Buzz Bishop has long been a name I have been familiar with in Canadian radio, but only last week did I get a chance to connect with him for the first time. A mainstay at Z95, Crave and Virgin 95.3, he segued to Calgary in 2009 where he took up the Top 40 cause at Amp 90.3, before crossing the hall to work at XL103. In recent weeks, he has been joined with Samantha Stevens who is no stranger to Calgary, having worked there twice before.
What I really like about Buzz is his passion for radio AND technology. He hosted a syndicated feature called CyberBuzz which aired on a number of stations across North America. You may also know him from doing the Canadian Hot 20. He was also an early adopter of websites and later blogs when they peaked in the early 2010's. In this episode you'll hear us talk about radio adventures, some of the greatest programmers, some of the greatest promotions, and Buzz shares some relevant tactics for repurposing content in 2023.
I mentioned that Buzz was an early adopter of Tech. Here he is guesting on the Leo Laporte's TWIT.TV back in 2007.
Buzz has a few websites he keeps close; including:
Buzz Bishop - http://www.buzzbishop.com
Dad Camp - https://dad-camp.com/
TRANSCRIPTION
Tara Sands (Voiceover) 0:02
The sound off podcast. The show about podcast and broadcast. Starts Now.
Matt Cundill 0:13
Buzz Bishop before 2009 You likely heard him on Eric said 95 in Vancouver where he did nearly every shift on the station. After that, he went to amp and later XR 103 in Calgary, where he's now doing mornings with Samantha Stevens, who by the way, recently departed chorus radio in Winnipeg. I love talking with people who started in radio around the same time I did. Buzz has lots of interest beyond radio like blogging and websites technology. And of course, being attentive to what you're about to hear is what happens when radio events just get together. Now, but as bishop joins me from Calgary, you know, it's a good thing. We had that pre talk. I can't remember a thing we're supposed to be talking about today. No good.
Buzz Bishop 0:57
And I thought you were all fancy. It's like going on the Today Show or something like that. When you get the pre interview, make sure you they, they nail down all your anecdotes, and so you can tighten them up. It's all good for the show.
Matt Cundill 1:09
Did you ever find that when you had like an artist come in the room and they you started talking and then the funny story would come out while you're playing the song and then you go to air and then the the interview sucks.
Buzz Bishop 1:18
It's just like every morning show, right? Like the best part happens when the mics are off and you start to get halfway down a story. Stop as like, you know, Regis Philbin famously like wouldn't talk to Kathie Lee before the show, because he wanted all that stuff on the air. And so I don't maybe we should all be quiet in the room when the songs are on. You started in Vernon? Yep, I was at BCIT and it came to get a summer job. I applied in trail and I applied at CGI be in Vernon and trail was one of those, you know community cruiser summer gigs. And I'd come back and that's what people in first year at BCIT were supposed to apply for. But cgi bin Vernon was like a full service radio station. Frank Martina was doing mornings very frosty forced CK NW sort of thing. Then you had the General Manager Patrick nickel did a talk show in the midday and then you had an oldie show and then a hot AC afternoon drive. And then it went top 40 Playing MC Hammer Vanilla Ice Barenaked Ladies whatever at night. And so I want it to be a tough 40 guy. I want it to be how we the Hitman mark in the dark Allen right Tarzan, Dan. So I applied for both gigs. Knowing that I was only first year and the Vernon Job was a second year job because it was full time. It wasn't just for the summer. And I got it. I got both gigs. And I chose the Vernon one because it was full time work. I dropped out of school and 30 something years later, my mom still is upset that I don't have a post secondary diploma. I didn't I never finished BCIT. And yeah, they hired me thinking back, if it works in the summer, then he can stay and if it doesn't work, we can always send them back to school. And I guess it works. So I was lucky.
Matt Cundill 3:08
You ever go back to Vernon and look around and then think to yourself how lucky you were to work in that environment.
Buzz Bishop 3:14
Oh, I've taken my boys we've stayed overnight and driving back and pointing out where my old house was like if you want to be real. The thing I wish I would have done in Vernon is bought real estate on Okanagan Landing Road because my rent was $300 a month. I think I could have got a nice townhouse for 50 grand back in 1990 when I was there sort of like really? I kind of wish I had bought a place. But you know, the kind of gig that you do when you start out in a small town is everything you know, I did the evening show. I did community cruiser in the summer. You know you're setting up your own remotes. There were wildfires back in the day and First Nations issues. This is like the gone to Watergate era. Right. So there were some similar things in Vernon. And so I would I was going out pretending to be a news guy and getting tape and cutting it up for the for the news director in the morning. And you you know when you're 2021 22 and you can do everything I had to read news, I had to schedule music I had to produce commercials. You know, that's what you want. So yeah, really lucky to get that chance to do it. Everything. You know, there was some people at BCIT one of the stars i gosh, I can't remember his name but he was one of the good guy one of the one of the stars, good guys in grade in the second year. And he his job was to do overnights at JR country and we all fireside Wow. But you know, Brian and Jensen John Ansel and the guys, Terry Garner this like no he need to need to go away. They need to work you know, starting in in Vancouver, you know, that's not where he wants. So I kind of feel bad. You know, some of these these kids who get a gig on the news wheel stations or doing traffic for Skywards or something like that, you know, they get to stay home but I don't know if they're really Learning enough and getting to fail enough, they're kind of kind of stuck in a, in a minimum wage ish environment where 234 years, they just kind of look at and go, What am I doing, but if 234 years, you know, they'd been making minimum wage in Lloydminster, you know, maybe now they're in Medicine Hat, maybe now they're in Red Deer moving their way up, right.
Matt Cundill 5:20
And just last week, I was in the Annapolis Valley, where I got my start. And I feel to this day, and by the way, we're talking summer 1990, just like you were talking summer of 1990, about how connected I wound up becoming to that community. Because of the radio that I was doing, where I had to stop in every farming town to do every bingo to do every auction, every ribbon cutting for you know, a dog show, whatever was going on digging scallops, lobster size says whatever it was, lobster, lobster, contests, whatever that was going on. As a result, I feel more connected to that community today, today. And I know my way around better than I do. Where I am now in Winnipeg, and I've been here for about 15 years, and I don't feel connected one bit. And that may be because the technology we're doing now, the type of work that is involved with radio, like you just mentioned,
Buzz Bishop 6:12
like when you talk about like that, that local connection and all the people you know, I remember when I was there, the Vernon Lakers won the centennial cup for I guess it would have been what Jr A, the their sort of parade when it happens. And you know, our general manager was also a city councilor. And our tagline was closest to the community and there's the Vernon Winter Carnival which is epic and so you're right you do become when you're in that small town and everybody knows each other you can become way more connected invested in what it means to be local. And I think that's that's a good lesson to learn as you as you move up right you know there's there's syndicated morning shows in this country that have to keep it generic and when you get to be local and say a street name or or know what's happening I think you you connect to the people who who you're with. So learning it from a small town is something I think that's served me well through the whole career. Yeah.
Matt Cundill 7:08
Have you done the syndicated thing at all?
Buzz Bishop 7:10
I've done it like well, like a little bit when I was Zed in the 90s. I did like the Canadian Hot 20 So that was just that was just like a produced a countdown show that that went on everywhere. And I did some album launches for algebra, Levine, Christina Aguilera, stuff like that. And then when I was doing middays, at xL in Calgary here, I was asked to do middays at Capital FM, in Edmonton. So I would get up at five in the morning and watch the morning live TV shows from Edmonton. Rob Christie was doing mornings there at the time, Robin Adi and I would listen or try and pay attention to what's happening there then show up to work an hour early and pre voice track for Edmonton and then go and do my Calgary midday show. And to this day, I still it's not it's not syndicated in the sense that it's live. Like one show that's sent everywhere. But I do voice track for Zed from Calgary. I do Saturday mornings and Sunday evenings and then I'm also swing where I'll I'll fill in for their morning show or afternoon driver middays
Matt Cundill 8:19
how'd you get to Zed? Did you go to Zed right after Verna? Yeah,
Buzz Bishop 8:23
so it was inverted from 1990 to 1993. And I started sending out tape in 1991. After 18 months there, I was ready for the next stop. And so that was AM 106 in Calgary, and that's C kom in Regina, and that is Peterborough, and that's Vancouver and you know just kept in touch and started to reach out and get feedback from people that's sending it to, I can't remember but Edmonton sent sending tapes out over and over and over again for 18 months and not really getting anything and then in the spring of 1993. I went to the Junos on my own dime to do a little what I thought would be like a little broadcast tour because you know when you're at BCIT they they send you up on a bus and you go all the way to Prince George. You meet the radio stations and the TV stations and then you stop at Williams Lake and Cornell and Kamloops and Kelowna and Penticton. And then kind of come back. So you meet you meet all the people in the province who might hire you for a summer gig. And like Well, that was great. I met tons of people so maybe I'll go and I'll I'll do my own little broadcast tour. So I went out to the Junos in 1993 met a bunch of people there Pat Holliday at you know some of the showcases like with the tea party or something like that. And we were a Roger station so I went and watched Tarzan Dan at a do his show and Eaton center, just stanchions kids lined up for his whole show just signing autographs and cat Spencer had Spencer was doing evenings. So like I was just trying to meet people right and I took the train up to Ottawa for the launch of Cool FM there and nothing happened in the spring but then by the summer of 1993 Brad Phillips offered me the chance to come back to Zed and do Whew Saturdays and Sundays the shifts I'm doing now I did Saturday night like the house party with DJ swift and cool and Sunday afternoons and so I was I went from doing my evening show in Vernon to doing weekends on Zed and living back with my mom and dad and Richmond was like to work for Brad Phillips. It's pretty awesome to look at it now because he's he's just retired. I sigh as you know, his back to school season photo on his Facebook page resigned now I'm golfing It feels weird not to be going back to work. But, you know, it was it was like Brad, Brad Phillips and Pat cardinal and Gary Russell had a chance to work with all of them through the years. And just like that's, that's like the LG morning Zoo. Like that's that era of LG radio that I that I grew up listening to, you know, Jeff Rechner doing Dr. Morning zoo, Dean hill in the mornings, and Graham hatch and all them and then how we the Hitman at night and assorted other people, David K. And Kat Stewart and others and sort of work with Brad who was the orchestrator of that was just awesome. He would just do little things to to inspire. We had a little brown paper bag in the control room, and he would hotline you. And if you did a great break, he's like buzz going back a burger. And so like their McDonald's Whopper, whatever. Wendy's coupons in the bag, bagged burger one time we were doing the sticker spotting, I got to do that on Zed. Two, when I started. That wasn't I was just doing weekend. So I got to be the first sticker spotter that we had said, and he didn't think we were being sexy and excited about it enough on the radio. So we had one of our Thursday meetings. And there's 1520 of us in the room. And he's like, who has a sticker on their car, six of us put our hands up. When he just goes around and drops $100 bill on our lap. And everybody else was like, what? And those of us who got one we're like, yes. And he's like, see? See, it's 100 bucks, but look how excited the listeners are now take that and go and do it on the radio. And famously, he would come in and on our whiteboard, right? 10.0 like we were gunning for a 10 Share. Nick, one summer we got up to 12 and a half or 13. And he would constantly remind us that these are the good old days. Like, you know, we we had a huge staff. We had a full time street machine driver back then. You know, other half a dozen ops and we had mix show DJs and swing was a shift and we had a newsroom. Valerie Ambrose was doing our morning news. And so it was yeah, it was it was the good old days. And he you know, he left us to go and do chum in Toronto and then went on to do TV and then came back to chorus for their for his final act. But yeah, it's just to be with somebody who built such legends was was pretty cool.
Matt Cundill 12:47
And Zed 95 was, was it the first top 40 on FM because the hit non hit went away in the early 90s. I think for a number of markets.
Buzz Bishop 12:57
Hitting on hit was a thing for Zed. Okay, so
Matt Cundill 13:01
I'm sorry. So hitting on him was still years from going away. But like a top 40 on FM there weren't too many of them in big markets across Canada.
Buzz Bishop 13:08
No, no, that was like the beginning I'm trying to think of like, I don't know if Zedd was before or after the powers in Calgary and Edmonton. But cool in Ottawa was one of the stations that I was trying to get a job with back in 93. But it was all around that era. So what did we have to do? We had to do uniques so we had to play songs that weren't charting or weren't anywhere. And so that's where you have Zed breaking acts like Jamiroquai And Asa bass and like Joe Nichols was the music director and we were just so far ahead on everything. And like moist we were the first radio station to play moist I played their song picture Elvis off a dat tape in the control room. So that kind of helped Zedd stand out the hit not hit I think.
Matt Cundill 13:56
Yeah, so now I'm gonna name drop. How did Bobby Gale managed to get moist as an independent promoter on to Zed before he managed to get it on to you know see Fox
Buzz Bishop 14:06
well that's that's Joe Nichols. Right he was the music director and and he would get the stuff on and like I said, it was just like it would some stuff would come up with a CD cart you know, says CD 2145 cut six and some said run wild. And so there was just like a the old cassette deck thing with dat tapes and that and you'd have to go and find it. Sybil Thrasher or indecision or moist or when we were Thomas Thomas Donovan, like I still have some of the the Zed compilation discs from back in the 90s. And just the artists we played rose Chronicles, we broke rose Chronicles, we were big into network artists. Back when a radio station could be influential, we had to be different and we we got a lot of our stuff out of the UK we ran a show called UK chart attack and we had the new music hour and so those songs would kind of get like four nights a week we're playing new music for an hour from 10 to 11 or 11 to 12 and that was But Joe Nichols and then later Curtis strange would do and and that just kind of people were listening to it there was no other way to discover in 1993 new music and so you know, stuff got a chance to get feedback.
Matt Cundill 15:13
And by 1996 said was sold, I think we went
Buzz Bishop 15:16
from standard no sorry, went from South Fraser broadcasting to standard in 1996. And that's where some of the changes happen. That's when when Brad moved on to go to CHM in Toronto, and that's where Eric Samuels came in a to run us from the bear in Edmonton. That's right.
Matt Cundill 15:35
So he was, he was my program director. But you know, Edmonton and you have an opportunity to go find yourself a house where you could look at, say, the ocean.
Buzz Bishop 15:48
I love I'd been I love Edmonton for about three blocks either side of the valley. And then after that, it's just like, well, I might as well be anywhere between the mountains and Thunder Bay. You know, if you can, if you can find an area looking at the North Saskatchewan. I think you're fine. The rest of it. I don't like it. She had
Matt Cundill 16:07
argue with you. Except in all three places. I lived in Edmonton where within a couple blocks of the river
Buzz Bishop 16:13
valley. Yeah, right. Give me Give me the trees in the water and some some topography and it's okay, the rest of it is just flat industrial park, like what most of Calgary is, frankly.
Matt Cundill 16:26
And I had Eric Samuels on the show. I mean, it must have been like five years ago at this point that I had him on. But one of the things I do remember from the conversation was giving away a house some of the more larger than life promotions of all time and he gave away a house or a condo,
Buzz Bishop 16:42
we gave away suite 501 in the 501. So this is when Yaletown is getting redeveloped. And it's one of the first buildings that they put up. So it's where Carlos and Charlie's was, is that what it what the Mexican place have look like an old auto garage. And we're like, we're talking like right at the foot of the Granville Street Bridge, right on the edge of El town like, fantastic location today. And so we just kind of went on and said at some point in the next whenever, we're going to take call our 501 Giveaway suite 501, in the building was called the 501. And so we did weeks of pre programming and promotion, David Bowie came and performed a set in the trailer that they had set up, David Bowie played a real estate building trailer. And so it was all that sort of stuff to promote, and then just randomly would take caller 501. And it was somebody from up on the Sunshine Coast whose kid was going to be going to University in the fall, and they got it in the kid didn't have to worry about a comms, we fried the phone lines. That's why somebody want it from the Sunshine Coast because everything would go down. Like that was so big. Back in the day, like when we would do sticker spotting events. It got to the point where like, we were gonna we were doing them at gas stations and or in a Blockbuster Video parking lot, like come on by and everybody comes by gets envelopes and random cash in them that we were making other radio stations, traffic reports, the police didn't like us doing them. And so finally we would end up going to places that had that had big parking lots where you could weave people around like Thunderbird stadium, or up at the top of Mount Seymour. We did one up there. And there was a line getting up to the top of Mount Seymour for people to get their sticker stuff. And so yeah, like that 96 to 2000 era was just so big. We also gave away a was a new life for the new millennium. So this was 99 to 2000. So you got the condo out in like Surrey. Cloverdale. Got a car, a boat, paid a bunch of your bills and gave you a dog. Because you know life is complete without a dog. So we covered adoption fees on that. But again, just massive, massive, like Eric went bigger and bigger every single time.
Matt Cundill 19:01
So you're obviously well versed in the 90s as it pertains to top 40 music. And I sort of look at it's funny because it's 25 years this year, but 1998 is is I mean that's the year when the 90s arrived at its peak, every boy band is hitting it.
Buzz Bishop 19:18
It's Morley dad just about like that. That is right on the edge of Yeah. 98 It's with more 99 But yeah, 98 Sure, but we're also
Matt Cundill 19:27
not into Napster territory yet. When it starts to really splinter. I think I look at it'd be 98 Like where there was not a rock pop to kick in about you know, the semi Sonics and the third eye blinds and the I mean, you could play it on see Fox. You could also play it on Zed 95.
Buzz Bishop 19:44
Yeah, and we were like, We were playing Soundgarden and Nirvana and Metallica on Zed, and it was playing on on C Fox. You know, it's interesting you say like that. It's been 25 years because everybody feels what 1984 is the greatest year of pop music and there's that that book about it that I keep reserving at the library and ever going and picking up but maybe somebody needs to write that that 25 years later book about 1998 being that thing because you know you write like you have you have Spice Girls you have yeah that pop rock you know friends is massive sets like your Rembrandt's and soul asylum and Gin Blossoms and all that stuff. Pretty good time. Will Smith is just about to be with the millennium. Sheryl Crow, Lilith fair is huge.
Matt Cundill 20:30
And the only difference between the Backstreet Boys I want it that way. And why it's not on rock radio is because Nickelback didn't sing it.
Buzz Bishop 20:38
Pretty much. I mean, yeah. Nickelback gets it for for the formula, but how can you not can you not like because they put on a great show and they're great guys.
Matt Cundill 20:48
Yet all through the 90s One of the other things to come out of it was the internet. And you've always sort of had this thing with technology and an understanding of websites and been quite attracted to to all things tech, and even had I think cyber buzz started in the 90s as well which was syndicated radio piece about the internet.
Buzz Bishop 21:10
Yeah, I got my website cyber buzz.com 1996 and a buddy of mine Tom Shipman, who was Tomic fly on air. He was doing a tech feature with Howie because you know, I came in and I don't know if I get a lot of credit for it or if I've managed to build a brand about around being tech ish. It's it's really how we Cogan and Joe Nichols who blazed the trail and they own stacks of Wired Magazine and in the Music Office and those guys really got it my buddy Tom was doing this radio show with with how we and with Marc Saltzman was was doing tech stuff with with Tom and how he too. They were doing like a tech talk tech minute thing and he wanted something a little more hip and less CK NW more Zed, right? So we started cyber buzz and pitched it and went ended up going for four or five years on radio stations around Canada and in Australia and armster Armed Forces Radio Network. And yeah, that was a fun little thing to just do a 62nd feature about radio, I guess when you talk about syndicating that I guess that was my my syndicated thing, right? You do one piece of work and sell it 100 times. That's that's the way to win. Right Seacrest and Rick Dees and Casey Qassem. You know, that's that's how you do it one, write one show and sell it 100 times. But that was the kind of thing that I did back then, you know, a 62nd explainer on Napster or Google or Wikipedia? Yeah. So that was fun. And it's weird how I fell in to the internet, it was just like a local community group in Vancouver asked me to come and do a bulletin board chat with some kids after school one day. And I did it. I was like, wow, this is this is wild. You know, we had a Commodore 64. And in the early 80s, and my brother, and I would write out programs from computers because that was, I wanted to be an astronaut drive the space shuttle when I was a kid. So tech, and all that stuff sort of interested me. And then after these, after I did that chat, we learned what the internet was about. Then I went out and spent three grand on a, I don't know, 512 mag computer, I don't know, just some big brown box that I eventually eventually painted gold. Got online.
Matt Cundill 23:33
What did you think the relationship between the internet and radio was back then? And sort of thing? Can you think of a time when you may have gone to a program director or a general manager or head of tech somewhere and said, We really need a website? We needed to do this? Because
Buzz Bishop 23:50
no I was. I followed the trail that that how we and Joe had had Blaze eventually when they moved on, then I was I was helping design the website. Hey, we have to have JavaScript with our ISP and everything, when you go back in the Wayback Machine has to not be able to show up anymore because it doesn't work. I guess I always saw the internet for radio stations as as the pamphlet as the shownotes as the archive. You know, let's let's put our countdown up there every week when you interview an artist, let's get the interviews up. Let's put extra content in there. You know, I guess cyber buzz started as a cool side of the day sort of thing where I would write a weekly column for for the station's website and then eventually my own talking about cool websites and tech. But you know, at one point we even had Zed mail, a Hotmail sort of thing where you could get mad at Zed mail.com. And that some of that stuff was pushed by like the ISP who wanted new stuff, but I'm always kind of embarrassed that I was there in 1996 And I could have bought a bunch of domains. And I, I knew some of the people who went on to do big things. And I was following and I, I could have done that. But either I stopped doing it too early, or it was always just a side hobby and radio has always been the important thing. Yeah. And I, I stayed up on it until I had kids and in 2007, that's kind of when the internet stuff kind of faded for me a little bit.
Matt Cundill 25:28
And that's also around the time that social media took off. Coincidentally, yeah, well, I mean, I don't think the two are related.
Buzz Bishop 25:35
I remember like, it was, it was my space that was really huge. For me as a, as a radio guy, where I was getting, like, hundreds of 1000s of views on content, I would do show notes every day after my show, and put them on my MySpace. And that was when I was doing drive on set at the time that was really, that was big and led to drive traffic to my personal websites. But now this is pre AdSense and trying to monetize or anything but just general traffic was was good. And MySpace is that because it was so personalized. You could have, you know, all the colors and the flashing themes and the so it's just kind of a victim of 90s web design. And, you know, Facebook comes on in the what? Oh, 506 Yeah, and it's clean and simple. And and then it just goes, it just goes from there. Yeah.
Matt Cundill 26:38
Meanwhile, Matt is still enjoying geo cities.
Buzz Bishop 26:42
Hollywood Hills slash 44144454. I was on Geo cities in the Atlantis Morissette era of the mid late 90s. And that's where Virpi manninen I've haven't said that name in forever. But she was a huge Atlantis fan from Finland. And her and I would talk on Geo cities all the time. Okay. aside, what do you want to
Matt Cundill 27:07
talk a little bit about milkman? Because he was also one of the first you know, to start community. But you mentioned posting your show notes on MySpace, but yet you're a regular contributor to his milk prep board. And you would sometimes put your stuff up there too. And I thought, well, this would be great. If it didn't happen three hours ago, I was in the east.
Buzz Bishop 27:32
Yeah, again, another person who was there at the beginning, right. And saw it, and has written it for 25 years now. And made a nice little side hustles slash second career for himself out of it. Yeah. Do I wish I would have gone and done that? Probably that would have been been very nice to have going on the site. But somebody else did it. You did a great job with it.
Matt Cundill 27:55
But what you are out what you have purchased? I mean, you kind of got pets.com? Like what would you
Buzz Bishop 28:00
know, right? So I got cyber buzz.com, which in the mid 90s is pretty cool. Cyber was a pretty hot word.
Matt Cundill 28:08
While I was going to ask you about that, because cyber meant something it did.
Buzz Bishop 28:12
And I was almost the cyber buzz.com. And then when I went to actually go and do the registration, the cyber buzz.com It expired, somebody from Hong Kong or whatever had had it. Because like a couple of weeks before, it was like $10,000, you can buy it. And I'm like, I'm not doing that. And then I just went to register and I got it. So cyber buzz.com was pretty cool. And then I had cyber buzz.tv and dotnet. And I still have like 25 URLs, but just mostly my family names and my blogging stuff. But yeah, I should have bought going into the URL business would have been good too. Like I can see things coming. But I'm just so far ahead before the waves hit. And I just kind of give up when it still ripples.
Matt Cundill 28:56
What would you like to buy? radio.com? That's for sale?
Buzz Bishop 28:59
What are you gonna do with radio.com? I mean, the sell it to I heard is that? Do they even have it?
Matt Cundill 29:06
Odyssey has it? They don't even want it anymore?
Buzz Bishop 29:07
Which is well, I you know, but it doesn't a URL doesn't matter anymore, unless it's related to your name. You know, X is valuable for Musk to change it from Twitter. But you know, sometimes I'll see reading commercials now even and the URL doesn't match the business name just like what are you doing? Maybe you couldn't get it. But that's the only way I think URLs matter. It's almost like you have to choose the business name based on what's available on social or URLs. I wrote an article when I one of the freelance things I did was I wrote a tech column for 24. Commuter newspaper, and I have the article. It's in our bathroom downstairs. My wife framed it and it's talking when you pick choose your baby name. Make sure you get the domain name when you when your baby's born. So both of mine sons have their name.com as as web URLs, maybe and back then some people were choosing baby names based on which domain they can get. I don't know if it matters now, but
Matt Cundill 30:11
if I had a chance to start my company again, I wouldn't have called it sound off. I mean, in 2014, I thought, well, this is going to work. And then out comes the smart speakers. And both of them are commands sound off. It's a complete clusterfuck for every sound command. Like you don't want to have like a new show called start here. Like ABC does in New York. The smart speakers come out and like the smart speaker. What the hell do you want me to do?
Buzz Bishop 30:40
What do you want me to know sound off first start here. I know well, even I can't even get I can't even get it to say XL 103 Half the time or try and get on like you know if I want to listen to Zed from Vancouver on on my apple Speaker I can no idea how to make it work. That's which is sad. You know, I want to kitchen radio. Good luck. Good luck finding a kitchen radio.
Matt Cundill 31:04
And you've done every shift practically on set 95 I think
Buzz Bishop 31:08
everything but mid days. I did traffic fill in one time I produced for Rona Raskin on Sex, Lies and videotape. Did New Year's Eve Christmas day. Yep. So I slept at the radio station a couple of times. Because of this. Like I knew Snow was coming. And so I would go the night before noon, knowing I was doing mornings during Christmas weekend. I didn't want to get stuck. So I'd sleep at the radio station the night before. But yeah, I didn't like that at the beginning. It was pretty tribal. I grew up on LG 73. Right. And then Zed launches in in the spring of 1991. And it's like ah the Oilers got McDavid. And I'm a flames fan. But you know, eventually, how could you not love it, there was just so much energy around that radio station and the look they were selling. They were selling merch in dogs eared boutiques, and I still have both my Zed shirts like a radio station that sells merch and it was wanted and craved and the Zed stickers still so ubiquitous from the 90s. And we had so many different iterations of it, you still go down alleys of Davie street and find them on the back of Smith rights and or old cars out in the valley where they're covered in Zed stickers, you know, it's just such an epic time to be in top 40 radios, like Brad says really wasn't good old days.
Tara Sands (Voiceover) 32:53
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Matt Cundill 33:07
So one of the things I didn't get about later part of the 90s, maybe even into the 2000s is when stations started to muck about with their brands. Well, we don't need to call it Zed anymore. We're gonna call it Craig or we're gonna call it virgin. Where if you're going to be in Ottawa, we're not going to call it cool anymore. We're going to call it Bob or whatever the next thing was, that came after it, Mark. By the way, here's the t shirt. Thanks for growing up with us. These are the good old days are over. Yeah. Well,
Buzz Bishop 33:33
Zed really had like it was so big. And then you know everything comes down, right? And so you have the sign on of the beat at 94.5 and it comes out guns a blazing playing all the hip hop and r&b stuff. And that's huge book was a summer book but it was always seeking NWC ah QM light rock less talk your favorites Gloria Estefan, Michael Bolton, Rod Stewart, Johnson Cata, like Sarah McLaughlin, like, you know, you can, you can hear the commercials now, you have QM cutting out your shoulders and the beat cutting out your ankles, right. And whereas Zed for a while could have signal dominance over LG and play similar music and could could be a 12 to 44 year old radio station. Now all of a sudden, times are changing and things got tight. So there were many logo changes. I remember one of our logos was a very, very thin, narrow Zed, which became tough to put in newspapers and stuff because it was was just kind of too tight and didn't fit a square. So if you tried to shrink it down to the same size of everybody else's, it was like pencil thin, but it was kind of like, like a real estate like a condo building like this is when the El town's getting redeveloped. Right and it kind of looked like the logo of a real estate building but it was sleek and elegant, had browns and cements and black in it. And then Zed blows up and eventually then we become crave, I guess which Eric did. And that was trying to trying to get, I'm sorry, sorry, that's my series trying to get back into QM ranks and trying to become a 2544 station again 2534 And then the Virgin thing was just with the astral by, right? Like they had to have when they like did the licensing for Virgin. They had to have a certain number of stations run with the Virgin branding across the country so so we were the one on horseshoe way to have that. That party was fun. Phil Evans was our promotions director at the time I've worked with some like you talked about the program directors but some pretty epic promotions directors as well who came up with this stuff carry Maxwell Phil Evans and Dave with a W can't remember the name. Like everybody just thought big and back then we had had the budgets but the launch party for Virgin like we're we're encouraged to be edgy and out there. And so we had a guy walking around our party naked for no reason. Just like he was stark naked just walking around the party just small talk. Like of course he's supposed to be there and we did it at the restaurant. On the tapa. The the bathrooms that kits Beach, filled did the SUVs like they were Ford explorers did them up like planes. And so our street team were the flight crew. So they had all vintage 60s, flight outfits, where there was body painting going on. And there was like, tarot reading and fire tossing and naked guy walking around. I think I still have the picture. And it's like everybody who was there, like all our clients and the staff for the launch and we gave it away to some listeners. And then just one random naked guy.
Matt Cundill 36:48
That when Richard Branson comes in and sprays everybody with champagne and walks out, yeah,
Buzz Bishop 36:52
I wasn't there for Sir Richard's visit. I got to interview him on the phone once when we did the launch. I was lucky I got to do the launch. I don't remember much about it. But I remember interviewing him for the launch of that that was pretty cool. And then then Ronnie Ronnie was Ronnie Stanton was there about the time we did the launch for for Virgin, and we went to like six day a week shifts. We were each doing three hour shifts and you would do a Saturday shift and then the next weekend get both of them off but because the shifts were so short, you pulled you know 11 out of 14. And Ronnie had like a great theory about that was like Why? Why does everybody do it Monday to Friday, you know two sevenths of your cube and reach and TSL can be on the weekend. So he devoted resources to the weekend. I remember when when brother Jake started in Vancouver he was like Saturdays and Sundays like that that was what he did on rock one on one and it was a Monday to Friday morning show with the joke guy and all of them doing their things. We had that for a while how we Cogan came in and did like a full morning show on on Saturdays and Sundays like stations could could do well with that having good bench strength for for holiday time, who was Joe Leary used to have Fred Lachrymose cover in Vancouver at Kiss FM. And so Fred didn't work Fridays, except in the book and he had eleventy billion holiday days. So Fred was making his starts with a four starts with a five starts with a six whatever it was, and then Joe came in and made high five low six figures. I don't know what it was back in the day to work two thirds of the just work Fridays and his holiday time it was like that's a pretty nice part time gig was pretty sweet back in the day,
Matt Cundill 38:36
if you're going to listen Monday to Friday, anytime. And then you can turn on the radio Saturday and still hear sort of some sort of resemblance to what you heard Monday to Friday, why not Saturday's just an absolute goldmine for a radio station right up until three o'clock to just have some consistency with the whole thing. And as well, people on Saturday, they got more time to dedicate and listen to your show. So why would you have somebody who's never on Monday to Friday in that period? I get it totally
Buzz Bishop 39:03
right. And the weekends are such a an errand thing. Like it's not, oh, we know they're in the car between 430 and six o'clock. They're in and out of the car the whole time. But either if you give them a reason to stay, maybe there's less punching on the weekend. And we can piss and shit on on voice tracking out of market and all that stuff. It still is better than what it used to be. When, you know they cut the shows and just ran. jukeboxes. You know, I I think I think the people who are voice tracking now it's I don't think in Canada was run ragged like I'll follow what shady radio PD or shady radio jock on Instagram and they talk about the people doing that was this is on seven stations and four formats and three cities or whatever it is. I don't think it's that bad here. I don't think it's autopilot. I think people really put an effort into understand where they are and what they're doing and and that's that's why I don't have an ethical problem with what I do on Zed. My parents still live there. I go back three times a year, the city I grew up in, and I think I could do a show as if I was there. So even if I'm voice tracking the morning show on Zed, and then doing a morning show in Calgary, I think it still sounds pretty damn vocal.
Matt Cundill 40:20
Yeah, actually, some of my favorite shows are just voice tracked into the market. Because they're just they're talented people. They're well done. I love listening to fearless, Fred. I get to listen to fearless, Fred. I get to listen to Lynch, Greg B. Harrell.
Buzz Bishop 40:38
Oh, Tyler and Lynch do such a great job. I remember when they were doing when they were doing weekdays at x in Calgary. And I was up in sundry or I don't know, on some camping trip with my son and flipping around. And there they are doing a weekend show. And I'm like, yeah, that's, that's tight. I think repurposing content, you know, like, like what we do. We being Stingray with Katie and Edie. Where, you know, they do a morning show. And then it's Katie net at night. And it's on stations right across the country. It's like, just think about all the great radio that you did that just it was for 30,000. People who are listening for that minute, and it never comes back. So you know, the web gets to archive it, you can drive it back there, but to really recycle and rerun it. I think it's I think it can be smart programming.
Matt Cundill 41:27
There's still a lot of radio stations who are wasting it. They are doing great content. They're doing it once not enough people hear it. And especially when you're sitting rain, you've got all these radio stations and you can roll them out to various blocks. I kind of liked the fact that real country 95 Five, with Vinnie, and Randy,
Buzz Bishop 41:48
and Randy, how could you not remember Randy's name? She's been on your show 14 times. That's twice.
Matt Cundill 41:54
But I've also called her like three different names at three different times. So I was struggling with.
Buzz Bishop 42:02
Yeah, so but yeah, but they do. That's great. Right there, right across the province.
Matt Cundill 42:08
I might have had her on three times.
Buzz Bishop 42:10
But you know, I even have, I have guilt. And I have to get over it, of doing something in the sixth and then bringing it back in the eighth. And our consultant is like, that thing you did at six o'clock is like, that's your I mean, that's great. That's great content, but that's your lowest quarter hour. And why aren't you bringing that back for three times the audience at eight o'clock. And he's like, whether you go on, like you're recording things and rip it off the logger and run it as is or you try to redo it and redoing It'll never work, frankly, but he's like, do it again. And that's something Melissa, who is Katy and Ed's producer on amp. She's really good at bringing stuff back. And she'll do something Thursday at 8am and then bring it back the next Tuesday at 6am. And, and just, you know, constantly distilling their content and, and just the good stuff gets to air all the time.
Matt Cundill 43:04
Yeah, and it's a good thing. You could bring back some of your stuff from the 90s that you saved on digital.
Buzz Bishop 43:08
It you know, I can get a real audio player. But you know what saving the stuff is one of the greatest things that I that I did back in the day, because I do bring it back on the 90 show that I run on Zed. I play old interviews that I did with Spice Girls and Puff Daddy and no doubt and my Atlantis interview. I can't it must be sitting on a reel somewhere. But and even this week, the Rolling Stones are back with a new album right? Well I interviewed Mick Jagger when he did an album with Rod, Rob Thomas and like 2002 or something. So I've just got little clips of him or you know, the station classic hit station. I interviewed Barry White, because one of my co hosts was like that was the freaky music for her and her husband, Sarah jewel. She's now a writer in the Maritimes. So for Valentine's Day One year I got her a gift because Barry White was huge on Ally McBeal. Michaels call it Barry White. Well, now I've got Barry White interviews that I can run 25 years later on a classic hit station and it's it's, it's Yeah, reusing and recycling is not bad.
Matt Cundill 44:15
Oh, you really did keep some stuff. I was thinking maybe you met some of it go. But you did keep it good for you.
Buzz Bishop 44:19
No, oh, God, no, you know, working. Red Robinson was across the hall. When I was at Zedd. He was doing mornings on CIO. And he would be like, Buddy Holly and oh the time Buddy Holly and I went for triple o burgers at white spot and just and then he would play the tape and the hallways were filled with the photos. And so that just kind of got me it's just like I'm I'm doing that now. Maybe my su medley and Boulevard interviews and Harem Scarem that I did in Vernon would have been something if I had saved them, but I didn't. So then then I started and so cardigans and annex s and, and and Chris Shepard And and so just everything I got it and then I tried to get people to sign sign a CD for me. So I've got some memories in the basement and you know, Beyonce is birthday this week and got an interview of her with her when she was 16. And a photo is like yeah, that's pretty cool.
Matt Cundill 45:18
I have the Atlantis interview from 1991 kicking around here somewhere.
Buzz Bishop 45:22
Ah, that's my favorite era.
Matt Cundill 45:24
Yes, like long before she you know,
Buzz Bishop 45:27
Lana's no more acet right Lana's? Yes, I had such a crush on her. It was a running joke for my first year and a half at Zed because we were still playing no regrets. And, gosh, I can't remember the other one from now is the time album number three, but, and then all of a sudden she comes in, in the summer of 1995. And I am I hosted the album launch party at automotive pool hall. And then she went and did a set at the starfish room like 80 people. I'm just like, Oh, do you remember I interviewed you all these times and I asked you to be my date for the Junos and and and and then she said I have a poster downstairs that just says hey again. And yeah. I don't know. She remembers to this day, but I remind her out of bad crush.
Matt Cundill 46:21
How did you get to Calgary? And why did you get to Calgary?
Buzz Bishop 46:24
I got blown out. blown out. So three years in Vernon 16 in Vancouver. And you know, 16 is a pretty good run. So I got blown out summer of 2009. And they put Kai and Tara Jean doing afternoon drive and Kevin Lim was coming in the radio station. So like all super talented people. Yeah, just one of those things. You go into a meeting and Brad Phillips and Ronnie Stanton are both there. And there's a brown envelope on the table and a guy waiting for you in the room next door. Talk about stuff. So yeah, that was that was July 2009. It was the hottest day of the year. wife was pregnant. We just gotten married like, and yeah, it was a hard time. And I sent out tapes. And I started working with momentum media buddy, just like hey, can I hang out in your office just so I have somewhere to go for six hours a day. And so I started thinking about radio features on social media, the social 60 and, and helping and working on syndication, stuff like that. I went in one day, and I said, I think that's it. I think my microphone is off. I think I'm, I'm done and I'm ready for an office job. And then a week later, I got a call from Mazz asking me for an interview. And so I interviewed with Pat Cardinal first, and then flew out to Calgary and interviewed with with Mazz and Vinca. And then a week later, I had a job offer and by Christmas of 2009 I was driving through the snow with all my stuff in the back of a car and definitely afraid of it freezing if I left it outside overnight and yeah, moved here. So I was I was lucky. You know, Pat Cardinal gave me that. That second chance and Steve Jones, who's been huge in my career over the past 1415 years, I guess, you know, that's the thing when I when I look at it, the people who I've had watching over me, Brad Phillips, Eric Samuels, okay, Ronnie Stanton blows me out. But I still have a good relationship with Facebook and talk to him and give him a big hug if I saw him again. And then I come here and it's been 15 years under, under Steve Jones and Ian Lurie running the whole ship back from astral days. So yeah, I've just had really great people who believed in me and have given me second third fourth chances to to keep at it. So yeah, that's how I ended up in Calgary. I was actually hired to do amp. So the top 40 station I was doing mornings at amp with Blake, we were buzzing Blake, and then she left after a year to go to Toronto, and then couldn't find anybody for me and I was just floundering. And then again, I go into a meeting Vinca and Don Stevens are in the room and Vinca has an envelope and Don Stevens has an envelope and vincas envelope is the severance package. And Don Stephens envelope is I want you to come and do mid days on Excel for me. And it was a big cut in pay. But I was just like alright, I guess it's time to go to the seniors to her and and start playing the classic hits. And so it was seven years of six, seven years and mid days. And now it's been 565 and a bit years of mornings. Don had a heart attack and some back surgery and I filled in for him for two weeks with a Joanne and coach, and that's that became the chance that I had where they told they told management is like, this guy's good. He could, he could do it. And so then once Don decided to retire then that became that's, that's where I got it.
Matt Cundill 50:17
He talks about all the great people you worked with and the station wise. You didn't work for any losers. They're all winners,
Buzz Bishop 50:23
right? Like like CGI be even back in the day it was just us and and a country station, who just happened to be programmed by James Stewart Heusen across the street back in the day, right. Like, not not a bat at Lake let's drop another legend in the in the talk. And but, but they were country, and we weren't. And so we were 60 shares 70 Share. Yeah, and then go to Zed. Ride that for all the peaks and then XL which was just, you know, classic hits at the right time with heritage Cole letters, and, you know, coming in the, in the heels of Don Stevens, you know, I I liken it sometimes to Who's that guy that took over for Dick Clark? Nobody knows. But there was a guy for a little bit. I just kind of feel like that's that's me. But this, you know, the stations pivoting and it's getting younger with the approach and you know, it's a different time for radio. You can totally take a classic
Matt Cundill 51:21
hit station younger. Oh, for sure. More than ever. Yeah,
Buzz Bishop 51:26
no, you totally can, you know, and everybody is even before q1 oh seven flip to talk here in Calgary. They were adding soul asylum and Gin Blossoms and stuff like that. We have a 90 station here in Calgary that they brand themselves as 90s. And that may be their wheelhouse, but they'll still go into some current stuff like they'll play Adele, or they'll play Abba, right. So you have that. And then you have your stars across the country, which are constantly reinventing what hot AC is and an amp, like even amp plays, Counting Crows, and all come in in the morning and they're across the hall. Stop playing my music. Can you like I know you need to get the top end. But can you stop already? Like they'll they'll play county cruiser Whitney Houston and so will we. And then well, but they play Drake and we play April wine. So it balances out.
Matt Cundill 52:20
Gen Z understands classic hits and they love it. Oh, totally. My
Buzz Bishop 52:24
son is my son's 14. And last year, I took him to see Elton John and Paris. And if Mick Jagger doesn't get COVID and Amsterdam, we would have seen the Rolling Stones the next night. So it's like he loves queen and I'm like, Well, do you want to go see queen with Adam Lambert? He's like, No, it's not the same. Without Freddy. And he's got his iPod in and like what are you listening to? Oh, Ziggy Stardust. Okay. He's 14. So yeah, he gets it.
Get that shirt in Paris?
I ordered it. This is the French National Soccer Team pre Second World Championship. It's only got the one. But I do. I do love to live my labeler was that
Matt Cundill 53:06
the greatest World Cup ever? Even though France didn't win? I don't. So the answer was yes. I was yes. And you skipped past it?
Buzz Bishop 53:15
No, because the first one in our era where they lost to Italy was was pretty awesome because that was my wife and I's first date. We had met the week before and we flew to Montreal to watch the World Cup at a bar in my island.
Matt Cundill 53:32
So was that the one we're Zinidine Zidane and headbutt
Buzz Bishop 53:36
the Dan headbutts 2006 2006 Yeah, so that was that was my wife and I's like first weekend away so that World Cup will always always be memorable even though even though we lost you're watching
Matt Cundill 53:51
in Milan you're closer to the Italian part of town then than anything else are different.
Buzz Bishop 53:55
Yeah - I know. There are there are a lot of there was a lot of Italian Italian is almost French and Montreal though. Like when when I hear when I hear a francophone like you know, like Freeway Frank. Just his accent to me that Italian French English like that's a Montreal accent it's the mix of the three
Matt Cundill 54:19
it all comes together but when we all hang around each other and sort of fumble through languages we all say Depanneur kind of the same way
Buzz Bishop 54:27
Right exactly. Depanneur. Okay, so that's
Matt Cundill 54:30
cat Spencer's old bit right?
Buzz Bishop 54:33
That's cat Spencer
Matt Cundill 54:33
The way you said that is the way he would say the dialing for Depanneur bit
Buzz Bishop 54:38
Which I've honestly never heard I just know about.
Matt Cundill 54:42
Okay, I'm gonna go looking for a clip and I'm gonna put it in right here. So I'm just gonna put the show on hold for just a second. This is our on hold music. I tried hard but I didn't find a clip of Cat Spencer doing dialing for Depanneurs - But I do have a clip of him recording Dialing for Depanneurs in the studio, this was taken from an old high school video from 1998. The bit like most great bits had some pre recording to it. A Depanneur is what they call a corner store in Montreal. You could also get beer and wine there. Whereas in the rest of Canada, your beverage choices were confined to soda and Slurpees. Cat would call the store and say one of three things. Hello, hi, or Depanneur. I believe there was a radio contestant involved who would have to guess how many times they would have an interaction in order to win a prize. But like most fun radio contests, it's not about the winning and losing, but how much fun it is for the listener to play along. And even all these years later in Montreal, if you say dialing for Depanneurs - people know what you're talking about.
Cat Spencer 55:44
Hello, hello. Oh, hi. Hello. Hello. Oh, hi. Is it Depanneur? Yes. Is it Depanneur? Oh, hello. Hi. Hello. Hello. Hello. Yes. Hello. Hello. Oh, hi. Hi. Hi. Hi. It's Hello. So it's Depanneur. Yes. Hello. Who's speaking? It's Depanneur. Yes. Oh, hi. Hi. Hello. Hi. Hello.
Buzz Bishop 56:18
Speaking of Legends, right, like here he is. 30 years later still knocking back the fast the cinq a sept.
Matt Cundill 56:26
Oh, I was in Montreal. It's CHOM when he arrived. Yeah, and right. We we made fun of him. When he arrived. We got some IDs out on Chom reminding everybody to have their cat spayed or neutered. Yeah, that guy. He got our attention and he was good. And Pat Holiday and everybody there beat us. Well, but uh, but a year later. So. Have you ever done a podcast?
Buzz Bishop 56:50
I did one in 2006 or seven. It was called This Week in news and entertainment. It was modeled after pardon the interruption. And I did it with my buddy Roger Kincaid, who was crash when he was at x in Vancouver. And then he came in worked at Zed for a heartbeat. He just kind of walked into Eric Samuels, and Eric Samuels was looking for him. And they both just kind of went. This doesn't work. Rogers, alt rock news guy. And here he was trying to be all hype about loving and it didn't brand van 3000 just didn't fit or whatever. But Roger is a fantastic guy, and would later have success here in Calgary on alt rock on x here and doing news on QR. So back in oh six, we started that that podcast, we would go back and forth. He would one of us would read a headline just like we'll bond does on PTI, and then the other guy would sound off. We'd debate bell rings go to the next one. And it would be everything from Yeah, news and entertainment politics to Bennifer. Right. And I, we did maybe 15 or 20. But this is 2006. Right? So you've got Adam curry, me and Roger, probably Leo Laporte twit network. And, like not much else, like really, really early days. And so getting it up and getting people to grab it was kind of like, hey, go, like you'd go to your MySpace and put a put something for people to listen to. It wasn't really easy to get. And so yeah, we did it for a few months and then stopped. But that's another one of those things that like when I when I think about the concept even today, I think it would work. I I'm more of a tight produced podcast fan, as opposed to three hours of Rogen. I want in and out I want my story. I like that's why I like I like podcasts of radio shows that put their feature interviews up right, like so give me half an hour of stuff. So but that was Yeah. So we did a podcast for a bit way back.
Matt Cundill 59:00
She's like radio shows has catch up radio or podcast being like, catch up radio where you can listen to it later.
Buzz Bishop 59:06
Oh, for sure. I mean, that's, I think that's that's how you have to. That's how you have to do it. That's why we do the show notes. Back in the day, right? Oh, yeah. You're in the car. You heard me talking about a cool app, a website a news story? A hot new T shirt, where can I get it? Well, you're not writing it down when you're in the car. And I even find myself because I do the radio shows that I had listened to are off podcasts. And if I'm listening live and I miss something I'm I'm hitting my back 15 seconds button that doesn't exist. Can you save I missed it. Can you say that again? Like time shifting is real life. Now I the only reason I have a cable subscription is for the six o'clock news which I most often PVR and watch later, watching sports. And then my wife likes to have house shows on is randomly on a Saturday afternoon. But at night when I'm settling in getting ready for the next day, I'm going into it whichever streaming service I'm watching drops of God right now, which is a couple of years old. It's a Japanese French, English show about wine friend recommended. So I just started it, but I'm watching that, but here it is. It's like three years old. Back in the day. If you didn't watch that very special episode of Webster, you never saw that very special episode of Webster. So repurposing the content has has to happen. And hopefully my show will get to a point where I have breaks that are worth repurposing. Right now Samantha and I just kind of have fun and goof off is not because we're five weeks in so it's not super focused and, and featured, but we'll get there.
Matt Cundill 1:00:48
I was going to ask you give me an early review of that, because she's a few months removed from doing her own show at Peggy 99. One in Winnipeg, she's moved up to Calgary, you have rescued her or she escaped either one. But she was leading the show at 99. One, and then you guys got to come together. And there's a lot of role definition that has to be sort of figured out and who does what, when and trying to learn from each other at the same time. Sounds like a busy five weeks.
Buzz Bishop 1:01:17
Yeah, you know, but she's such a pro. And that was something that we talked about is I had been doing my own thing for about a year and a half. She'd been doing it for a while. So you come we both know how to drive. So it comes like which, which one of us is is going to drive and I get quickly became I'm, I'm a formatic guy, you know, my peak of my I have yet to be super successful in mornings even though this is the 123. Fourth try. Fifth try. I don't know, afternoon drive was really where I where I had my biggest ratings, and those are my heydays, I think. And so I work our morning show, like an afternoon drive show, right? Like I'm fast paced on the back, sell something quick. And then and then it's Samantha to be to be the star after that. So but without that kind of without touching the buttons and doing back cells and stuff I fade. On another show, I was on the other side and somebody else was shopping and consultant said, How about we switch things up. And then a week later, I'm like, oh my god, I'm an I'm a different jock. I'm more focused, my heart rates up because I'm pressing buttons watching clocks. So that was pretty easy for us to figure out. Just because I kind of asked like, I need that part. But the rest of it. You know, Sam and I are, we've been in the business pretty much the same time. We both started in the early 90s. And we're both just ready for our final act, right? It's like, you want this to be your last job? Yes, I want this to be my last job. This is like let's, are we going to be awesome and ride into the sunset? Yes. And there's no ego, there is complete compromise and professionalism. And just understanding what it takes to win. And it doesn't matter if it's her laugh or my life or her break idea. Or she shoots down all of the things that I have to offer, which happens but I'm just like, yeah, I want to do this blah, blah, blah. Do you get it? No. Okay, well, you're a female in our demo. And if you don't get it, alright, let's move on. What do you think we should do? And let's go with there. So it's, it's been awesome. Let's say that.
Matt Cundill 1:03:30
And where can you repurpose that break? That is the cutting room floor? Like, can you take that elsewhere to something else? Like whether it's social media?
Buzz Bishop 1:03:37
Yeah. So like, what we are doing now is we're putting them up on social right? So just those screencap things with the bouncy wave form so that you can get people on social Yeah. And and a lot of other radio companies in the country have been slapped by Mr. Zuckerberg as news stations and we're talking rock stations and, and pop stations just because they're with bell, or they're with Rogers or whatever. So we don't want that to happen. So it's a lot of original content generation that we want to do and so that's repurposing Morning Show bits on social as, you know, just 90 seconds or 45 seconds and not enough for a podcast but enough that somebody can see it later in the day and hopefully change their habits the next morning, so you haven't been flagged yet at xL for no stinking stingrays still good and Rogers I think a lot of Rogers are still good. From what I've seen. It's it's mostly Bell.
Matt Cundill 1:04:41
One of your Stingray stations in Kentville. Nova Scotia has been got flagged but you know, when you look at what's important to you know, rural Nova Scotia, it's all summer it's been floods and road closures and you stick a link up and it's I I, you know, here's my conspiracy theory is that it's been done because if you can tag a radio station, they'll talk about it.
Buzz Bishop 1:05:08
Yes. It's interesting. I had my first incident with the band today. And I always went, who goes to Facebook to get their news? I'm getting my news from Twitter, from newspapers from original sources, like I'm not. I want Facebook for pictures of my friends and stuff like that. But then I run a community group for just our local 10 block radius. And one of the daycares has an E. coli outbreak here. So I want to, I saw the story on global and I cut and paste I wanted to go and put it in our local Facebook group. Hey, anybody who sends a kid, this is the story. Ding Ding Dang, wouldn't let me do it. I cut and pasted the article is just, hey, what's plagiarize it to get the information out? Dang. So it because it said global news reports in there. So I cut out one sentence and then put it back up again tomorrow. So it's in. So you can still get news on Facebook, you just have to scrape it, which is even worse than them linking out to it.
Matt Cundill 1:06:11
And it's really too bad that cyber buzz still isn't going because you could do a whole one minute episode of how to do that. Send it out to the radio stations and then we would all know it one minute
Buzz Bishop 1:06:21
episode. Yes. 60 seconds plus the 30 adjacent.
Matt Cundill 1:06:26
These are fascinating times. I can't thank you enough for taking way too much time to do this podcast with me.
Buzz Bishop 1:06:33
Yeah, I listened to Boomer for over an hour. I don't know if anybody's made it to the goodbye on this one. But thanks for having me. nonetheless.
Tara Sands (Voiceover) 1:06:42
The sound off podcast is written and hosted by Matt Cundill, produced by Evan Surminski, edited by Chloe Emond-Lane, social media by Aidan Glassey, another great creation from the sound off media company, there's always more at http://www.soundoffpodcast.com