Angus McIntyre was reading Murder by Milkshake when he stopped and took a closer look at a photo snapped by the Vancouver Sun’s Dan Scott in December 1966.
Where I saw a rare photo of Lolly Miller leaving court during the murder trial of her lover, Rene Castellani—Angus was looking at the background.
“I just noticed something about Lolly Miller’s photo on page 58,” said Angus, who was a Vancouver bus driver for 40 years. “In the background there is a Brill trolley bus, with the B.C. Hydro logo visible. On the side there is an advertisement–this was for a disc jockey on CFUN, Tom Peacock.”
The ad reads “Tom Peacock. Afternoons 3 to 6.”
Radio plays a prominent part in Murder by Milkshake. In 1965, CKNW personality Rene Castellani murdered his wife Esther with arsenic so he could marry the station’s 20-something receptionist Lolly Miller.
“I just thought it was ironic that behind Lolly there was an ad for a rival radio station,” says Angus who moved to Vancouver in 1965.
“CFUN had a request line phone number, REgent 1-0000, promoted as ‘REgent ten-thousand, CFUN Requestomatic’. It almost always had a busy signal in the days of relay switches in the telephone exchanges, and kids would yell out their phone numbers over the sound of the busy signal to get a call back,” says Angus. “Some of their contests had so many people phone in that parts of the REgent exchange would crash.”
According to his broadcast bio, Peacock eventually moved to CKWX (1130) and became the station’s general manager. He died in 2006, at age 67.
In 1965, CKNW was still the “Top Dog,” and as George Garrett, a news reporter for the station for over four decades, told me, “We were the most promotions minded station you could imagine.” The station’s deejays included Jack Cullen, Jack Webster and Norm Grohmann. Over at CFUN, a top 40-station at the time, deejays (below) were Red Robinson, Al Jordan, Fred Latremouille, Tom Peacock, Ed Kargl, Mad Mel, and John Tanner.
It depends what source you look at, but I find it hard to argue with thoughtco.com’s top 10 picks of 1965:
- I Can’t Get No Satisfaction; The Rolling Stones
- Like a Rolling Stone; Bob Dylan
- A Change is Gonna Come; Sam Cooke
- Tambourine Man; The Byrds
- Ticket to Ride; The Beatles
- I’ve Been Loving You Too Long; Otis Redding
- Papa’s Got a Brand New Bag; James Brown
- My Girl; The Temptations
- Stop! In the Name of Love; The Supremes
- Do you Believe in Magic?; The Lovin’ Spoonful
Top photo: Lolly Miller. Photo by Dan Scott/Vancouver Sun [PNG Merlin Archive]
Murder by Milkshake is now a two-episode Cold Case Canada podcast:
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12 comments on “Lolly, CFUN, and the Brill Trolley Bus”
There was a number that you could call to get the correct time, and if it was busy, we would yell out our phone numbers, and meet people that way! I guess you’d call it the first “online dating”! Lol
I picked up the phone one day, and someone was shouting “Are there any girls out there?!”
I had never heard of this before! That’s hilarious
I remember doing this as a young teen.
I like the old style BC HYDRO buses. They had the swing gate at the rear departure. As a youngster I was on an Hydro bus going from the West End to Grand Prix Hobbies on West Broadway. They had slot car tracks and were a fabulous place to spend the day. As I was getting off the bus, somehow my tackle box with my slot cars, controller , and misc parts still in my grasp got stuck in the bus. As the bus drove off with my arm still grasping my slot cars had the driver not noticed I was hanging on and running beside the bus I would have been forced by upcoming lamp standard to abandon my toys.
I wonder if Angus was the driver?
I think Angus would have been much more careful. Wish we still had the lamp standards!
Bring back the old style at least. People stand between the wheel wells and the exit now. And stand rather that sit. Thats to faciltate ppl being free to get off. Oh and my pet peeve. Pppl walk all thecway to tthe front to hrt off to lazy or stupid to use the back door.
And oh yeah, if you wanted yoursong pkayed it was dial, dial qnd litterly push the dial pad..
I arrived in Canada (New Westminster) in 1965. CFUN was my station of choice. Fred Latremouille was the man. That Top 10 is perfect, though Canada was a wee bit behind when it came to the latest hits. My pile of 45s made me an instant hit with my new friends.
That was a hot summer. Transistor radio by the pool.
Brill bus photo was taken on west side of Granville looking north towards Pender Street.
From left to right in background are #500, #526, #540 and #562 Granville Street.
All those buildings — but not the businesses — are still there today.
Thanks for that!
Commenters Janet, Jaime and Lyn nail it in their recollection of phone number(s) which allowed dozens or more callers at a time to communicate through the ether.
As noted in Eve’s article, phone switchboards could crash if overloaded with incoming calls. My guess is that the “special number(s)” were rugged enough to not crash completely, but instead create a phantom soundscape where distant sounding voices could make contact with one another. I wouldn’t be surprised if lasting friendships or even marriages resulted.
I’m not sure about Ed Kargl, but of the other CFUN deejays mentioned, Mad Mel and John Tanner are still alive. Last I heard, Mad Mel was still announcing in Australia. John left commercial radio to hire on at the H.R. MacMillan Planetarium to help present audio-visual special events. He and another retro announcer, J.B. Shayne, have a show on CITR, the University of British Columbia radio station.
Thanks so much for adding to the story Richard!