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20 - The Oakville Beaver, Wednesday May 28, 2008 www.oakvillebeaver.com Artscene Oakville Beaver · WEDNESDAY, MAY 28, 2008 RON KUZYK / OAKVILLE BEAVER GOOD MORNING OAKVILLE: Retired radio announcer Barry Morden relaxes at his Burlington home. In the background is a picture of Morden in 1966 at CHWO on Wyecroft Road in Oakville. Broadcaster enjoying retirement and sleeping in By Wilma Blokhuis SPECIAL TO THE BEAVER Barry Morden hated mornings. But for 35 years, he got up at 3 a.m. to get to work on time. He was the `morning man' at CHWO 1250 until it became AM 740 seven years ago. It was a great gig but "getting up at three in the morning was like performing an unnatural act," he chuckled, happy he hasn't had to rise that early since the late Tom Fulton, a well-known and muchloved Toronto broadcaster, arrived in January 2001 to take over the morning slot at the then new AM 740. Morden moved to middays and has also worked `afternoon drive'. Morden became CHWO's morning man in 1967. "The morning guy was leaving and the station was going to automation that started at 10 a.m., so I was offered the morning show and asked, `Do you want it?'" He accepted readily. Stepping aside for Fulton "did not bother me. Tom was a good man. It's when they bring in a hack that you would feel miffed but I didn't feel bad whatsoever about being replaced by Tom Fulton. "And it meant I didn't have to get up at 3 a.m.," he continued. "I was never an early riser outside of 35 years of my life, but come the weekend it just didn't happen." He's worked in radio for 45 years, the last 43 continuously at CHWO and AM private parties, weddings and bar mitz740, a record for an on-air radio person- vahs. Getting into radio "was sort of a ality in this area. He also did his own pro- natural evolution for me." duction -- and answered the phone. "When I was doing my final Grade 13 Morden's career covers the evolution of exams I wrote letters to every radio staradio from spinning vinyl disks on tion in Ontario praying that I wouldn't turntables and using a manual control get a call from Fort Frances or Sudbury. board to working with digital recordings The last one I wrote was a letter to and computers -- only the use of a Howard Caine at CHWO in Oakville," said microphone stayed the same. Morden, "and he was the first to Morden got his start respond." here. Fresh out of While producing at Oakville Trafalgar High "It was a great gig, but CHWO during the School -- yes he was a getting up at three in the summer of 1963 local lad -- Morden was morning was like performing Morden got a call hired as a one month from CFRS, a small an unnatural act." summer replacement 250-watt day time producer at the local only operation in Barry Morden radio station owned by Simcoe, Ontario, "a Retired AM 740 radio announcer the late Howard Caine. training station" that "I didn't get into radio existed at the time in until after graduation," `tobacco country'. reflected Morden recently, now retired. Within three months he was hosting the April 30 was his last day, the day owner- morning show "because the turnover was ship of CHWO AM 740 changed hands so fast." It was also his introduction to from AM 740 Prime Time Radio headed broadcast journalism. by Michael Caine to Moses Znaimer of MZ "The guy who hosted the morning Media and owner of CFMZ Classical 96, show was also the farm director and if Toronto. you worked it right you would arrive in "I started out in the business doing time for lunch and be invited to sit down disc jockey work while still in high and stay." school. It was 1958 and I was into rock Other assignments weren't as pleasand roll," said Morden, "so this year is my ant. One day during the tobacco strike he 50th year in the music business and my was met at the tobacco growers market45th in radio." ing group's office by "guys with shotHe entertained at high school dances, guns. What an exciting day that was." Six months later, Morden was back in Oakville, working in the newsroom at CHWO. "After reading the news for two weeks Howard gave me a show. Reading the news was a depressing job, not exactly the show biz I was looking for because I was always stage struck and star struck." Morden's first celebrity encounter -- before he got into radio -- was rocker Ronnie Hawkins at the Oakville Arena in 1961. Then he got a call from CKBB in Barrie, which at the time was operated jointly with CKVR television, ending his second stint at CHWO, which lasted about six months. "They literally hired me off the air," he said of the opportunity that gave him some television experience. He stayed a year. "I think they had a policy that after one year they fired you so they didn't have to give you a raise," surmised Morden, who didn't know this when he was asked to come back to CHWO. "Howard called saying he had an opening in Oakville, `Do you want it?' I said, `No, I'm quite comfortable here in Barrie,' and about a week later I was fired. So I called Howard and he was gracious enough to have me back." By October 1965, Morden was back on air at CHWO. "I was coming up to 43 years." See Morden page 26