Garry Robertson

CJNU Announcer and Vice-President

Music is my passion! It always has been.

Even as a child I would take a metal fork, clench it between my teeth, and hold it on the groove of a record to 'feel' the vibrations of the music. Why did I do this? We didn't have a speaker to connect to the turntable. My dad was not pleased!

Fast forward. Now, here I am at CJNU enjoying the music with you...and I don't even have to use a fork in my teeth anymore.

Seriously, I have always been captivated by music, and among other things was the master of ceremonies, playing the music for graduation ceremonies at River Heights Junior High. That evolved to work with the campus station at the University of Manitoba, and eventually to my first radio job at CKRC in 1959.

Over the years I've been on the air in Brandon, Yorkton, Kenora, and mostly here in Winnipeg at CJOB. I even did some television work in Brandon, but soon discovered that, well...how can I put it? Let's just say I had a face for radio.

A postscript to all this is that the day I left CKRC some 50 years ago, my position was filled by Harry Taylor. It's quite amazing that after all those years we're now united for frequent appearances on the CJNU morning show.

Aside from my radio days, some of you might know me better as 'The Music Man'. I founded Garry Robertson Music Services, with franchises spread across Canada, and provided the entertainment for countless weddings, parties and celebrations. After selling my interest in the music service, my need to share music with friends persisted, and my broadcast career turned to volunteer work at Winnipeg's special events stations. Unfortunately, for various reasons those stations seemed to fizzle out, and the city was left without a true nostalgia source.

That's when a group of us kicked around the idea of a well-run cooperative station that would be immune to profit-driven motives. That idea is what became the CJNU that we all enjoy today. There were about 21 people in my living room that day in 2006. Each felt the same way that I did, ie: Nostalgia music should not die.

It was like a Mickey Rooney and Judy Garland film. You remember those old movies...Mickey would say "Let's put on a show!" Judy would say "I'll sing some songs." Mickey would say "I'll do some dancing." Somebody else volunteered "I'll handle publicity." Someone else "I'll take the tickets."

So it was with us. We had everyone volunteering to do something. Every one of the 21 people in my living room was enthusiastic, and had some special skills to bring to the project.

It worked well. Since our first broadcast in 2006, we have never missed a month without one of our 'special events' broadcasts. Today we have over 70 volunteers - each bringing something special to a very unique radio station. I'm very proud to be part of 'The Little Station That Could'. And as Mickey and Judy said so many years ago..."On with the show!"