadcast/journalism theory. I sat, took notes, listened, and recorded all the winners. And I acted like a tourist and snapped some photos from where I was sitting for my own records, because at the time there was no internet to post them to.

Rick Moranis: Unleashing Comedy Gold in Radio, TV, Film, and Albums

Up to this point in his career, Rick Moranis, who had worked in radio in Toronto, was known for his roles on the television sketch comedy show SCTV, which ran for six seasons in Canada and later in the U.S. from 1976 to 1984.

His most memorable role was that of character Bob McKenzie opposite actor Dave Thomas, who played his brother Doug in the sketch called Great White North. It spawned a comedy album that sold about a million copies and led to a movie called Strange Brew.

By the time the SCTV show was wrapping up Moranis had moved into other memorable roles on film.

In the 1980s he was in a list of popular films including: 

• Strange Brew (1983): Bob McKenzie
• Ghostbusters (1984): Louis Tully
• Little Shop of Horrors (1986): Seymour Krelborn
• Spaceballs (1987): Dark Helmet
• Honey I Shrunk the Kids (1989): Wayne Szalinski
• Ghostbusters 2 (1989): Louis Tully
• Parenthood (1989): Nathan

In 1989 he recorded another comedy album called You, Me, the Music and Me which includes the skit, ‘The Weather Report’.

Rick Moranis Q and A

Rick Moranis was the last person to come backstage to take questions from reporters. Here are the questions he was asked by the reporters who waited for him and his responses.

Listen to audio of the question and answer session with Rick Moranis at the 1990 JUNOS:

Reporter 1: After winning one of these and hosting, which is more enjoyable?

Rick Moranis: Certainly hosting is more enjoyable. Winning, you just sit there, come up and get it.  I mean, look at the thing. (Laughter from the crowd). No, I had a great time, it was a real thrill for me, it truly was. Great people! A lot of fun this week! 

(Moranis and Dave Thomas won for Best Comedy Album in 1981 for “Great White North.”)

Reporter 1:  Would you come back if they asked you next year?

Rick Moranis: Well, we’ll see if they ask me. 

(In fact, Moranis would be invited back in 1992. In 1991, the JUNOS were held in Vancouver and hosted by Paul Shaffer who at the time was the bandleader on the David Letterman Show on NBC TV)

Reporter 1: Thanks.

Rick Moranis: Thanks.

Reporter: (Question was not audible)

Rick Moranis: Yeah, Yeah sure all the time. I still do the odd radio thing, I love radio, there’s no make-up, there’s no lighting, it’s wonderful!

Reporter 2: Rick, [are] there any more albums in the works?

Rick Moranis: Eventually, yeah! That’s like a love and a hobby! Yeah, I want to do more of that for sure.

Reporter 2: So what lies ahead for you movie-wise?

Rick Moranis: I just finished a picture about a month ago that Herbert Ross directed.  Steve Martin, Joan Cusack and myself. The script was written by Nora Ephron. And we’ll see, it’s coming out in the summer. 

(The movie he was talking about is “My Blue Heaven.”)

Reporter 3: Any chance of the “SCTV” crew getting back together again?

Rick Moranis: God I hope so! It’s very hard because everybody lives in different places and their careers are at different points. There used to be seven performers and now there’s seven lawyers and seven agents and seven business managers. But, you know, hopefully we’ll do it.  

(They never did. But a documentary called An Afternoon with SCTV directed by Martin Scorcese is supposed to be released on Netflix, however the release date has been delayed because of, according to online information I found, Scorcese’s other commitments.)

MuchMusic’s Denise Donlon: Great, thank you!

Rick Moranis: Thank you! Now I have some questions of you.

The Photo

The morning man at the radio station I worked at had asked me to ask Rick Moranis to record a station ID if there was an opportunity to do so. Basically, I would ask Rick if he could say: “I’m Rick Moranis and you’re listening to Carlin in the Morning on DC 103.5.”

After Moranis was done speaking to reporters backstage, I grabbed my recording machine and walked over to ask if he would do this I.D. He very politely declined by saying “not tonight,” but did say yes to a photo request.

The person who took our photo that night was a comedy writer named Larry MacInnis, who had written Moranis’ JUNOS material. He asked if I could take a photo of him and Rick, which I did.

Words of Wisdom

Larry offered some encouraging words after taking our photo.

“You’re going to do really well in this business if you can walk up to someone without fear and start talking to them,” said MacInnis.

That comment was kept tucked away in my head for those days when my time in the radio business wasn’t going especially well. In 1990, it wasn’t going well at all, and I figured my career in radio was going to be over before it really got started.

It was a struggle to find my voice and place in the business at a small market radio station where the pay was as bad as some of my radio newscasts. Larry’s kind and coaching words provided motivation and helped me refocus in a direction to keep moving forward, keep improving, and say yes a lot to new experiences. I committed myself to be a lifelong learner and since then, I have met other helpers like Larry and as I got older and more experienced in the business tried to be one myself to younger journalists.

While I would cover one more JUNO Awards show, my time as a music journalist was short, but in the end, I got a photo with Rick Moranis, received sage advice from Larry MacInnis, and had fun along the way!