A Movie Review - Hey Kitchener & Area

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A Movie Review - Hey Kitchener & Area

Postby Marsbar » Sat Oct 24, 2015 3:19 am

I am what I play
Waterloo Region Record
By Joel Rubinoff
They all told their bosses where to stuff it.

It's just one thing the four legendary DJs profiled in "I Am What I Play" — an intriguing doc about the golden age of rock radio — have in common, but it's probably the most important.

"All four have that commonality,'' notes Roger King, the 47-year-old former Kitchener resident who painstakingly crafted this film on a shoestring budget over three years. "They all refuse to be told what to do.''

It's a quaint notion in today's world of corporate playlists and fake cheery radio hosts, but back in the '60s, '70s and '80s, radio was the Wild West and principled rebellion less the exception than the rule.

"Certainly the idea was to get on the air and do something interesting,'' notes King, who got his start hosting morning announcements at Kitchener's Forest Heights Collegiate and DJ'd at Guelph's CJOY before opting out of the business altogether.

"It wasn't a 'shift', it was a 'show'. I wanted to get to the heart of what it was like when it was a 'show.'''

They were radio's in-house rock stars, larger-than-life personalities who served as conduits to an unchartered world, tour guides to a new dimension.

First among equals is Dave Marsden, the loquacious Toronto eccentric who made his mark as motor-mouthed DJ Dave Mickie in the '60s, morphed into a laid-back hippie who championed free-form playlists at CHUM FM in the '70s and oversaw CFNY's rise as "the spirit of radio" and one of the first alternative stations in North America in the '80s.

The others are Charles Laquidara of Boston's WBCN, Pat O'Day of Seattle's KJR and Meg Griffin of New York's WNEW FM, all superstars who waged wars for freedom of expression, reached the heights of radio infamy and survived to tell the tale.

And their tales are legendary: being duped by the rumoured wedding of Paul McCartney and Jane Asher, claiming Jimi Hendrix's body from a London morgue, getting fired for breaking playlist protocol (and rehired when ratings shot up), drug addiction, Vietnam/Apartheid protests, corporate boycotts and giving the middle finger to The Man.

"I couldn't allow myself to sell out for the money,'' confides Marsden, who left Toronto's CHUM FM when they insisted he follow a prescribed playlist. "Was I facing a struggle? Of course I was. But I didn't see gloom in it. I just saw a new challenge.''

All these aging luminaries are arresting, singular storytellers, none have regrets, and the film's relentless, unyielding focus on what's interesting and relevant — there isn't an ounce of fluff — makes it a compelling watch from beginning to end.

Which makes it surprising to learn that director King works not as a filmmaker but as a talent booker for his own Toronto voice-over company — the radio version of Woody Allen's Broadway Danny Rose.

"I know the subject matter very well,'' confides King, whose dad, Bob King, was a news anchor at Kitchener's CHYM-FM and immersed his son in radio culture from a young age.

"I've always been a good conversationalist myself — comfortable in my own skin. And these people are already public personalities. They're used to talking about themselves.''

The fascinating thing about this film is the way a topic that is essentially nonvisual — radio — lends itself so flawlessly to King's quirky visual format: archival clips, talking heads, dramatic re-creations, ambitious montage sequences.

In theory, in shouldn't work, but the personalities are so colourful, their stories so bold, you can't look away.

"They're very specific to their era and the medium," notes King. "They were real characters — like movie characters — rather than a guy who might have worked 30 years in St. Louis and nothing happened.''

People think that era is over, that radio today is as bland as a network sitcom about single friends in their 30s.

Not so, says King.

"I think it's still happening on college radio level,'' he notes of the kind of do-your-own-thing mantra that defines his doc subjects. "But there are so many podcasts, so much more to filter through. It's all splintered now.

When everything is free, the mystique is gone.

"We were confined to a few genres,'' notes King, who lived in Kitchener from 1977 to 1988. "Now it's so overwhelming.

"At the time I was in university, Robert Plant released a new album and I skipped class to listen to it. People 20 years old laugh at that now.

"There was a magic in sending away for the rare 45 or a different version of an album.''

For those who remember, or are curious, this film serves as an intriguing portal back to a time when music mattered, when you could tell your boss to stuff it and be applauded for your integrity, when corporations bent, under duress, to the will of the people.

"I knew it would appeal to anyone who works in radio,'' says King, who will introduce the Princess Twin screening. "But people not in the business at all also seem to really enjoy it.''

"I Am What I Play," with introduction by director (and former Kitchener resident) Roger King

Thursday, Oct. 29, 7 p.m.

Princess Twin Cinema, 46 King St. N., Waterloo

Tickets $12, available in advance at http://www.brownpapertickets.com/event/2327724

http://www.therecord.com/whatson-story/6033452-i-am-what-i-play/
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