OTTAWA – CHEZ 106 FM drive time guy and program director Jeff Brown was taken off the air yesterday by the Rogers Media-owned station.
He spent Wednesday afternoon playing nothing but Stompin’ Tom Connors for three hours, in an attempt to get the organizers of the Live 8 concert in Barrie to add the Canadian singing legend to the Barrie concert which will include the likes of other Canadian icons: Bryan Adams, Celine Dion and the Tragically Hip.
It’s probably a safe bet that this is a nifty little publicity stunt by the Ottawa radio station, given the fact that the station is running a petition on its web site (now with over 4,300 signatures and that Brown is still listed on the site), not to mention he’s the program director and had to remove himself.
Live 8 is a series of international concerts – one of which is in Barrie – being staged to bring attention to Africa’s poor, organized by Live Aid originator Bob Geldof.
However, some of the signees are threatening never to listen to CHEZ again, unless Brown is reinstated.
“If Jeff gets fired over this then Chez sucks… remember, “Canada the home of the free”…he has ever right to start this petition regardless of whether you agree with him or not. He had the resources to get the word out and he used them… way to go Jeff, my hat goes off to you for standing up for what you believe in. More Canadians should follow your example…. BRING ON STOMPIN’ TOM,” says one petition submission.
Darn right. Wouldn’t be a Canadian concert without the “Good Old Hockey Game” and “Sudbury Saturday Night”
Here, in a note to www.cartt.ca, is Brown’s own words about what went on in his mind at CHEZ:
Wednesday afternoon after hearing the lineup of Canada’s version of Live 8… I went on a rant about how we have Celine Dion representing Canada via satellite from Las Vegas and how true Canadian Icons were being overlooked, namely Stompin Tom (the man has been all over this country playing every small town and metropolitan for over 30 years).
At this point I vowed to play nothing but Stompin’ Tom on my show until Bob Geldof and Michael Cohl recognized the influence that this true icon has in this country and add him to the bill. We put in calls to Cohl’s people but were unable to set anything up with him, so we started a petition on line on the web site (which has over 4,500 signatures already in just over a day and a half).
The moment we started playing Stompin Tom the phones went insane (like I have never seen in 15 years of radio and that includes five at Toronto’s Q107 which can be quite busy at times), 99% of people were in support that we needed to get Stompin Tom on the Live 8 bill (along with hundreds of email)
I continued to play Stompin Tom for the duration of my 3-hour show and when you look at the feedback over the last day and the outcry of passionate support of getting Stompin Tom on the bill from a ROCK station it just shows you how, like no other artist, this man transcends all boundaries and truly speaks for the country.
When my shift was over I vowed that I would continue my crusade and play nothing but Stompin Tom until he was put on the bill, unfortunately others felt different and could not see the value in the afternoon drive show playing non-stop Stompin Tom and decided that I would be taken off the air indefinitely.
What that means I have yet to find out. I am still employed by CHEZ 106 and anticipate being back on the air at some point.
The petition continues to grow every minute and we plan on presenting this petition to the Live 8 organizers hopefully by the end of this week.
Do I regret playing all Stompin Tom Connors? No and if I was on the air I would continue my crusade as I believe that we have an incredible opportunity to raise awareness for Mr. Geldof’s causes unfortunately with the exception of a few on the bill we will not represent Canada as it should be represented.
When you look at the reaction we are getting from a Rock audience and now the rest of the country it is clear that if Bob Geldof wants to raise awareness for foreign debt forgiveness the only Canadian who transcends every format of music is Stompin Tom and he should be on the bill without question.
