Donations ($25 +) made BEFORE MIDNIGHT ON MAY 31st, 2012 get entered into our GRAND PRIZE DRAWS!
 

For prize information and to DONATE, CLICK HERE.

Wednesday June 6th, 2012 / 7:30-9:30am / Outside of Hart House by Sammy’s Student Exchange

Enjoy some eggs with a side of good tunes!

CIUT will be broadcasting live this summer 2012 from:
(click on images below to learn more)

Afrofest 2012: July 7th and 8th at Woodbine Park

Craft Beer Festival 2012: August 2nd

CIUT will be Broadcasting Live from the Study & Go Abroad Fair on Friday September 28th ( from 3 to 7pm) and Saturday September 29th ( from 1 to 5pm) on 89.5 FM

Stay tuned for more details.

Questions or other inquiries about CIUT`s live broadcasts can be directed to Ken Stowar, Station Manager at kenthepd (at) gmail (dot) com

Get to Know a Programmer: John Valenteyn of John Valenteyn’s Blues (Thursdays, 4-5pm)

Follow Steve Fruitman as he interviews the people behind CIUT’s amazing alternative music programs. This month Steve sat down with John Valenteyn. Read the interview below:

John is Ontario born and raised in the fertile fields of the Holland Marsh just north of Toronto. He later, from the age of 13, lived in Port Colborne, Ontario, on the shores of Lake Erie. He attended Queen’s University in Kingston, Ontario and as a first year engineering student, was assigned to do “transmitter maintenance” at CFRC AM and FM. The FM transmitter was an archaic tube machine that required round the clock maintenance and this is what got him into radio.

“I was hanging around the radio station a lot, and a couple of years later I was hosting my own show. That was in 1970: The Saturday midnight slot. I was playing Little Walter and other blues albums from my collection.”

He was introduced to the blues via The Rolling Stones albums in his collection.

“They had songs that I really liked a lot and they had authors credited to them, like Howlin’ Wolf, Chuck Berry… so I started investigating and something about the music just got to me; I’ve been listening to it ever since. I found those old Howlin’ Wolf and Muddy Waters albums and the collection started from there.”

John used to commute between Port Colborne and Kingston and found it convenient to take a break in Toronto, which meant that he would usually wind up on Yonge Street, at A&A Records or Sam The Record Man, to pick up some blues albums. This was kind of prophetic as many years later he found himself working at Sam’s main store on Yonge St.

“It was like coming home,” he chuckles.

He eventually ended up going to Ryerson, taking courses in radio and television arts. He found a summer job at Ryerson affiliated station CJRT (the RT stood for Ryerson Technical) as a technician and operator. That eventually lead to a full-time job, behind the scenes, in 1974.

In 1984 a Saturday afternoon slot came open so he asked if he could play some of his blues records – which seemed like a natural thing to do after Joe Lewis’s program, ‘Folk Music and Folk Ways’. So for the next 16 years John hosted ‘The Blues Hours’.

That same year he was hanging out at Albert’s Hall in Toronto – a well known blues joint booked by Derek Andrews – and between Andrews, Dave Barnard (who hosted the ‘Dr. Feelgood’s Blues Emporium’ on CKLN) and himself, they decided to found the Toronto Blue Society, which they registered in 1985 in order to promote the Toronto blues scene. He’s been on the Blues Society’s board of directors ever since.

“Doing the radio show kind of made me a blues celebrity around town and I would get asked to MC at various concerts. Harbourfront was big, since Derek Andrews was booking it back then. They had a ‘Soul and Blues Festival’. I got asked to MC for Downchild Blues Band and (blues legend) Robert Jr. Lockwood was also on that bill. That was the first time that I was not talking to a single microphone in a studio. I found myself in front of 3,000 people and that was quite an experience.”

In 1986 the fledgling Toronto Blues Society was named “Blues Foundation of the Year” by the Blues Foundation in Memphis, Tennessee.

“We would send them our monthly magazine and they found out about us that way and ya! In ’86 we were voted the Blues Foundation of the Year which was a big feather in our cap, for sure.”

2012 will mark the 29th anniversary of the great Chicago Blues Festival and John has made his way there for all but four of them.

John is currently the co-chair of the nominating panel of the annual Maple Blues Awards which is a huge job.

“We organize a panel of blues experts across the country – radio personalities, journalists, festival booking agents – to come up with a list of nominees, five nominees in 17 categories.”

He is also the co-chair of the blues committee for the Juno awards as well.

“To me it’s really important to get the word out about blues artists across the country. Blues artists in Canada tend to be very regionally-oriented. There are artists in different parts of the country that we never get to hear about and I do all this to get the word about them out. That’s the kind of thing that I’m really interested in doing. Keeping the scene going by keeping the best recordings visible – and audible – to everybody across the country.”

John came to CIUT four years ago, after a five year break from radio, helping Ian Angus on ‘Let The Good Times Roll’, doing special ten minute segments based on his CD review column for Maple Blues Magazine, something which he has been doing for the past 15 years.

“Ian considered me an expert on Canadian talent and that’s what he required on his show, so that got me back into radio. And I would sub for him when he was on his various vacations.”

Angus eventually relocated closer to his work in Ottawa and John was asked to take over the show.

“My focus for the program is to show the variety of blues talent that’s out there, on our side of the border as well as the U.S. A lot of people say that now that the last generation of artists, like Buddy Guy and BB King, are getting older – that when they go, there’s no more blues. But that’s not true! But there are dozens of blues acts in virtually every town across the country and I feel that it’s my job to bring the world’s attention to them, if I can, by playing them on the radio, getting their recordings and doing whatever I can to promote them.”

He is also aware that there is an important function to promote younger artists to younger audiences, to help pass the torch.

“I’ve been playing recordings by younger guys, some as young as 18, to show that it’s not just the BB Kings and the Buddy Guy’s who can perform good blues. It’s music that reflects life. Jimmy Bowskill, for instance, a young man from Peterborough who started playing at 11 years of age at Jeff Healey’s club. He’s got a new CD coming out on the Ruf label out of Germany. There’s a young man who’s doing things around the world and making a name for himself. That’s the kind of person I like to promote.”

Other than blues, John Valenteyn is interested in recent classical music.

“I work downtown at HMV on the jazz and classical floor so we play a lot of that music there. I have a small hobby of trying to get classical music and blues together, like string quartets playing blues. I find that quite interesting.”

I asked John what one of his most unique blues experiences was?

“I was going to the Sunflower Blues Festival in Clarksdale, Mississippi – ground zero of the blues. I got into Memphis late, picked up my rental car and if you know anything about The Delta, you know that it’s dead flat; there is nothing in The Delta but a flat alluvial plain. It was raining slightly when I left Memphis but it was pouring by the time I got to Batesville and there was sheet lightning. It’s now getting to be midnight and with the sheet lightning, for about a fraction of a second, you could see for miles. And the rain was so heavy that it was building up on the soil – it wasn’t draining away fast enough – so the road I was on was about three inches above the water on either side of the road. Talk about white knuckling to stay on the road!”

John has gotten to meet a lot of his heroes.

“Meeting Bo Diddley was fascinating. I had never known that, for a while, he was a sheriff in Arizona. And he talked about helping teens growing up without having to resort to crime. And it was a fascinating conversation. Honey Boy Edwards, and Henry Townsend (who began recording back in 1929): he was a wonderful person. And Homesick James…he was one of those players who didn’t record because he knew what record companies were about and he was asking too many questions. So they would ignore him. He claims to have written a lot of the songs that are accredited to Elmore James.”

What blues album has he worn the grooves out of?

“Albert King’s ‘I’ll Play The Blues For You’.”

FRED

Irish band FRED came to visit CIUT 89.5 FM during Canadian Music Week 2012. Here are a few tunes they performed live in CIUT’s Map Room Studio. The following videos were filmed by CIUT’s intern Aisling Finneran, also of Ireland!

Our 25th birthday on the FM dial took place January 15th, 2012 and we plan on celebrating all year long. This page is dedicated to special archives from the last 25 years…
 

From Equalizing-X-Distort…
 

The Viletones performing the tune “Screaming Fist” in CIUT’s basement at 91 St. George Street

Don Pyle (of Crash Kills Five) had this to say about the tune above: “The first single is still … you know you hear it and it’s intense. It has the most perfect momentum and build – first bass, then one big guitar chord, long drum roll and into the whole band pounding one chord. It gives me goose bumps.”

CIUT 89.5 FM’s Gospel Music Machine will be celebrating 25 years of gospel music on Saturday, April 14, 2012 in concert at 7:00 p.m. at Revivaltime Tabernacle, located at 4340 Dufferin Street, Toronto, M3h 5r9

Tickets are $10.00 in advance and are available at all ticket window outlets by calling 1-877-700-3130 or online at www.ticketwindow.ca , tickets can also be purchased at major Christian bookstores.  For a listing of outlets, please visit - http://www.facebook.com/events/113581158766735/

The evening will be hosted by Courtney Williams, founder and producer of Gospel Music Machine, radio mogul, gospel music concert producer and promoter; Claudette Guy and Richard Gordon, co-hosts of the Gospel Music Machine.

This will be an incredible celebration and praise party recalling 25 years of dedication and how the Gospel Music Machine has changed the landscape of gospel music in Canada, in particular Southern Ontario. The evening will feature hand clapping, soul-stirring performances by some of Ontario’s finest gospel artists – both old and new – including: Brian Hamilton & Divine Worship, TC3, Toronto Mass Choir, Judith Gayle, Ann-Marie Stern Williams,  Lenton Williams,  Sharon Riley & Faith Chorale, Many other well-known ministers and various community leaders will be in attendance.

This night will be a wonderful reflection of over two decades of wonderful resounds with harmony and melody to honour our God and promises to raise the spirits of every soul present. So join us as we walk down memory lane.

“We are very excited about celebrating 25 years of impacting the community and advancing gospel music on CIUT 89.5FM.   Everything we do at the Gospel Music Machine is about giving and serving and that’s what keeps us challenged and motivated.  It’s been quite a journey and we look forward to continuing that great run and celebrating another 25 years.” –  Courtney Williams, founder of Gospel Music Machine.

The Map Room Sessions is an initiative presented by CIUT, the University of Toronto Televison (UTTV), and Hart House. The bi-monthly series will feature live performances and interviews with musicians both local and international.

Our first Map Room Session features the Toronto-based, Eastern European musical extravaganza that is the band, JUMPLE. Stay tuned for more details on upcoming Map Room Sessions.

For Map Room Sessions inquiries, please contact Station Manager Ken Stowar: kenthepd (at) gmail (dot) com

To view photos of JUMPLE’s MAP ROOM SESSION, visit CIUT on Flickr !