BOB HUTTON
Robert John Hutton
born in San Francisco - June 29, 1920
died in Oshawa, Ontario - November
15, 2007 at age 87
Radio History
1939-CFJC Kamloops radio dramatic
club at age 19
1941-CFJC hired as
operator/announcer
1945-1955-CKWX Vancouver as
morning announcer
but developed TB and sent to
Tranquille in Kamloops for almost 2 years 1947-1949
1955-1973 CKNW mornings
1973 to 1975 remotes
retired on a NW pension at age 55
and left for Whitby, Ontario to be close to his family
Bob was born in San Francisco to Canadian
parents. He lived in Rocky Mountain House, Alberta until he was ten and then
moved to the Grandview area of Vancouver. At 15 he was off to Kamloops.
"That was the place to grow up" says Bob. He was heavily involved in
drama, that he used to good advantage at WX which was involved in radio stage
productions. "I got hooked on
radio."
Early work before radio:
radio dispatcher - Yukon Southern
Air Transport
radio operator - BC
forestry department
Laurie Irving Program Director of
CKWX - heard of Bob and asked for a disc recording during the war. Bob had to
get clearance from government to do a job other than in the war effort. Manager
Frank (Tiny) Elphicke hired him at WX to fill a spot vacated by Bill Fox.
Morning work on radio was in
transition as for many years - evening radio was the most popular listening
times. The highest rated station was the Dominion network outlet – CJOR but
slowly that strength was eroded. Between 1950 and 1955 Hutton rode the wave as
more people were attracted to wake up radio.
He was competing with Billy Browne
to start with and Colin Fitzgerald (GG man) who took over the CJOR morning
announcer job on the death of Billy Browne in 1951.The show was middle of the
road music with the personality of the announcer and dropped-in humour as the
attraction. CKNW had tried a number of familiar DJ's in an effort to get a
stronger audience but just couldn’t do it.
He had married Verna in 1952 - 3
children followed - Donna, Robert Jr. and Liz.
Verna would help Bob on some remotes.
In 1955, Bill Hughes hired Hutton
away and the audience followed. (Hughes had worked briefly with Hutton at CKWX
in 1945.) Bob went on the air at NW on May 7, 1955.
NW became number one in 1955 and
would maintain that position for 50 years. He was the announcer for the Rhythm
Pals for several years and hosted ‘Planet Pals’ puppet show on CHAN-TV
Vancouver in the early 1960s.