Information/Write-up
Probably the rarest Canadian folk psych record in existence. This is the only place where you can listen to this record.
Alec Speer (born 1948) sent the following to MOCM on Feb 4, 2024:
Radio Varsity was created in 1966, the year I first attended the University of Toronto as a Commerce & Finance student. It was a closed circuit (hard-wired) music broadcaster which extensively covered the St. George campus - see Wikipedia CIUT-FM History.
When I first joined the station in the fall of 1966, it had a soft standards popular music programming which featured Frank Sinatra and the like. Also classical. By that Christmas, I had brought the programming into the mid 1960s rock and pop scene - Beatles, Rolling Stones. Bob Dylan etc. A&R reps started appearing at our door, looking for opportunities to introduce new artists to the station's listeners - a prime demographic. This was also the time of the rise of FM music stations - alternative programming versus the dominant top ten territory of AM broadcasters.
Radio Varsity was in that FM groove. It was our station culture that attracted the artists of Gargoyle. The station facility had an open area, a manager's office and three broadcast studios. The studios had egg cartons stapled to the ceilings and walls. Nothing digital in those days. Tape recorders, analog.
In 1969, I was approached by a young woman about the use of our studios to record music performances by a number of people she had in tow. Naturally I said okay and got the permission of the only paid person at Radio Varsity - the station manager Pat Dymond. Performers were set up in the station's rooms and open space, I gave simple instructions on how to use station equipment. They came with their own equipment as well. I don't recall myself as being anything more than that. The artists did their own producing.
A surprise towards the end of the sessions, done over a weekend, was the recording of station id jingles written and performed as a gift. I recall the young woman as having an excellent singing voice on these jingles.
-Alec Speer, University of Toronto campus radio programming manager and DJ, 1966-1969
Tim Inkster: editor
Produced and engineered by Harald Moras
Cover design by John Ruutner
With special thanks to Pat Dymond and Alec Speer of Radio Varsity for the loan of their studios
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