THANKS for stopping by, I do my best to acknowledge when someone leaves a comment,you do not have to be a member here & everyone is welcome.
Ps: This site is monitored but not actively posting on a regular basis. Mostly these are stories & some photos saved from a defunct site known as Verdun Connections which was on MSN Groups initially then on a social network called Multiply.
I believe we are witnessing another global robbery,with the new pandemic threat, We haven't witnessed financial commitments from world leaders /country's since 2008 but we are all certain now that it is a flu that is prompting financial commitments from every country you can think of. Where is the Money Really Going I am not making light of the virus ,but rarely do you see governments move in 'lockstep' within weeks ..........is it real ? time will tell,but a lot of Money is being moved around quite easily .Billion Dollar business's stop, Transportation stops, Ships ,Planes ,and personal investment portfolio's etc etc ..and we all start to believe the media hype,,,,,,,,,,,,is it real ,maybe somewhat,but follow the money and when it is over ( or when we are told it is over) then we all return to normal. We should fact check the overall actions of governments, for people with compromised health or immune systems then by all means keep yourself safe (as you should at anytime). We all have family & friends being affected by this,not to mention everyday lifestyles. but folks you don't need 6 months worth of TP.............
Ralph “Birdman” Lockwood, the legendary zany morning man of 1970s Montreal radio, died Sunday. He was 80 years old.
His death, in York, Pa., was confirmed by CJAD host Andrew Carter on Facebook.
“Lockwood’s
constituency never included listeners who liked to be eased out of bed
by a radio morning show,” Montreal Gazette columnist Mike Boone once
wrote of him. “But if you were the type who enjoyed being plunged into
the day by high-voltage, crack-a-minute radio, the Birdman was in a
class by himself.”
Lockwood was born in Hazleton, Pa., where he got his start in the business hosting a nightly polka show in the early 1960s.
He made his Montreal radio debut in 1968 at CFOX, but left in 1971 and landed a job on a morning show in West Palm Beach, Fla.
Story continues below
Returning to Montreal in 1972, Lockwood quickly became one of the city’s top morning hosts at CKGM.
Ralph Lockwood in 1979.Mac Juster /
Montreal Gazette A fast-talking, cigar-smoking wisecracker, his taglines
caught on with Montrealers. How’s your bird? How’s your old oiseau?
That’s what she said at the Bell Canada picnic. Don’t forget to put on
your Côte des Neiges.
Lockwood voiced his own fictional sidekicks — Professor Frydock, Dorion Smith and a caricature of Mad Dog Vachon.
An
early morning institution, he had a penchant for corny one-liners and
double entendres — and doing his show shirtless. One morning, he played
Rainbow Connection by Kermit the Frog over and over, claiming he had
locked himself in the studio.
Lockwood
was also known for his quirky television commercials — he donned a
barrel for a Dorion Suits ad, andfor the Bar-B-Barn restaurant, he
devoured succulent chicken and ribs for 30 seconds without uttering a
word.
He left CKGM in 1981, but remained a Montreal media mainstay.
He
became CFCF radio’s afternoon show host before moving to TV as host of a
daily morning show on CFCF-TV. For a time, he was also the the
play-by-play caller on the Montreal Concordes’ CJAD football broadcasts,
and host of a weekly football highlights show on CFCF TV.
Ralph Lockwood, left, takes a break from his frenetic radio show to pose
with his traffic reporter, Mary Ann Carpentier on Jan. 25, 1974.Garth Pritchard /
Montreal Gazette In 1985, CKGM, hoping to revive its flagging morning show,
hired Lockwood for five years at a six-figure salary. But the effort
failed and Lockwood was fired in 1987.
A year later, Lockwood
returned to the United States to host the morning show on WSBA, a
station in York, Pa., not far from his hometown. He worked there for 11
years, going on to do radio consulting and public relations.
In a
2002 interview with the Montreal Gazette, Lockwood said: “I miss radio
like crazy — except when I listen to where it’s going, with all the
bitching and complaining. I saw it as a nice vehicle for entertaining
people. I made it like a bubble. It was my escape. And, geez, I miss the
Bar-B-Barn.”
Lockwood’s wife, Lois Lockwood, died in 2008.
Ralph Lockwood in a 1985 CKGM publicity photo.jpg
You can see the complete Gazette article here at this link,which includes sound bites and video,old ads etc etc https://montrealgazette.com/news/local-news/ralph-birdman-lockwood-zany-montreal-radio-morning-man-dies Cheers ! LesF
Wow, can you believe we are entering the year 2020 make it your best year yet,appreciate your family & friends and things you like,and good health to all who surf by here.We've come a long way since our childhood days in Verdun...Cheers ! Have Fun and Remember Verdun , LesF
Ile-Ste-Helene, or St. Helen's Island, in the St. Lawrence River,
was enlarged in order to serve as part of the site for Montreal's Expo
67. This photo of the work underway was published in the Montreal
Gazette On Oct. 2, 1963. Bob James / Montreal Gazette
Gazette photographer Bob James’s aerial photo of Île-Ste-Hélène
was published on our front page on Oct. 2, 1963. The purpose was to show
how work was progressing on the enlargement of what we then called St.
Helen’s Island for use as part of the site of the 1967 World’s Fair,
Expo 67.
Dikes had been built around the areas to be filled in.
Île-Ronde, which was to become part of Île-Ste-Hélène (it lent its name
to La Ronde), was being used as an operational base, and rock for the
dikes was being quarried there.
“Work is to begin later on a new
island of similar size, Île-Notre-Dame, as the second half of exhibition
grounds,” we wrote. “World’s Fair Deputy Commissioner-General Robert
Shaw says dredging will begin within 10 days to fill in extended parts
of St. Helen’s Island. Most of this phase is to be completed before
freeze-up, Mr. Shaw says.”
That timeline proved optimistic.
On
Dec. 26, 1963, we reported that the dredging was not providing enough
fill, so the city was about to call tenders for a contract to bring in
more fill by truck to the site. In
addition, “instructions already have been given by the administration
to contractors working on construction of Montreal’s projected subway
system to transport all excavated material to the World’s Fair site for
filling in the link between Île-Ronde and St. Helen’s Island,” we
reported.
The panic was on account of the city’s
commitment to making the site available by July 1, 1964 to the Canadian
Corporation for the 1967 World Exhibition.
A huge ceremony to transfer the site was indeed held the night of June 30-July 1, 1964 — even if Île-Notre-Dame was yet to come.
and this shot too.........
Merry Christmas ,Cheers ! LesF
