Reaching back for yesterdays

BY JOSEPH PLANTA

Tuesday, 04 September 2007

VANCOUVER - To paraphrase Sammy Cahn, as sung by Sinatra: One day you turn around and it's summer; next day your turn around and it's fall. It's September of this year already.

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Rafe Returns

This morning Rafe Mair returns. The former politician and veteran broadcaster returns to the airwaves of broadband at 10.00 AM with a 1-hour live show streaming, Tuesdays, Thursdays and Saturdays at www.rafelive.com.

It'll doubtless be a welcome sound, hearing Mair once again since he was let go from radio station 600 AM in the fall of 2005. The broadcast is scheduled to begin with his signature editorial, as well as feature listener feedback via phone and e-mail, as well as guests.

Radio, in this market at least, hasn't been the same without Rafe Mair. I spent much of last week listening to his old station, CKNW's programs, and I really missed his show. That he'll be online at least three-times-a-week is of little consolation because he won't be able to reach as many people as he once did. I suppose a full-time broadcasting gig on terrestrial radio would be ideal, but I suspect with the right amount of support from the public, this internet venture will suit Mair just fine. He will be free of whatever constraints he encountered in commercial broadcasting. And for the listener, having his informed, dogged, and intelligent program is long overdue.

Do check out the Rafe Mair program at 10.00 AM today, and thankfully, if you're like me and away from a computer this morning, you'll be able to catch it in the archive.

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Remembering Pifer

Over the summer came the sad news that veteran BC journalist and broadcaster John Pifer had died. On Sean Holman's very fine website, Public Eye Online (www.publiceyeonline.com), there was a great tribute from former pol Allan Warnke, and on various forums online frequented by broadcasters current and former, there were some lovely tributes to the long time legislative correspondent and former talk show host here in Vancouver on AM 1040.

I'll remember him as a tremendously nice man. During the 2005 provincial election, Pifer was kind enough to appear on my interview program to discuss the campaign. He was generous with his time, and polite as he endured this newcomer to the world of interviews.

Pifer helped shape the sort of coverage we got out of Victoria, over the twenty years or more he was an active journalist there. And even after he ceased to be in the capital on a day-to-day basis, he remained informed, interested, and tuned in. (One morning, I called him up at home, and even though they'd been competitors at one point, he had Rafe Mair's radio show blaring in the background.)

About a year ago I bumped into John at VGH, where he died this past July. He was very complimentary about the website and generous in offering to appear again. Unfortunately, I never got around to taking him up on his offer.

Pifer was 61.

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Waiting for Imus

In the spring, I got a tremendous amount of mail (not to mention traffic) thanks to the ouster of Don Imus. I've endeavoured to respond to all the messages, good and bad, regarding the I-Man. In this space, there's been no talk of the Imus controversy, and that's simply because there was a tremendous deal written and said about him and his words over the spring. There's a box here in my office of nearly a thousand pages of op-ed columns, editorials, and transcripts discussing Imus's comments about the Rutgers women's basketball team and his firing from radio and television gigs. The sheer velocity, as Frank Rich put it, of the events that engulfed Imus and his program was astounding.

Word is now that he's settled a multi-million dollar contract with CBS and free to return to the airwaves. I've believed his firing was an extreme measure, and that had he been suspended, much would have been gleaned from this experience by the culture at large.

Don Imus has been a role model for me. Were it not for Imus (as well as Rafe Mair), I wouldn't have ventured into attempting to host my own interview program online. Of course, what he said was repugnant and in the poorest of taste, and perhaps his firing was indicative of how hurtful what he said was. However, in the grand perspective, Don Imus has done much good. His overcoming of addictions to drugs and alcohol has been instructive; human experience always is. His tremendous charity work has been heartening and tremendously inspiring. His sense of humour, which got him in trouble, well, it was a sense of humour that unfortunately wasn't shared by many. He was a great comfort to listen to in the morning, and it's been different, for me at least, since he's gone. His return is anxiously awaited, and obviously by many.

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An archive of Joseph Planta's previous columns can be found by clicking HERE.