About
CKWX's
"UN-published" Charts!
By
the 1950s radio's golden age had
passed into history. Although
the network dramas and variety shows
were gone, stations like CKWX were
still airing local programming such as
Neighbour Nina, a popular homemaker's
show co-hosted by Nina Anthony and Cal
George; the Rhythm Pals, a daily live
music program; and Norm Griffin's Farm
Fare.
The dominant staple of radio
programming however, was becoming hit
music, and this popularity was
accelerated by the ever increasing use
of car radios and soon, transistor
radios. Furthermore Rock and Roll had
been making inroads for over two
years, and WX was playing it.
But CKWX was not a "Top Forty" station
yet, even though they were devoting
more time to current hit music, airing
it mostly on the morning programs of
Bill Davis, and in the late afternoon
and early evening with Bob
McGavin. Even before Red
Robinson's arrival on April 1, the
station had already adopted a weekly
Top 50 chart. These "Station"
charts, which is what we're calling
them here, were essentially just
playlists. They were not distributed
to the public but were used
in-house and copies were posted in the
broadcasting booth for the benefit of
the DJs who referred to these charts
on-air and a weekly countdown was
aired. Each chart even lists a
weekly “pick hit” plus an “album pick”
and these were likely weekly prize
giveaways.
Red Robinson himself did not oversee
the weekly countdown of these
"station" charts (I'm guessing it was
Bob McGavin). For you see, Red had his
own chart which you can read about in
the column to the right.
Amazingly, these unpublished charts
have survived, at least most of
them. They came to us from the
collection of Alex Galbraith as barely
readable photocopies and we present
them here in retyped form. They begin
in January of 1957 and run into the
summer of 1958 when CKWX began
printing and distributing its charts
to the public eventually under the
name "The Sensational Sixty".
JB
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About Red
Robinson's
"Teen Canteen" Charts!
Red
Robinson came to CKWX in April 1957,
having been lured from rival
CJOR. His program was the
"Teen Canteen" show, the largest teen
show in Canada. Membership in
his Teen Canteen club, extended from
all over western Canada and the
U.S.A., and would eventually grow to
52,000. Membership cards were
good for discounts at various
retailers. The club also had
teen representatives from every high
school in Greater Vancouver who met
with Red once a month after school in
the coffee shop at CKWX and sometimes
visiting rock and roll stars including
Buddy Knox and Bob Luman came down to
meet the teens.
Red didn't use the "station" charts
that CKWX had started only a few
months earlier, (see left column).
Rather he organized his own chart,
which initially was a Top
Thirty plus ten, but by Sept.
'57, due to so many new records being
released, he had to expand it to a Top 50.
The Teen Canteen charts were compiled
over the phone by two girls who came
in and took votes for two hours
(Teletune) every afternoon, and that
was how the chart was compiled.
While there would have been an office
copy for Red’s on-air use, these
charts were never printed for public
distribution and they would be lost to
radio history if not for the fact that
the Top Ten songs from many of these
charts were printed weekly in the
entertainment pages of the Vancouver
Sun.
While
we
cannot present here the Teen Canteen
charts in their entirety of 30 to 50
songs, we can present, thanks
to the Vancouver Sun, most of
the weekly top ten songs beginning in
late July of 1957 and running through
to mid-January 1959. They are
presented here along side the
“Station” charts allowing you to
compare them week by week. (The
first one begins July 28 (although
there were probably earlier ones). In
addition some of Red's weekly columns
that appeared on the same page in the
Sun have been included as well which
will give you further insights into
the musical trends of the day.
Enjoy.
JB
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