Jack Webster

If you ask about people in Vancouver broadcasting and journalism, the name of Jack Webster should come up if the person you are talking with knows about news broadcasting in this city.

John Edgar "Jack" Webster was born in Glasgow, Scotland on April 15, 1918. His father was an iron turner who fitted pumps on battle cruisers and merchants ships. His mother was an ambitious woman by the name of Daisy and she encouraged her three surviving sons to exceed.

At the age of 14, Webster began working on the Glasgow Evening Times and worked on several other newspapers. He also married Margaret Macdonald and fought in the Second World War, making it to the rank of Major.

Webster came to Vancouver in 1947 and got a job with the Vancouver Sun newspaper. He covered the labour beat there.

In 1953, Webster began working for CJOR. It was there that he introduced Vancouverites to the wonders of phone-in shows. Jack was able to get to the facts in a story that mattered to people, that would draw the audience in. He seemed to have a sense of what his listeners - and later viewers - would find important.

He could come gruff and stern - especially if he was interviewing you and you were hesitant to answer his questions - but he was apparently a kind and gracious to those seeking his help.

In 1963, when a group of inmates were caught trying to escape and in turn took hostages, the criminals requested the Jack Webster be the mediator and he was able to end to the standoff.

In 1977, Jack Webster began the morning television hot-line show Webster in which interviewed celebrities, news makers and politicians. Webster loved the thrust and parry of a good interview and for the nine years the show was on the air, it was must see for many British Columbians.

Webster is reported as having said that interviewing former Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau made him nervous. Trudeau apparently asked after a Webster interview 'Why does that man hate me?'

In 1990, Jack joined Front Page Challenge, a long running CBC television program. He was their permanent fourth panel member until the show's cancellation in 1995.

In 1987, Webster was inducted into the Canadian News Hall of Fame and in 1988, he was made a member of the Order of Canada.


As I said, Webster could be gruff. He could bellow and holler but those close to him say that his gruff exterior hid a soft and caring interior. Actor Shirley MacLaine said that Jack brought out her maternal instincts. And though in later years, Webster stated that he had felt he had made a mistake of making his job more important than his family, his family disagreed. His three children noted that he not only made time for them but also for the nine grandchildren he had.

In 1986, the Jack Webster Foundation was created to promote and honour excellence in journalism in British Columbia. Each year, journalists judged to have outstanding work receive a Jack Webster Award - a glass statue and a cash prize that has become a mark of journalistic excellence in British Columbia. From the single award in 1987, it has now grown into thirteen awards that cover numerous areas of journalism.

On March 2, 1999, Jack Webster passed away of congestive heart failure at the age of 80. Although Alzheimer's disease invaded his mind in the last few years of his life and robbed him of some of his precious memories, Jack Webster will remain the legend he became in his lifetime.

Thanks goes to the CanadianEncyclopedia.com and to Wikipedia for the information.

I hope you find the beauty around you.

Karen Magill, Vancouver, CJOR, history, Front Page Challenge, British Columbia Jack Webster, Vancouver Sun, Alzheimers, Shirley MacLean, Pierre Trudeau, CBC

Red Robinson

I was watching Global BC the other day and a legend was on. Red Robinson. I decided it was time that I ensured that my readers knew about this local treasure. So, with the help of Wikipedia, BC Radio History and Red Robinson's website, I gathered some information to share. Boy, did I find information!

Robert Gordon Robinson was born on March 30, 1937 in Comox, British Columbia. At some point, he moved to Vancouver and Robinson went to King Edward High School at West 12th and Oak Street. (As you may remember, I have written on the school and a reader had informed me that the school was destroyed in a fire.)

Robert used to call in to radio station CJOR "Theme for Teens" show and do imitations of Jimmy Stewart and Peter Lorre. At the age of 15, Robinson would hang around CJOR in the basement of the Grosvenor Hotel. A young broadcaster by the name of Al Jordan, who was not much older than Robinson, allowed the young man to write scripts for the show. It was 1953 and Jordan could see that the younger man was a natural.

Jordan left the station a year later, moving to Penticton to work for the new station CKOK. Jordan's replacement, Rod Hume, turned out to be a stroke of luck for the young Robinson. One day, not long after Armistice Day, Hume failed to show up for a shift and the station manager, Vic Waters, told the 16-year-old Robinson to show what he could do. That is just what Red did!

Robinson did well and was offered a job which paid $35 a week - thirty dollars less than that which the other, more established DJs, made. For three years, Red could be heard from 3:30 pm to 6:00 pm; 9:00 pm to 9:30 pm and 10:00 pm to 1:00 am. His success grew as he played that new, rockabilly music and he not only garnered the attention of listeners but also from the competition. When the station manager, George Chandler, was approached about giving Robinson a raise, Chandler said, "let him go".

So, Red went to work for the 50,000 watt station, CKWX where manager Frank "Tiny" Elphicke paid the young man a lot more money. And Robinson did what every red blooded Canadian young man would do with an influx of monies. He bought himself his first car - a shiny, red convertible with a mobile radio to do broadcasts. This Ford Fairlane cost Robinson $3100. 

In 1959, Portland and KGW Radio/TV seduced Red with a $22,000 offer and he went south. Red spent two years across the border - six months of those were spent serving in the US Army at Fort Ord. That was the law at the time.

In 1961, Red Robinson came home and went back to CKWX. However, Elphicke had passed away and the station wasn't the same. So, he left there and became program director for C-FUN. He was there for six years and worked with such people as his old friend Al Jordan, Brian Forst, David McCormick, Tom Peacock, Fred Latremouille, Ken Chang, Brian Lord and others. From '64 to '66 were the years that CFUN started to get some real competition from CKLG. 

On a personal note, Red married his wife Carole in 1963.

Anyone who knows me knows that I love stories like this. My older brother once paid an ultimate compliment by telling someone that I was "a rocker chic from a way back" and my novel Mystique Rising is a paranormal adventure that deals with the injustice of music censorship. I love hearing how people like Red Robinson brought the music to our ears.

I have a lot more to tell you about Mr. Red Robinson. After all, this was only one decade! So tune in Wednesday for more!

I hope you find the beauty around you.


Karen Magill, Vancouver, Red Robinson, C-Fun, Rock 'n Roll, British Columbia