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10 Questions with ... Alan Cross
October 10, 2006
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NAME:Alan CrossTITLE:PD/Music Historian/Music GeekSTATION:CFNYMARKET:Toronto, OntarioCOMPANY:Corus EntertainmentBORN:A village in southern Manitoba on the Canadian prairiesRAISED:A slightly bigger village, slightly less south.
BRIEF CAREER SYNOPSIS:
CKUW/University of Winnipeg), CFQX (Selkirk, Manitoba, CJRL-A/Kenora, Ontario, KX96-FM/Brandon, Manitoba, Q94FM/Winnipeg, CFNY/Toronto), Y108/Hamilton, Ontario, and back to CFNY. Host of nationally-syndicated Ongoing History of New Music since 1993. Written four books on music, liner notes for more than a dozen CDs, trivia questions for MSN, in-flight audio for Air Canada plus TV, lectures and guest speaking, articles for magazines, newspapers, and websites.
LAST NON-INDUSTRY JOB:
Grocery store clerk
FIRST RECORD EVER PURCHASED:
Elton John's Greatest Hits, Volume 1
FIRST CONCERT:
KISS, Winnipeg Arena, July, 1977.
FAVORITE BAND OF ALL-TIME:
NIN/U2/Oasis/Peter Gabriel (four-way tie)
1. How did you become interested in radio?
My grandmother gave me a Lloyd's transistor radio for my 6th birthday. There was something magical about this little box that brought in voices and music from so far away. In high school, I decided that I did NOT want a job where everything was the same every day (My parents were both teachers. I just couldn't face teaching the same stuff to different kids year after year). Radio seemed to be one of those jobs that constantly offered something new.
2. On October 3, 1986 you joined CFNY for overnights. Twenty years later you are the PD. Why did you leave the station in the early '90s for CJXY and what brought you back to CFNY?
Every radio DJ has a "best before" date on their forehead; they just can see it. I had seen too many people reach that salary-and-lifestyle wall after they reached a certain age and I was determined not to let that happen to me. Towards the end of the 90s, I began agitating the powers-that-be for a shot at management and in January 2001, they called my bluff. I took over as PD of a recently-acquired station 40 miles down the road-which, happily, just happened to be about 10 miles from where I was living at the time.
As any first-time PD will tell you, the learning curve is, er, severe. It was a challenging but instructive three years. Then, almost three years to the day I started at CJXY, I was transferred back to be PD at CFNY.
3. Looking back over the past 20 years, what have been the biggest changes at CFNY?
When I started, the jocks picked 95% of the music, which meant that every single announcer needed an absolutely encyclopaedic knowledge of Alternative music. It was the last of the free-form commercial radio in Canada. Then again, our cume was often less than a third of what it is now (But boy, did we ever have fun...).
Then there's the whole matter of changes in technology. When I started more than three-quarters of the music was still played off vinyl. Hell, a fax machine was a big deal. Today, we're completely digital to the point where almost never see an actual CD in the studio anymore. We also have the biggest radio website in the country (www.edge.ca) with multiple audio streams and a listener email database of over 250,000.
4. What has been your biggest highlight at the station over the past 20 years?
It could be the Coldplay incident in May 2005. Chris Martin and Will Champion came to play live in our storefront studio, so many fans showed up that Yonge Street (the major artery through downtown Toronto) had to be closed down and the Coldplay guys had to be evacuated in an SUV surrounded by mounted (and armed) cops. Me and our music director, Don Mitchell, were almost arrested for inciting a riot (For the record, there was no riot. They were Coldplay fans, fer gawd's sake.. We did screw up traffic, though.). The worldwide press was worth it.
5. Tell us about The Ongoing History of New Music.
When the station was re-branded in January 1993 amidst the whole grunge explosion, management decided that it was important we have a program that could put all this great new music intro context for a growing audience by creating a weekly one-hour documentary, supported by a series of daily one-minute features. They looked around, found the only history major on the staff and gave the project to him -- me. That show debuted in February 1993 and has run continuously ever since, including during the time I was down the highway at CJXY, which is how I managed to maintain a connection to CFNY for twenty years.
I just finished writing episode 537. There are also more than 5,000 one-minute daily features. And before anyone asks, there is no staff for the show. I do all the researching and writing myself. The only help I have is my long-suffering technical producer, Rob Johnston who has been with me since show 110.
Today, the program is syndicated across Canada and we'd love to go international. We're in the process of making every past episode available on demand through our website. I also have someone slowly turning the radio scripts into reader-friendly transcripts. The daily features have been available as podcasts since last year.
Quick aside: for months, a woman named Nathalia kept emailing me, volunteering to help with researching the program. Finally, I agree to meet her. Turns out she was from Brazil and enrolled in the university literally across the street from the station. She chose Canada because a friend had been sending her cassettes of Ongoing History shows for years. And here's the best part: she learned to speak and write English by transcribing everything I said on those cassettes. When she came into my office, she brought a giant backpack stuffed with notebooks containing word-for-word records of literally hundreds of Ongoing History episodes. And yes, she's the person doing the transcripts for the website today. How could I not hire her?
6. What makes CFNY unique?
Our on-air studio isn't locked away in a tower somewhere. It's right on the street, next door to a Starbucks. We have an open-door policy from 8a-10p every day. That means anyone who wants to talk to the announcer (or whoever might be in the studio at the time) can just walk in. If we have someone in for an interview (and we've had hundreds, ranging from Trent Reznor to the Foo Fighters to the Beastie Boys), fans can get within a few feet.
And because the station has been around since 1977, we've become an integral part of the cultural fabric of the city. Although we never dwell on our past-it's all about the future, baby-we're pretty proud of what we've been able to contribute to the Canadian music scene.
7. What would surprise people most about the station?
Anyone from outside Canada can't believe we have a weekly cume of more than 925,000. That's second only to KROQ in North America.
8. Fill in the blank: I can't make it through the day without ________?
At least 20 minutes of quiet "thinking" time. It keeps the signal-to-noise ratio low.
9. What is the one truth that has held constant throughout your career?
"Good character" means always doing the right thing-even when no one else is looking.
10. You've written four non-fiction books on various aspects of modern rock/alternative music:: "The Alternative Music Almanac," The Making of Pretty Hate Machine And The Downward Spiral," "Over The Edge: The Revolution And Evolution Of New Rock," and "20th Century Rock And Roll: Alternative Rock. Which one is your favorite and why?
"Over the Edge." It had some great info and was beautifully edited by a real pro from New York. Unfortunately, the publisher bobbled its release and it's long gone.
Bonus Questions
What are your hobbies?
Hobbies? Jogging, playing hockey and hanging out with Sponge (Not the band: my English bull terrier).
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