Former WKBW and CFNY personality Don Berns passed on Sunday.
http://www.edge.ca/2015/03/02/don-berns-cfny-legend-passes-away/
http://www.edge.ca/2015/03/02/don-berns-cfny-legend-passes-away/
-
Get involved.
We want your input!
Apply for Membership and join the conversations about everything related to broadcasting.
After we receive your registration, a moderator will review it. After your registration is approved, you will be permitted to post.
If you use a disposable or false email address, your registration will be rejected.
After your membership is approved, please take a minute to tell us a little bit about yourself.
https://www.radiodiscussions.com/forums/introduce-yourself.1088/
Thanks in advance and have fun!
RadioDiscussions Administrators
Another legend has passed....Don Berns R.I.P.
- Thread starter Obtuse
- Start date
The fact that it's taken so long for any reply to be posted, I'm afraid, may speak to how much use of this board has dwindled.
Here are five brief airchecks from KB in 1974. http://buffaloradioclassics.com/don-berns/
And this is part of a post I wrote on my FB wall this morning...
I'm at a loss. Don Berns was just on FB over the weekend with his daily dose of wacky posts.
And now he's gone.
He'd posted Thursday that he'd had "a minor surgical procedure done" and was waiting to be released from the hospital.
While I'd never met him in person, I was hoping for that chance someday - perhaps on one of his regular trips to Buffalo where, as music director of then-Top 40 powerhouse WKBW, his work had such a huge influence on me. In those days, Berns was a master of relating music trivia...his 1972 "American Pie" interpretation was the best one I'd ever heard - although he in his modesty credited WCFL's Bob Dearborn even as he set the bit up.
That same year, a high school buddy and I decided to track the top songs in both Buffalo and Brattleboro, VT, based on a point system Don shared with listeners the previous New Year's Eve as he counted down the year's Top 100.
Every Friday 'KB would release their new survey with a Capsule Countdown - a 1:00 recap of the week's Top 10 - before going into the #1 song. The production quality of this weekly montage inspired an interest in audio production, which is today my full-time job here at DMP West Inc.
One week I missed the Capsule Countdown, so I wrote to Berns and explained what I was doing, and would he be so kind as to send a copy of that week's survey? The reply - from a "Francine Keating, assistant to Don Berns" - was a nicely-typed reply with 'KB's actual, internal playlist for that week attached.
When 1972 ended and the year-end Top 100 was being counted down - an eight-hour spectacle with artist interviews and Berns' point-of-view, which at times could be QUITE opinionated - but always respectful - the #1 song of the year wasn't what I had written down..."Alone Again Naturally" by Gilbert O' Sullivan. It was "American Pie".
So I dialed 716-644-9850 to ask Mr. Berns what gives? After all, I followed his point system to the letter.
Don's reply..."we used a combination of Billboard and our own weekly surveys. The REAL #1 song was "The First Time Ever I Saw Your Face" but that just wasn't palatable."
WOW. IT'S ALL THEATER, FOLKS...I'm thinking...as Don adds, "hope you enjoyed it."
"I did, thank you" came my reply. I came away wiser, and appreciative that this radio giant would take five minutes to speak with a 15-year-old kid from 400 miles out of the market.
Don Berns left 'KB in 1974, eventually ended up at WTAE-AM and from there, Toronto. I knew he'd been music director of the market's iconic Alternative CFNY-FM under Gerry Marsden, but I didn't really know about Dr. Trance, or his stage and VO work...but his work at WKBW made me want to be a music director...to pick the next hit, maybe help establish the career of an artist as he - with his PD Jeff Kaye - had done for many in the early 70's.
Anytime you've heard me express an opinion about a song...or advocate for an artist or song...or write something about an artist or Country Music on Y108.com...Don Berns sparked all of it.
31 years ago when I was handed a bootleg copy of Boston's "Amanda" and carted it up for airplay? I felt like I was getting my own little taste of the fun Berns had at 'KB.
And years later, doing Country at WWVA, to have Garth Brooks personally ask me to consider adding his upcoming song "Friends In Low Places?" Or be the first in America to play Trisha Yearwood? To post my opinions today about Bro-Country or the Six-Song Mashup (all at Y108.com)?
Berns sparked ALL of that.
Plus I appreciated how he kept up with current music - especially EDM - and absolutely REFUSED to live in the past, even if it IS a great place to VISIT.
Here are five brief airchecks from KB in 1974. http://buffaloradioclassics.com/don-berns/
And this is part of a post I wrote on my FB wall this morning...
I'm at a loss. Don Berns was just on FB over the weekend with his daily dose of wacky posts.
And now he's gone.
He'd posted Thursday that he'd had "a minor surgical procedure done" and was waiting to be released from the hospital.
While I'd never met him in person, I was hoping for that chance someday - perhaps on one of his regular trips to Buffalo where, as music director of then-Top 40 powerhouse WKBW, his work had such a huge influence on me. In those days, Berns was a master of relating music trivia...his 1972 "American Pie" interpretation was the best one I'd ever heard - although he in his modesty credited WCFL's Bob Dearborn even as he set the bit up.
That same year, a high school buddy and I decided to track the top songs in both Buffalo and Brattleboro, VT, based on a point system Don shared with listeners the previous New Year's Eve as he counted down the year's Top 100.
Every Friday 'KB would release their new survey with a Capsule Countdown - a 1:00 recap of the week's Top 10 - before going into the #1 song. The production quality of this weekly montage inspired an interest in audio production, which is today my full-time job here at DMP West Inc.
One week I missed the Capsule Countdown, so I wrote to Berns and explained what I was doing, and would he be so kind as to send a copy of that week's survey? The reply - from a "Francine Keating, assistant to Don Berns" - was a nicely-typed reply with 'KB's actual, internal playlist for that week attached.
When 1972 ended and the year-end Top 100 was being counted down - an eight-hour spectacle with artist interviews and Berns' point-of-view, which at times could be QUITE opinionated - but always respectful - the #1 song of the year wasn't what I had written down..."Alone Again Naturally" by Gilbert O' Sullivan. It was "American Pie".
So I dialed 716-644-9850 to ask Mr. Berns what gives? After all, I followed his point system to the letter.
Don's reply..."we used a combination of Billboard and our own weekly surveys. The REAL #1 song was "The First Time Ever I Saw Your Face" but that just wasn't palatable."
WOW. IT'S ALL THEATER, FOLKS...I'm thinking...as Don adds, "hope you enjoyed it."
"I did, thank you" came my reply. I came away wiser, and appreciative that this radio giant would take five minutes to speak with a 15-year-old kid from 400 miles out of the market.
Don Berns left 'KB in 1974, eventually ended up at WTAE-AM and from there, Toronto. I knew he'd been music director of the market's iconic Alternative CFNY-FM under Gerry Marsden, but I didn't really know about Dr. Trance, or his stage and VO work...but his work at WKBW made me want to be a music director...to pick the next hit, maybe help establish the career of an artist as he - with his PD Jeff Kaye - had done for many in the early 70's.
Anytime you've heard me express an opinion about a song...or advocate for an artist or song...or write something about an artist or Country Music on Y108.com...Don Berns sparked all of it.
31 years ago when I was handed a bootleg copy of Boston's "Amanda" and carted it up for airplay? I felt like I was getting my own little taste of the fun Berns had at 'KB.
And years later, doing Country at WWVA, to have Garth Brooks personally ask me to consider adding his upcoming song "Friends In Low Places?" Or be the first in America to play Trisha Yearwood? To post my opinions today about Bro-Country or the Six-Song Mashup (all at Y108.com)?
Berns sparked ALL of that.
Plus I appreciated how he kept up with current music - especially EDM - and absolutely REFUSED to live in the past, even if it IS a great place to VISIT.
SirRoxalot
Walk of Fame Participant
Many of us think of these giants as being so much older. Jack Armstrong was in his mid-20s at 'KB in '72. Don Berns was in his early 20s. Both are now gone - much too early. If you're on Facebook, search for "Don Berns" in Toronto. The tributes are everything Don would have poked fun at, and there are too many to count. It's been a long time since he's been a radio regular because he simply outgrew the medium and refused to do less than his best. His influence in Toronto was still felt, and his influence on a generation of kids who grew up in Buffalo is still felt all over the dial here. He was entertaining and brilliant up to his very last post. You could recycle his material like they do with "Peanuts" or "Calvin and Hobbes" for the next two decades and it would still seem fresh and irreverent. I'll miss his daily posts and the wacky cast of characters who responded to them. He was truly larger than life.
Rusty Bridges
Star Participant
I recall his work on CFNY and as the announcer for the Juno Awards, the Canadian version on the Grammy awards. He had a great, identifiable commercial voice. It's very sad that he died so young. My condolences to his family and many friends.
U
Unregistered
Guest
Gone at 67, way too soon. I recall him from 'KB c. 1972, but I listened to him regularly during afternoon drive on KFMB AM 760 in San Diego in 1977. He used to refer to S.D. as "America's Finest City" so I assumed he coined the slogan. Not true but he was a great entertainer, truly a great Canadian American.
Chas, I too have lots of KB memories and loved Don Berns. I wasn't a KB regular until toward the end of '73 but I have my KB end of the year countdown sheets from '73-'78. It's sad to hear of the another KB legend passing. It's just another reminder of how things once were and will never be again.
- Status