For those of you who remember or have heard about Red Robinson on KGW AM & TV in 1959, I should mention that a couple of anniversaries in his profession life are coming up really quickly.

November 11, 1954, marked his first show, on CJOR Vancouver, making him Canada's first DJ to play Rock & Roll full-time. November 8, 2000, marked his last daily on-air shift, on Oldies CISL, also in Vancouver. He has done weekly programs almost continually since, but never went back to a daily shift schedule.

I recently learned that he was hired away from KGW by KJR Seattle, but never had a chance to do his first air shift on KJR. The Draft Board came a'knocking and he was off to California for about a year of military service, with weekends off to work as a DJ on Top 40 KMBY Monterey. Red returned to Canada after that.

If you listened to the radio in the 1960s, 250 watt KMBY could be heard after midnight each night as all other West Coast stations on 1240 KHz, and there were a lot of them, signed off around midnight. I heard them regularly from Vancouver (Canada) and they sounded really great. Both Robert W. Morgan and Robert O. Smith honed their skills there. And got middle initials in their on-air names for the first time.

As I understand it, Red was the biggest thing in Top 40 Radio in Portland as the 1950s came to a close.

Red just e-mailed me and had this to say:

You are right on the money, however I did not leave for the army until the summer of 1960 and was still doing afternoons at KGW up to the day I took the train to California. You are one day out with the November 11th mark -- it was the day after remembrance day, November 12th. Thank you for remembering all this. Red

Red must have been confused: The way to stay out of the army is to move to Canada first!

Is he related to Red Green? He lives up there!
;=)

I know Semoochie was kidding, but we occasionally hear News items here in Canada about those who chose to move to Canada AFTER receiving their draft notice, rather than before. It is now 40 years later, they are now retiring from a successful career in Canada and on their first trip to Florida for the winter, they get arrested. The smart ones, like Bob Ness of CKLG-FM Vancouver, went back to the U.S. during one of Nixon's amnesty programs, and spent 6 months painting Air Force runways in Nevada before rejoining U.S. civilian life.

As for Red Green, his real name is Steve Smith. Steve retired more recently than Red, but, unlike Red, Steve seems to have truly retired. 2005 was a big year for Steve, as he announced his retirement after receiving two major awards the same year, including the Order of Canada, Canada's version of being Knighted.

You can read more about Steve on Canada's official broadcast history site at http://www.broadcasting-history.ca/personalities/personalities.php?id=389. Red is also there at http://www.broadcasting-history.ca/personalities/personalities.php?id=94.

Does Red Robinson still do a weekly show on CISL? I seem to remember hearing him on a weekend last year on one of my trips to Vancouver.

The Red Robinson Show Theatre seems to hold quite a few concerts from great classic rock n rollers...one of these days I'm gonna have to make the trip out to Coquitlam!

Red Green(aka: Steve Smith) is great. The final Red Green episode on CBC was priceless--a bunch of great payoffs to running storylines and gags. A couple of weeks ago at the Timbers/Toronto FC game in Portland I was wearing my jacket with the "Possum Lodge" patch on it. Four other spectators seated near me(two from Canada--two from the States) recognized the "Possum Lodge" thing and we were able to talk about various Red Green episodes for quite a while before the game started.

"Smith and Smith" was never one of my favourite shows...I guess I was too young to care much for a husband/wife variety show at the time.

Red still does a weekly show, but he moved it to Clear FM 104.9 in Vancouver, where it airs 6-midnight Saturday nights, and streams live at http://www.1049clearfm.com I've read that this is the first time that Red has appeared on FM.

I was old enough to appreciate Smith and Smith, but still didn't like it. It really needed to be full-time Red Green to work, I think.

With Canadian Content rules, we hear a lot of Ian Thomas songs on Oldies stations here. I really do like his body of musical work, but I cannot help thinking of the character he plays (Dougie Franklin) on Red Green whenever I hear his songs.

I like Ian Thomas, always think he's a been a bit underappreciated.(I could probably start a whole new thread on really good but underappreciated[here, anyway] Canadian pop/rock stars of the 70s/80s like April Wine, Trooper, etc...) Whenever I hear "Painted Ladies", "Hold On", or "Long, Long Way", I too can't help but thinking of the Dougie Franklin character!

Wasn't that character supposed to be an American transplant into Possum Lake or something?

It might be interesting for a K-Hits type station to feature something like "The Maple Leaf Express" once or twice a day to play more obscure songs by Canadian artists...might be interesting to hear groups/songs besides the standard BTO, Guess Who and Neil Young tunes.(all three are great, of course.)

I know Craig Adams played an obscure tune by a Canadian artist-- Mashmakhan's(sp?) "As The Years Go By" on Halloween, due to its "spooky organ" intro. I have also have heard Chilliwack on Charlie FM occasionally as well. Don't usually hear much of these guys south of 49 due to the fact that they didn't chart very high here.(if at all)

In exacty two weeks I will be cruising through your fair city on VIA Rail, Adiant.(If you're still in Edmonton) I'll wave to you as the train passes through.

I don't think the song is that obscure. I remember it very well and haven't heard it since it was out. I didn't hear it the other day, either.