The Vancouver Sun from Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada • 109

Klfii SECTION RECREATION Peter Wilson: Author whose stories pack power 23 Boats, Marine Classifications 427-430 Trailers, Campers, Motorhomes Classifications 437 ketchup I V-f SATURDAY, SEPTEMBER 30, 1989 I nnlill.l.i I III lliillliiiaii mm, I ij I Hill Jw QmMm i -n. Ml it fl jf yjm mi -m m. i tm 'i it it tt ni ui mm 11. mm ar iu A Radio mines for gold in rock's bygone years, and what the listeners get is musical fossils and what thfilistfinfirsnfttimiiQinfllfnQQik A You Asked: about 007, and cloud people iter, Neil Sedaka, Grace 112 generation says the music that's out-today isn't as good as the stuff that was out when they were kids." i McCoy brings up another point: radio listeners and record buyers may be two different animals. "When we program radio stations, we don't program directly to people who buy records.

The record buying Please see RADIO, H11 'jz ''v A', 'crm5p f''yxv Hw my. Imyymsi ft. MIKE RENO LOVE THOSE HITS: A Lover- boy greatest hils package (entitled Big Ones, New Ones) should be out by the end of the month. It includes three new Paul DeanMike Reno songs recorded by the band with producer Bob Rock over the summer at Little Mountain Sound: Too Hot, For You and Ain't Looking For Love. The album will have 10 songs, the cassette 12 and compact disc, 14.

The band has not necessarily regrouped plans are still up in the air. MOVING ON: The former director of Kenneth G. Heffel Fine Arts Patrick Doheny, has struck out on his own, alter 10 years with the Heffel family. "It was probably time, alter 10 years, for me to go out on my own," says Doheny, 42. As Patrick Doheny Fine Art, he will acquire and sell art for clients, specializing in 20th-century art and Canadian art, and represent artists "on a limited basis," he says.

WILL 0' THE TWISP: Members of McQueen, a Penticton country and country-rock band, are hoping for a breakthrough to concert bookings after being selected to open for illie Nelson at a Sunday concert at Twisp, Wash. Although McQueen members Tony Kohlniss (guitar, keyboards), Jerry Gillen (drums), Doug Thorsteinson (bass), and Ron Armour (rhythm guitar) have between 11 and 20 years of experience as professional musicians, the band has been together just over a year. Kohlruss says the band generally plays the club circuit in B.C. and Alberta, "but we're trying to gel more into con- certs." Kohlruss says more than 100 bands submitted tapes and resumes in bids to open for Nelson. THE WRITE STUFF: Vancouver writer Keith Maillard, whose most recent novel Motet was published this fall, will be paying tribute to his mentor David Omar White on CBC Radio's Speaking Volumes Oct 8 at 10:08 p.m.

White was not a riter but a visual artist whom Maillard met when both men ere working on a Boston underground paper in the late 1960s. Says Maillard: "After we met I started taking writing seriously. Omar gave me a core of values hich I still believe today and which I now try to pass on to my students." IDEA MAN: The Burnaby Art Gallery has a new assistant curator Todd Davis. A freelance curator and graphic artist, Davis, 36, graduated in 1977 from the Nova Scotia College of Art and Design, and moved to Vancouver the same year. He is married to artist Julie Duschenes.

BAG director Lina Jabra said Davis was chosen from 52 applicants across the country. "I like his ideas. He has a good sense of design," she added. UNDERRATED: Judith Schwarz, an Emily Carr College of Art and Design grad who grew up in Vancouver and now lives and works in Toronto, will show her recent sculpture in a solo exhibit at the Art Gallery of Windsor, Nov. 25 to Jan.

7. Grant Arnold, senior curator at the AGW, calls Schwarz, 44, one of Canada's most underrated artists. "There are really two issues that interest me in her work," he told Canadian Art magazine. "The first is her use of materials: a lot of sculpture has really drilled away from any sense of craft toward pure idea. Also, she has a very strong sense of the history of sculptural vocabulary." i Years A Slick and Paul Kantner, CLOCKWISE from top left: Joni Mitchell, John McFee, of the Doobie Brothers, Neil Young, Alvin Lee, of Ten By JOHN MACKIE or about 3:30 in the afternoon on September 21, 1989, Vancouver's "classic rock" radio sta tion, CHRX, featured a blast from the past from those insipid '70s prog-rockers, Supertramp (Goodbye Stranger).

Flipping the dial to Vancouver's top album rock station, CFOX, we find another oldie, the Eagles' Witchy Woman (1972). Up a notch on the FM band at CFMI, Joni Mitchell's soft-rocker from 1974, Help Me, floats o'er the airwaves. Back on AM, we find CFUN playing Neil Young's Old Man (1972), and CISL dipping back to 1959 for Neil Sedaka's Oh Carol. No, we're not caught in a time warp we're just experiencing another day in the classic rock counter-revolution. More than ever before, radio stations are mining old gold for their playlists, hoping to entice the huge, monied baby boomer group with the hits of their youth.

"Everybody wants the baby boomers," says Dave Chesney of CBS Records, sarcastically noting that classic rock's raison d'etre is to help the thirtysomething generation "to relive that wonderous wild yout that they had, when they were changing the world." IT'S as if yuppies are holding the airwaves hostage, refusing to let the music of today take its rightful place in the public consciousness. Even on stations that play a higher percentage of new music, if an established act like the Rolling Stones or Jethro Tull conies out with a new record, it'll get the nod over something from relative newcomers like the Pixies, Peter Case or The The. "It really stagnates music," says Tonni Maruyama of Vancouver's Nettwerk Records, a small indepen us dent label that specializes in innov tive new music. There no How fresh new bands going through system. The trend has reached such ridiculous proportions that a number of rock dinosaurs the Doobie Brothers, Poco, Jefferson Airplane, 10 Years and the troupe of former Yes-men known as Anderson, Bruford, Wakeman and Howe reunited and released new records, all of which received heavy airplay in the rock marketplace.

And it begs the question: Is classic rock killing music? THE answer, ultimately, is no the creative side of the music business is thriving. Acts like Sinead O'Connor (who sold 100,000 copies of her debut album in Canada), the Proclaimed (80,000) and the Pogues (50,000) do quite well with little or no airplay. People who want to seek out new music can find it through avenues such as college radio (UBC's campus station CITR), the music press or even MuchMusic. "What (classic rock) has done is forced record companies to put a lot more effort into marketing of their groups," says Chesney of CBS, a former music director at CFOX. "The easy way to get a hit record is to get it on the radio, but it's not the only By ELIZABETH AIRD ENRY WINKLER was one of the biggest stars in the world when he found out why he couldn't read 36, Winkler was into his ninth year as the Fonz Arthur Fonzarelli, the greaser with a heart of gold who made Happy yy yyypyy: WINKLER: being Fonzie was 'hard work la of Jefferson Starship ing to capture a percentage of the market." "(CHRX is) there to inexpensively super-serve a narrow segment of the audience," says radio consultant Chuck McCoy, adding that CHRX didn't create the demand for a station that specialized in '60s and '70s rock, the audience did.

(Modern radio is about reflecting trends, rather than setting them.) "Every Teurino Barbara of MCA records agrees. "Program directors like to play stuff that people recognize, that's not gonna offend anybody," he says. "They don't want to scare listeners away." The current problem, he says, is that radio programmers "seem to pay more attention to the name of the act more than the record itself," adding any "classic" artist that comes along even though few have gone on to be hits. "Six weeks (of airplay) and they're history." But their complaints fall on deaf ears at classic rocker CHRX, which has developed a solid market share and listener base in its year of operation. Artistically, classic rock may be revisionist, but in the late '80s, rock radio isn't about exposing new music, it's about making money.

"It's a business," says music director Joe Leary. "We're not trying to be market innovators, we're just try Give us an earful of what you think Is the sound of gulden oldies music to your ears? Or are you fed up to the teeth with the likes of Led Zeppelin, the Doobie Brothers and the Moody Blues? And what does it mean when a large chunk of today's youth turns on to another generation's music rather than its own? Whatever your age, tell us what you think about the state of popular music and we'll print a selection of your letters. Write: Leisure Letters, The Vancouver Sun, 2230 Granville Vancouver, B.C. V6H 3G2. way.

Record sales aren't down." Nonetheless, classic rock is making it harder for new acts to get exposure, and keeping the airwaves in suspended animation. At times, flipping on the radio is like being at a teenage drinking party in 1972: Jethro Tull is running down his gives way to Led Zeppelin a lady who's sure all that glitters is gives way to the Doors on the storm, there's a killer on the roam, his brain is squirming like a "Radio has always had this safety factor," says Alison Brock of records, another ex-music director (at Calgary's KIK-FM) who was known for championing new artists. "Something that's unknown is unsafe 'cause they don't know how people are going to react to it, whereas picking bands that are already established is safe, so they'll go with it." Days a hit. That's nine years of devouring scripts at the frantic pace of weekly television. i "I worked awfully hard," is all Winkler says when he's asked how he managed.

"I learned to memorize instan-; taneously. I would be able to read one line at a time, but I couldn't do it out loud." Winkler says dyslexia forced him to solve problems in unusual ways. Kind of perfect for a guy who turned into the executive producer of MacGyver. In case you've been living under a rock, MacGyver is about a non-violent, quick-witted and incredibly cute hero played by Richard Dean Anderson. He saves lives and solves problems through sheer ingenuity, and tries never to hurt anybody.

Winkler loves his show, espe TheFonz as-a finds happy days HoDywpod producer wood director). Howard has a level head, says Winkler, because he was never treated like a star, by his parents. "Ron is a very, powerful personality. Under the 'aw shucks' it's like steel," he says of Howard. Talking about Howard's upbringing is typical for Winkler, who says he would have been a child psychologist if he hadn't gotten into showbiz (he majored 1 in child psychology and drama in his undergrad years).

He says his proudest achievement is being a parent to Jed (his stepson, who just started college), Zoe, nine, and six-year-old Max. He spends his early mornings, playing cars with Max, his week-ends at birthday parties, and his spare time working for children's-' charities. The Fon2 has grown up to be of nice guy-ness. It's kind of nice to know that he does have a few flaws, chief among them his worries about flab. "I'm trying very hard to make my 44-year-old midsection look like it's 27," he laughs.

"I'm going to the ashram" sometime and possibly I'll get in touch with my midsection, but I'm not that evolved yet." cially its Come again? "A MacGyverism is taking anything that we use around us for one purpose, and using it to get out of a tricky situation," explains Winkler. On one show, for instance, MacGyver filled his radiator with eggs. They boiled, plugged the bullet holes in his radiator, and he made his getaway. Winkler isn't the only one who loves MacGyver. He says Richard Dean Anderson is an "icon" in France and Germany, and calls the show "the little engine that could," surviving for five years even though ABC repeatedly put in time slots that would kill most shows.

MacGyver, the boy scout of TV action heroes, is just the kind of guy Winkler would admire. "MacGyver's power conies from his brains and his personality," says Winkler; He should know something about that. Sheer force of will, handed down from hi's old-country German parents, got this dyslexic kid a master's degree from Yale, and kept him sane through his years of super-' stardom. Now he's a seriously successful Hollywood producer, whose next goal is to become a good director. Winkler describes his Fonzie years as "frightening, gigantic, ego-satisfying, and unnatural.

I had to just remember, I am Henry Winkler, my parents are still Harry and Ilsa, and I still have a sister in New York." Things still got pretty strange, like the lime Winkler got pretty much obsessed with answering every fan letter he got. It helped that he worked with Ron Howard (Mayberry's Opie, Happy Days' Richie, hot Holly-.