The Last Broadcast: Episode 16

Here's another excerpt from Red Robinson: The Last Broadcast, out now at friesenpress.com, chaptersindigo.ca, amazon.com, amazon.ca, barnesandnoble.com, play.google.com and books.apple.com "Robinson has a reputation of being a nostalgia king, but he is also a prime example of the difference between what broadcasters were during his heyday and what too many are now. 'Back then, deejays were bigger celebrities than the bands, and they didn’t just broadcast, they talked to their audience,' he has explained on many occasions. 'I don’t mean they took calls from listeners, I mean they got behind the mike and truly spoke to them, instead of focusing exclusively on delivering all the contents of a script within certain time parameters. I was lucky that I entered the business as a teenager. My audience was mainly teens, so I knew their language, and I spoke to them plenty.' Although he hasn’t said so since announcing his retirement, Robinson is frustrated that too many deejays today aren’t characters who know how to put on a great show, but puppets whose strained antics barely conceal a blind obedience to convention – which in the new millennium takes the form of political correctness so pervasive that broadcasters tend to censor themselves before regulators have a chance to do so. 'As the old joke goes, you know you’re a veteran deejay if you can remember playing practical jokes on the air without fearing lawsuits.'” "The Last Broadcast" with Red's special guests Pat O'Day and Bruce Allen aired on CISL650/Vancouver on August 27, 2017. In this episode: Red pays tribute to Buddy Holly, the guys discuss how the relationship between artists and DJs has changed; Elvis picks a classic for "Blue Hawaii", Bruce plays an obscure favourite.