Welcome to JJ-365 Salutes. Over 2018, we pay tribute daily to one of “The Good Ones”. Today we are shining the light on Reg Johns.

In previous posts I have talked about how Reg hired me from CFGO Ottawa to powerhouse CKGM in Montreal. At the last minute (after the memo had gone out there), I chickened out. I thought all was lost in terms of a chance to work with the hottest Program Director in Canada. Reg saw something in me though (certainly more than I saw in me), came back and hired me shortly after he went to ‘the show’ as the Program Director of CFTR giving me one of the biggest breaks of my career.

Reg was born in Winnipeg and raised in Transcona there. He played in bands in his teens, during a time when there were around 250 bands in Winnipeg. You could see Neil Young, Randy Bachman, Burton Cummings, Lenny Breau, Tom Cochrane and many other greats playing school dances and Community clubs every weekend. It was such a great time to be in Winnipeg and music became his life. Winnipeg by the way is still a great music town, and probably always will be.

Reg grew up listening to CKY which was 50,000 watts sounding like a million. CKY was considered the best station in Canada at the time and featured the likes of Chuck Dann (Riley), Jimmy Darin (Hilliard), Daryl B, J. Robert Wood, Merv Clark (Chuck McCoy) and many others. They were playing the Beatles, had amazing personalities and promotions and were bigger than life. Chuck and Reg often talk about the influence CKY had on them, and many others.

He loved music and wanted to become a sound engineer. It was suggested he start in radio where he could learn the equipment as there were not that many studios around in those days. Through a friend of Ron Andrews at CKY, he says he was lucky to land a job at CFAR Flin Flon MB in 1971. He was so nervous, he started smoking on the ride up. (Someone told him it would lower his voice. “Ha. Didn’t work” he says). He was lucky to start off with some great guys who helped him get over the fear, and taught him the ropes; Dennis Beyak (now voice of Winnipeg Jets), Ken Porteous, Reid Dickey, and Joe McCormick. Two months in, he was hooked on radio, always favouring the promo production side of it most. For Reg, the promo has always been the fun.

His first big break came when the late and great Gary Miles, then GM of CKRC Winnipeg, was up north duck hunting and heard him on the radio. He’s sure Gary thought to himself; "now there's someone I could hire for cheap"-??. Gary was a big influence on him for his whole career. He started as the night jock, did over 5 years of pm drive on-air, promo imaging, promotion, and eventually became the Program Director. Gary liked to foster growth and was good at it. He kept turning on the green light, allowing them all to learn and grow: “We were dry young sponges and had non-stop fun. It was a great time for top 40 radio. The battle between CKRC, CFRW and CKY was intense fun. Who could sound bigger? Who could make the $5,000 limit per month sound more than it was? Great bunch of folks. We played and worked hard. Larry Fedoruk, Racoon Raccoon Carney, John Keogh, Billie Gorrie, Kevin Evans, Harry Crowder, Terri Parkinson, the late and great Steve Young, Heidi Brock, Judy Jansen, Scott Walker, 365’ers Buster Beau Dean and Gary Aubé (Magic), and many others. Lucky us.”

Reg was driven to advance to bigger markets. In 1977, he went to CKGM Montreal as Program Director. Coming from the prairies, he was amazed and quickly fell in love with the magical city of Montreal and the French culture. Geoff Stirling was the owner and was such an inspiration to many. Lots thought Geoff was ‘out there’, (“maybe a little” he says), but that’s why he was so creative. He loved CKGM and he loved Montreal. He turned on the green light for so many unique and big promotions which allowed for lots of fun. It was a great station, with great talent. ‘The Birdman’ Ralph Lockwood, Mais ouis Marc Denis, David Wolfe, Buster Beau Dean, the late and great Gary Bell, Greg Stewart, Robert G Hall, Doug Price, Danny Muse, Joanne Rudy, and Chuck Riley as the promo voice.

Then in ‘79 CFTR Toronto came knocking for the 3rd time and it was an offer he couldn’t refuse. "I had a chance to work with some big-time radio greats: Dan Plouffe, Bill Gardner, Larry Fedoruk, Dan Williamson, Mike Michael Cooper, Gary ‘Space’ Bell, 365'er Gerry Forbes Ger Forbsie, and Jim (soon to be famous) Johnston. We had a phenomenal newsroom of 23 people, airplanes in the sky, big promotion and research budgets, huge signal, all going against a legendary competitor. What was not to be blown away by? It was an awesome group of talented people who made CFTR number one and I learned bunches. The station sounded big time, and I was proud to have played my part."

He was always smitten by American radio in those days (WLS, WCFL, KCBQ, KHJ, KFRC, WNAP, WVBF, etc.) and wanted to try it. The success of CFTR over CHUM helped open the door for his eventual Green Card into the US, specifically Fairbanks Broadcasting and WVBF Boston. He was in Boston three years, a huge learning curve as it was so different from Canadian radio. He had highs and lows and learned at ton. His favorite experience was the creation of the 11-person fun morning show with Loren and Wally, two incredible guys. "It’s also where I met my beautiful wife Savvy. We’ve been married 35 years and Christina, now 28, is our beautiful, sweet daughter."

Says Reg: “I was very lucky to have four strong mentors in my early days. Gary Miles, my brother George Johns, Jack McCoy, and Jim Hilliard. Each were strong in their values and convictions. All of them loved radio, made it fun and wanted to make it bigger and better. Each were gracious to share their stories, observations and insights with me.”

In 1983, he teamed up with with his brother George and Bill Yde at Fairwest which was a Programming and Promotions Consultancy. They were fun and innovative and owned a recording studio in Dallas where they developed jingles for radio as well as provided various formats, programming / marketing consultancy, and research. Business was good, so they expanded into station ownership for a moment with the purchases of K103 Portland, WZPL Indianapolis and WZTR Milwaukee. They were fun, exciting, days but Reg didn’t care for station ownership. It was too political, too many banks…”We did ok, but in light of consolidation, we probably sold too early. Still very proud of K103 Portland.”

In 1987, Reg started a new company called Fairwest Direct. The focus was on the listener database. He had explored listener databases at K103 and saw many exact matches with the characteristics of rating voters. They started out by coming up with various loyalty based direct mail and telemarketing campaigns for stations to target these types of folks directly and provided incentives to tune in at specific times. They evolved into developing database technology with the IVR digital system, using interactive phone systems to build a larger listener database faster - enabling callers (voters) to turn themselves in, using their touch tone phone to answer lifestyle questions.

From there, they evolved the one-to-one concept onto computer screen savers, desk tops, then finally onto the Internet with the Rewards Program, including music research, trackable listening, lifestyle surveys and games. Fairwest Direct was a fun innovative company filled with many great talents over the years. Greg Fredrick was a partner for many years and was ‘Mr. Detail’ on everything. Rob Sisco was the best Ambassador ever, Jim Smith was/is one of radio’s smartest, Barb Lovenguth and her tireless hours kept it all together, David Wolfe, one of the best and most tenacious promotion guys around spun his magic, Bev Tilden was the amazing facilitator, Sammy James (son of 365’er Keith James) added his lightning-fast creative brilliance, and their resident genius, Hamid Badiozamani saved the day every day. Mark, Cheryl, Paul, Linda, Lori, the list goes on he says. They were fun and creative times.

Reg started a new company in 2007 with Hamid, Barb and Steve from Fairwest called 'Mass 2 One (M2O)'. This Rewards Program for radio was P1 (primary listener) loyalty driven. They just kept developing more research and engagement features to the platform – all to track and reward listener activity. Reg says: “It was such a thrill to work with the mighty KIIS FM Los Angeles, Z100 in New York, and great groups like CBS, GAP/Townsquare, Austero in Australia, Rogers in Canada and others. Eventually, the program landed on over 1,100 client stations in the US, Canada and Australia. Truly blessed and very lucky. Our partnership on the Loyalty Program with Rogers ended last year after 13 years. Nice run for a promotion. What a joy to work with those folks. Julie Adam EVP at Rogers is so good at everything she does. We loved working with Rogers, they are professional and as our U.S. support staff would say – very polite. I especially had fun reuniting with my mentor Gary Miles when he was CEO and Chuck McCoy was VP Programming. Two of the very best right there. “

Maintaining Canadian rights, he sold M2O to Triton in 2009. Then later, Hamid, Barb, Steve and Reg teamed up to start a new venture. 'i 4 one' developed The Local Music Wall and the Prediction Game. The Wall encouraged local musicians to post their original music on their platform to have listeners sample, score, be charted and purchased by local listeners. The Prediction Game encouraged listeners, gamers of all kinds, to make Predictions, and with odds, bet their points on the outcomes of various lifestyle events to win prizes. Reg loved both ideas and they came close to global home runs, but couldn’t get them to materialize.

During this time, he was excited to work with former Fairwest partner Bill Yde and Roy Laughlin on the mobile app / database development for the Global Traffic Network worldwide. With GTN, Bill had built a global powerhouse and Reg is very proud of him calling him a class act who deserves all his success. Roy and Eileen Woodbury brought the Rewards Program into KIIS when Roy was L.A. Cluster President and Reg said is was such a thrill working with all the creative people of KIIS. He describes Roy as easily the smartest, most creative person he’s ever worked with and loved those fun and exciting times.

Reg sums up: “Today, I’ve retired and loving it. ‘So, this is what a vacation feels like?’ We’ve lived in San Diego for 35 years. Sorry Winnipeg, I love the weather here. We are getting ready to RV across the country popping into different cities and catching up with long time radio friends. Then, I want to spend time travelling to Belize, Kelowna, Mexico, Winnipeg, Costa Rica, Spain for months at a time. 

My advice to young talent: Follow your passion, stay current, find quality mentors, be brutally inquisitive, build on relationships, have fun. 

I met so many people along the way. I loved radio. Loved the people. Like many, it was my life. I was lucky, fortunate, right place right time, talked to someone at the exact right moment, I don’t know; but over the years I’ve gotten to meet and work with some of the very best. I was very lucky, I got to play and have fun with my craft every day, my whole career.”

After getting to Toronto, Reg spent a lot of time with me getting me to think bigger, and helping me expand my creative limits. I remember when he asked me how much I read? I told him I read newspapers and magazines and he said "Novels baby, read novels, it will stretch your brain!" I didn't know that it would help but did it, became a life long book reader, and he was right. 

I'd be on the air and the bat-line would go off. It would be Reg saying "I just heard that on-air bit, brilliant baby! Keep knocking me out!" 

Upon getting there I had this little tape unit that I used to record content ideas. Reg saw it and the light-bulb went off. He said "I got an idea man! You want to be famous right? Why don't you start recording people, ask them if they know who Jim Johnston is, and when they say they don't know, tell them 'Someday you will baby. I am going to be famous!" That's how I became 'Jim Soon To Be Famous Johnston', something I still hear about. I would run those bits back on the air and it was always funny and different for sure. Imagine this young guy on CFTR who's act was trying to get noticed, who always had someone say "never heard of you!" "Someday you will man!" On my last day at CFTR (Reg was down south by then) I ran one on-air clip where I asked if they knew me and they said "YES, you are Jim Soon To Be Famous right?" I said "my work is done, I am finally famous" and announced it was my last shift. Then we were off to join the CITI-FM team in Reg's hometown, which was another terrific move.

If someone convinces you they believe in you, and then empowers you, supports you, and challenges you, great things can happen. Can't thank you enough Reg. You are a class act, an original, and one of the great thinkers, leaders and innovators in the broadcast business. Enjoy your well earned retirement man!

Thank you, Reg Johns, for being one of “The Good Ones”. Feel free to like and share Reg’s positive story. Who is the subject of tomorrow’s JJ-365 Salutes? As they say, stay tuned.

Jim JJ Johnston is the CEO, President and Chief Talent/Content Coach for JJIMS INC. and works with talent in many different industries. He can be reached at JJ-IMS.COM.