Resources
- Red Robinson began spinning R&B and Rock ‘n Roll records in Vancouver on CJOR in 1954 on his Theme For Teens show. Later he moved on to CKWX where his Teen Canteen show turned on a lot of listeners to the new sound sweeping the continent. His biography and other more recent posts are found here: http://redrobinson.com. On December 8, 2016 he was a guest on Q on CBC Radio.
- The Airheads Radio Survey Archive provides extensive lists of record surveys in towns and cities across North America and a few in Australia. Go to their site and enter the name of a recording artist or single to find out how it charted in other radio markets on the continent: http://www.las-solanas.com/arsa/charts.php
- The Vancouver Top 40 Radio website by Jim Bower provides available weekly lists of record surveys between January 13, 1957 and January 1, 1986 http://www.vancouvertop40radio.com
- Brian Tarling, born in Vancouver, has authored Vancouver’s Charted Songs ’56 to ’78* and Vancouver’s Charted Songs ’79 to ’93. These will be of interest to anyone wanting an equivalent to American author, Joel Whitburn, and his many books researching the Billboard charts in the USA. Brian Tarling has given any music trivia buffs of Vancouver pop radio a gift. Visit his website at http://www.vancouverschartedsongs.ca
- The Billboard Magazine Hot 100 weekly charts are archived and can be viewed at: http://www.billboard.com/archive/charts
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
Around 2008 I discovered Jim Bower’s website, vancouvertop40radio.com. I discovered many songs once charting in town were neglected on oldies stations. This confirmed by own anecdotal observations about what was omitted on local oldies station play lists. I was able to correspond with Jim Bower and learn more about the pop charts, especially before 1965. I am grateful for his efforts.
I also discovered the book, Vancouver’s Charted Songs ’56 to ’78* by Brian Tarling. Brian has been very helpful in providing statistical information about how well certain songs performed. This is true especially for chart performance of songs prior to October 1958, and any songs on the CKVN charts from the early 1970’s, and on CKLG and CFUN from the summer of 1974 to October 1978. Thanks Brian.
Keith Watson has also been available to meet with me on a number of occasions to let me photocopy past record surveys I wanted to have on hand, especially the CKLG charts from 1985 to 1991, as well as getting copies of missing record surveys I didn’t keep during the mid-60’s. Keith has also been able to provide some valuable information about chart performance of songs from the late 1970’s into the early 1990’s.
Record collector, Neil Drummond, contacted me in December 2018 to let me know he had collected weekly record surveys from C-FUN and CKLG spanning the years from 1962 to 1993. My thanks to Neil for filling the gaps and providing me with some of the weekly charts I had not been able to obtain from CKLG between 1978 and 1984 and July 1991 and June 1993. Neil also provided me with complete record survey lists often not published in the Vancouver Province. He first got turned onto rock n’ roll when he heard Herman’s Hermits and The Beatles, sharing records with his brother. Neil’s first record purchase was the 45 RPM of “Love Is Blue” by Paul Mauriat. As Neil got to know staff at CKLG he was able to get original copies of the weekly record surveys even when there was a newspaper strike or a radio station strike. It is thanks to Neil that I have been able to expand the initial survey of radio charts to review on this website to include songs on the CKLG surveys up to June 1993.
In addition, I want to thank the staff at the Vancouver Public Library’s Central Branch. For a time there were a number of staff who knew me as a regular visitor viewing microfilm of the Vancouver Province as I identified and photocopied available record charts from 1979 to 1985.
Another source I want to acknowledge that has been of help in doing research for this website project is ARSA (Airheads Radio Survey Archive) described as a website for Airheads, or Radio Trivia Buffs.
Since the initial post of this 1130 Top Hits countdown on October 3, 2016, I was contacted by Larry Morton, a local collector of record label scans and radio station weekly chart scans. I’d like to thank Larry for providing a steady stream of scanned images for viewers here to see the 45 RPM record labels featured in the song reviews.
Finally, I want to thank Billboard Magazine for publishing their weekly Hot 100 charts between 1958 and 1993 online. (They have archived them up to the current weekly charts in the 21st C). And to the American Top 40 radio show and Casey Kasem who broadened my appreciation for pop music trivia and a world of music outside of the local pop music market here in Vancouver.