FFWD Weekly
Copyright © 1998 All Rights Reserved.
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| MUSIC Leo C.'s Caribbean Link-up Anniversary Party When CJSW radio host Leo C. was invited to do spots with Calgary 2&7, A-Channel, CBC radio, and Rough Cutz, he realized he'd come a long way from the time he was a newly arrived immigrant and heard reggae music coming mysteriously out of his mother's cable television channel. The mysterious music turned out to be emanating from the University of Calgary's campus cable radio station, CJSW, and although Leo was on campus completing a music degree at the time, he'd never heard of the station or considered working in broadcasting. Within months, CJSW was on the FM airwaves and Leo was parked in a Friday night time slot, broadcasting Caribbean music to an ever growing and dedicated following of fans. "How it all started was I was working Friday nights and listening to this guy named Kenny do the reggae show," Leo says, "and I knew some of the bands he was playing - Inner Circle, Peter Tosh, Bob Marley's band - they were friends of mine from back in Jamaica. So I'd phone him up and give him corrections, ask him about this, request something, and one night he got mad and said, 'Why don't you do this show?'" The next day, Leo C. was in the CJSW training room. That was 13 years ago, and on June 6, Leo and his friends will take a breather to celebrate the anniversary of the show - which is now in a Saturday afternoon time slot - at the Night Gallery. "Well, it's 13 years and we're entering the teenage years and that's quite a feat, so I just thought, 'Why not do something and throw a big party and get everyone to come down.' I started talking about it on the radio without even thinking about where it was going to happen or whether it was going to happen, and I started getting a lot of feedback and people said they'd play." Local Caribbean band Future will join Toronto dub poet Michael St. George at the gig. Leo feels fortunate that the show made it through its adolescent years. "In '91, I just felt like I was doing the same show every week, and nothing was getting improved and it was kind of stagnant, and I thought I'd take a couple of months off, maybe pack it in, and people started phoning, saying, 'Where's the show?'" After that, Leo started doing each show with a theme, be it political, ideological, or musical, and felt this revamping lent lifeblood to the program. "I have a passion for all kinds of music, I'm always exploring it. I always have something positive on the show because I say that if I'm just going to sit there and play music, I may as well put on a tape and go home." The number of dedicated listeners attests to their agreement with this method, and Leo has established a symbiotic feedback loop with his audience. They send in tapes and CDs from their travels; Leo obliges by playing the music on the program. Because of this, the show has the flavor of an international community. All in all, Leo C. enjoys this sense of community his show has created, and he was even driven by his listeners' support to return to Mount Royal College and complete a broadcasting diploma. Although no one has a crystal ball, Leo feels the show will continue, perhaps into its third decade, as long as the support, music and ideas keep coming. "The show has more or less become me." |
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