The idea for the program came
from general Manager Bill Mcgregor. Bill said the
ratings on our Sunday mornings were so meagre that
it was hardly worth turning on the transmitter and
asked if I was interested in producing and hosting a
public affairs, features type program. He envisioned
a show of 2 hour duration running from 8 -10 on
Sunday mornings. He knew that our news feeds
from CTV often contained lengthy news feature
reports...anywhere from 2 or 3
to
5 or 6 minutes long...occasionally even longer-
especially from BCTV in Vancouver. He felt that many
of these could be incorporated into the Sunday
morning program. Other content he more or less left
up to me....and I mentioned to him such possible
content as a regular report on the stock market,
finance, investing. Plus - our stringers
and bureau reporters could prepare special stories,
or expanded versions of newscast reports.
I went ahead and lined up 4
experienced local stock brokers.. one each week,
talking about investing, the stock market trends and
general information that could be useful to ordinary
viewers.
I came up with the name "Sunday
AM".. which General Manager Bill McGregor & Program
Manager Don Willcox supported. I
arranged for one, sometimes 2 commentaries each week
from people such as Parliamentary reporter Douglas
Fisher, Jeffrey Simpson- a columnist with the Globe
and Mail, Jennifer Lewington- the Globe's reporter
at that time in Washington, plus Gilbert
Lavoie....an Ottawa correspondent for one of the
Montreal newspapers. From time to time I
also had reports from Queens Park reporters such as
Cy Young and Paul Rhodes.
The first program aired in
September 1983 and ratings on Sunday morning
steadily increased to very respectable levels over
the years...levels that Bill McGregor seemed to
appreciate...for he often came to show me the
ratings book for Sunday AM. It proved also to be a
commercial success...for there were times when it
was sold out ...mainly with local coverage area
commercials.
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Gary
McLaren interviwing Prime Minister Brian
Mulroney |
The program continued with me
as producer and host until 1994 when I retired from
full time work at CKCO. Bruce Johnstone took over
the production and preparation work at that
time...and I continued to host the program on air
until about mid year in 1996. Bruce continued the
show on his own for another year, at which time it
was discontinued. I think Baton owned
the station by this time and they apparently deemed
it too expensive to produce...and as I recall...it
was replaced by re-runs of the syndicated program
"The Littlest Hobo."
