JACK MEETS PATRICK AND THE SHOW IS ON

  
      The key to the successful operation of a radio station is a combination of talent, showmanship, precision and dedication and not necessarily in that order.  And in this highli competitive world of the electronic media the demands on each and everyone of us are as exact as they are challenging.  Because all of us are professionals with a professional pride in our profession and performance we set our standards to meet the demands of a critical listening audience.  But lest you think that everybody at CJOR is working a 24-hour atmosphere of high tension don't you believe it because wherever there are talented and articulate people there is fun--just enough of it to make CJOR in many respects a fun place for those who work here.

      Let us give you a couple of examples:  There was that hilarious afternoon a couple of weeks ago when we had a spontaneous, unrehearsed one-upmanship confrontation between Jack Webster and Pat Burns.  Jack had just left the CJOR Gastown studios to visit our main studio in the Grosvenor Hotel.  The first person he bumped into was Burns, who was pacing the hall during a commercial break.  Well, it was instant combat--two razor sharp minds and caustic wits exchanging good-natured barbs with no quarter given.  Neith could cut the other off as they might, had they been on the air.  It didn't take long for an appreciative audience to form--to listen to radio's two best-known voices struggle to a stalemate before Pat reluctantly and still full of fight and fire had to go back on the air. 

      Just the other day,  our aggresive young police reporter, Mike Dixon, came into my office wearing a wall-to-wall smile as a result of a story that had been passed on to him at the "cop shop." as our news department fondly calls the place.

      The story concerns a CJOR listener, our Lucky Bucks contest and a burglar who goofed.  It seems that this lady listenere has been following Lucky Bucks since we started it.  She kept detailed lists of the serial numbers of every dollar bill she could collect.  The burglar broke into her home and rifling through a drawer when the lady's husband interupted him.  The thief fled from a second-storey window, clutching a handful of money.  The husband was able to give police a good description and later that day they arrested a suspect.  He, of course, maintained his innocence.  But among $475 worth of bills in the wad he was carrying were several one dollar bills with serial numbers matching the list kept by the victim.  Rarely do police get such a piece of conclusive evidence.  And we had another Lucky Bucks contestant.

Written by Neil Soper in 1973