The'late hour slot had one more drawback because Brave New Waves with host Brent Bambury is broadcast Sunday to Thursday from CBC Mon- treal. This show is.a forum for the truly unusual , said Robin- son and some listeners ex- pected Night Lines to conform to the same style. Yet the composition of the audience is markedly different on the weekends from the weekdays.

While Night Lines of Winni- peg provides an alternative format for those who are bored with conventional radio, it enables new or obscure bands to get the exposure they require.

“7 live on a potato farm. What do you call home?’’ ask Walt Ohamma of Ranier, Alberta as the first chords of his song radiate from the radio.

Ross Porter, the producer of Night Lines, said he wants people to say ‘I can’t believe you did that’ when they listen to the program. His goal is to achieve the ‘80’s equivalent of free forum radio a decade ago, when radio was more than just background noise.

When Night Lines was created in 1984, it was to fill the night time hole in CBC Stereo programming, to ap- peal to listeners in their early 20’s and to be cheap, explains

Rob Robinson, the original host. While it is difficult to guage the exact size of the pre- sent audience,: a Broadcast Bureau of Measurement (BBM) survey showed five per cent of the Canadian popula-

tion listens to the radio be-

tween midnight and six.

Finding a balance between new and established bands was their task an was difficult, said Robinson. ‘‘We played music with intelligence and promise and overlooked the technical problems.”’

Finding the new music re- quired just as much effort as finding the balance. ‘‘It took two hours of work to put one hour of Night Lines on the air,’ Robinson — explained. During the daylight hourse of 9 to 5:30 they ‘‘wrote music news, did research, interviews and listened to music, listened to music, listened to music. It was a sifting process and we picked the best and the most interesting.”’

Many of their early leads came from the magazine New Music Express and Melody Maker. ‘‘Britain really is a place of fads and fashion,”’ says Robinson. ‘‘What they go through in months, we struggle to keep up with.”’

While Night Lines has a co- operation of major record companies and has a record library of 5,000 and a growing collection of CD’s, Benmergui maintains that they’re not a ‘flack for record companies. We don’t play disc after disc.”’

“It’s a lot harder to track down the independent labels”’ (those like Netwerk of British Columbia and Green fuse), the host says. In addition to find- ing bands which play in Winnipeg’s alternatives venues of Verna’s, Wellington’s and Broadway’s, Night Lines soli- cits material.

‘We get tapes from people and those with the best chance are those who can afford to put together a disc. Bands must realize that music is a business, it just mean you have to beorganized,’’ said Ben- mergui, once the lead in a 1960’s bar band in southern Ontario. ;

“‘Music is getting the mes- sage. across. You must think it through. The tension in art is between expression and accessi- bility. How. much are you saying and how much are people listening?’’

Looking for gems in the chaff has paid off for the Night Lines staff, and for de- serving Canadian talent like Jane Siberry.

‘“‘We were on to her long before she got her 50 stop tour contract,’’ said Robinson. “She is on a different astral plane, like a stranger passing in the night ... we did three interviews with her.

““We were very happy that we had been playing the music that Liz Jancek wrote about in her new music column in Music Express. We were always ahead.’’

Between the music-and a few unusual contest, inter- views are important Night Lines fare. Benmergui has in- terviewed people of the night, like strippers, but the majority of interviews are with band members. While many interviews are CBC studio hookups to Toronto, some are live and anything can happen.

Robinson describ two such unforgetable incidents. ‘‘Sugar Cane Harris was at the mike for an interview and I asked him to say hello to Canada and as if he were on stage, he shouted ‘Hello Canada’. The technician with

his hands on the (control) dials almost died.’’

Another time, Blue Gate- mouth Brown, ‘‘who had been travelling for 24 hours, suffer- ing from son’s asthma, drink and who was almost out of it hit the mike with his head and belched. I asked, ‘is that a statement or a question?’ and went on. Seconds on air seem like an eternity if it is silent.’’

If the hours do bring out the crazies, the ‘time slot has created more problems than are readily apparent. Robin- son’s role was ‘‘to be there be awake and stay happy. We did it on coffee — the only drug we took or were offered.”’

‘We're not Brave New Waves. ‘Drone or shout’ is strongest when it is between ‘normal’ stuff. I’d never steal drama from a performer by playing five such songs in a row. We played the Residents on Ralph records and had a lot of fun with that.’’

The unique ability of both Night Lines and*Brave New Waves to cater to a particular listening public comes from being part of CBC Radio which is entirely supported by. taxes. This free CBC programs from the trap of commer- cialism.

Jim Johnson, Assistant Pro- gramme Director of 92 CITI FM of the private firm Moffat Communications, said, “‘I wish we could do it, but radio is a one shot thing. Our night- time program is mostly album cuts. We’ve got: to remain somewhat accessible to main- tain ratings.”

Life is not all roses being dependent on government financing. Benmergui says his “‘biggest frustration is the lack of money to promote the pro- gram. People don’t know we’re there.”’

Benmergui’s other peeve is when people call up the ans- wering machine.and say ‘‘play this. What am I? A service in- dustry? but most people give a part of themselves. I think its a fair trade. Spark my imagination, Vil spark yours.”’

Studio 22: Music, voices, and more music. Says Bern- mergui: ‘‘We like to have just plain fun.”’

= November 6, 1986

=e Ga

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