Jim Conrad: Welcome to the Conovision podcast.
I call this the spirit of storytelling.
I am Jim Conrad.
Let's have a word about what stories are and how important
stories are to all of us.
A story doesn't breathe, but it does have life.
It all started when someone said, I was here and this happened.
Then another story, there's something out there and I have an idea.
And then the story spread.
Wait till you hear this one.
He won't believe what happens.
And naturally we fell in love with stories and storytellers.
We came to depend on the stories they told.
Our shared stories unite us.
They tell us what is possible and what is real or unreal.
They teach us our values and they tell us who we are.
We are sisters and fathers, brothers and mothers.
Sons and daughters.
We are lovers and fighters.
We are believers and beginners.
We think in stories.
Stories are the vehicle that move metaphor and image into experience.
Stories communicate what is generally ineffable.
And ultimately inexpressible.
In seeking to understand these realities through time, stories provide us with a
perspective that touches on the divine, allowing us to see reality in its full
context as part of its larger whole.
Stories invite a kind of vision that gives shape and form even to the invisible.
Making the images move, clothing the metaphors in contextual fabric,
throwing color into the shadows.
And ultimately of all the devices available to us, stories are the surest
way of touching the human spirit through
the human voice.
Gather around
children.
It's story time.
Today, the story of Hansel and Grendel, an old English fairytale, by Francis Heaney.
Hansel and Grendel lived in the Old Oak Woods with their father, a kindly
woodcutter and their mother a gigantic evil monster with claws and fangs.
Hansel took after his father, while Grendel took after her mother.
One day, a hero passing through the forest slew their mother, so
the woodcutter decided to remarry.
His new bride was a bitter woman and she didn't like Hansel and Grendel.
After many months of extremely tense and unpleasant mealtime conversations,
she took the woodcutter aside.
Husband, it's been a very lean year for us.
I don't think we can afford to feed the family, especially with
Grendel eating 40 pigs a day.
You are right, the woodcutter sighed.
We all must tighten our belts and learn to do more with less.
Actually, said the wife, I was thinking more along the lines
of taking the children into the forest and leaving them to die.
No, no, said the woodcutter, I could never do that.
Oh, come on, said his wife.
Well, said the woodcutter, if it's really important to you.
The next morning, the woodcutter awoke with a heavy heart as he did every morning
because he had a mega cardiac condition.
He led Hansel and Grendel deep into the forest where he lied to them
about their fate in a pathetically transparent fashion and ran away.
Hansel, what are we going to do?
How will we ever find our way home?
Grendel asked.
Don't worry, Grendel, said Hansel, I suspected something was afoot,
so I left a trail of breadcrumbs.
Oh, that's what those were for.
I ate them, said Grendel.
Don't tell me you ate the trail of roast pigs as well, said Hansel.
Grendel nodded, ashamed.
This is terrible, said Hansel, now we are sure to starve to death in the
forest, unless you are somehow able to capture some wildlife with your razor
sharp claws and lightning fast reflexes.
Wait, Hansel, said Grendel, perhaps all is not lost.
Look, a house made out of candy.
Hansel and Grendel could hardly believe their eyes.
Grendel, said Hansel, what a delicious feast that house would make.
If only we weren't diabetic.
Yes, it's really too bad, said Grendel, let's keep moving.
For there is sure to be a house made of broccolini nearby.
But what Hansel and Grendel did not know is that they had wandered
into a planned community that was zoned only for candy houses.
Although legislation was advancing in the city council that would allow for
vegetable houses and vitamin supplement houses, it was sure to stall in
committee for several months at least.
So they continued on, eventually finding themselves in 10th century Denmark in
the realm of the Mighty King Hrothgar.
They stood in awe of his rough yet majestic castle, which
was made entirely of candy.
What is it with the candy already, asked Grendel.
Let's get out of here.
This place gives me the creeps, said Hansel.
Suddenly a strapping young man emerged from, uh, a box or something.
Halt beast.
I am Beowulf.
I slew your mother and I shall slay you too.
Grendel gasped as Hansel, who was quite upset at this remark, slapped Beowulf
with a wrongful death suit that pretty much bankrupted him, and then they
threw him in an oven just for spite.
With Beowulf slain, Grendel ran excitedly to explore the castle.
Hansel followed, finding gold, precious jewels, and thousands of Danish soldiers
with their heads recently bitten off.
Hansel and Grendel filled their pockets with as many jewels and heads as they
could carry and trotted back into the woods to find their way home.
How will we ever figure out how to get back, Hansel?
Said Grendel.
I don't know.
I guess we'll just have to wander around aimlessly and hope that by an incredible
coincidence, we just happen to stumble across the correct path, said Hansel.
But alas, they never did.
However, eventually they did settle down in Kamloops and use the jewels as a
down payment on a Dairy Queen franchise, and they lived happily ever after.
Alright.
This is the Conovision podcast.
Bill Reiter: Not with a K though.
Jim Conrad: No.
With a C.
Bill Reiter: And I, I apologize.
But it's just that ever since, you know, you, Cono, right?
When youth adopted that nickname.
I always saw it with a K.
Jim Conrad: Well, the Hawaiian version.
Bill Reiter: Maybe that's why.
Jim Conrad: Is with a K. The C version, uh, has a more global impact.
Bill Reiter: Well, one can dream, can one.
You can laugh.
That's okay.
Jim Conrad: On the Conovision podcast today, my good friend, Bill Reiter.
Hello, Bill.
Bill Reiter: With a B.
Jim Conrad: With a B. And an R. Billy, we've known each
other for such a long time.
Bill Reiter: Well, you know, I mean, I am your greatest fan.
But how many people have said that to you?
Jim Conrad: Uh, not many.
Bill Reiter: Really?
Jim Conrad: Not many.
Bill Reiter: Well, because you're so bloody good, you know.
Do you know how good you are?
You do.
See, that's the problem.
No.
Because if you are as good as you are, you know how good you are.
Because if you didn't know how good you are, you'd fade into obscurity.
But you are so bloody good.
You are so good.
You are probably, you may be the greatest announcer in the English language.
Jim Conrad: Well, that's hyperbole.
Bill Reiter: No, no, that's the English language.
Oh, I get it.
Oh, yeah.
Yeah.
I'm from the East End of Vancouver.
Jim Conrad: Okay.
We're gonna get to that.
Because I want to give you the opportunity to give me your bio
starting with where you were born.
Bill Reiter: Born Verdun, Quebec.
Yes.
Which I, I'm sorry East End pals, but Verdun might even be even rougher.
I think it is.
It's rougher than, uh, the East End.
Uh, moved out to Vancouver four times.
Moved back three because my mom and dad couldn't stand the rain.
Went to Templeton High School.
Britannia High School, loved radio.
Stan Freberg was my idol.
Uh, I use Stan Freburg so much in the 5,000 plus radio commercials that I did.
Uh, you know, I mean, yes, film, I was on Beach Combers and all of that.
I went back east and did stuff.
But, uh, they would always wait for you back east, like here in
Vancouver, uh, where most of, uh, during a time and you can tell, you
know what time it was, what age.
We were doing some of the best radio commercials in the English speaking world
in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada.
And uh, you know, we'd come into the studio, we'd joke around, we'd
fool, I mean, we had guys like Miles Ramsay, I'm getting shivers.
Miles Ramsay, Fred Latremouille, Fred Latremouille.
Oh man.
What a genius.
What a wonderful, and it wasn't genius.
It was, he was just funny.
Just a wonderful, wonderful guy.
You know, we'd joke around, we'd have fun for 20 minutes, half an hour,
and then we'd do the commercial.
We'd, we'd look at the commercial.
Okay.
Yeah.
I'd ad-lib something.
Freddie had ad-libbed something.
Sometimes we'd even, this is amazing.
We'd do it in one take.
One take and, uh, okay.
See you.
We go home.
It was just so much fun.
Whenever I went out to Toronto to do commercials, I'd take the cab
from the hotel, go to the studio, I'd be there 10 minutes early.
They'd be outside looking for me.
Because they,, they'd think I was late.
There'd be no fooling around, no cracking jokes, no.
Having fun.
You know, and they'd want you to work right away.
That's, that's not comedy.
No.
So it's the Vancouver laid back, the way it was, totally different.
Totally different.
Seattle opened up, did Seattle Radio, but you know before that I did a lot
of radio, people don't know this, a lot of radio drama on CBC radio.
And that was a real, uh, I don't, you, you notice I've got my eyes closed, right?
Because I,
Jim Conrad: It's the Conovision.
It's the Conovision.
Bill Reiter: That's right.
And I'm visualizing, when I was a kid on CBC radio with
wonderful, wonderful actors.
Ted Stidder, uh, the fellow that was, uh, on, uh, Beach Combers, uh, Relic,
Jim Conrad: Oh, uh, we will fix this in post.
Bill Reiter: Yeah.
Thank you.
Yeah.
Little voice will come in.
But wonderful, Bill Buck, wonderful actors, you know,
and they taught you so much.
Jim Conrad: Well, let's, let's go back, let's go back, uh,
to growing up in East Van.
You went back and forth and back and forth, but when did
you get your posse together?
What was that about?
And was that around music?
Bill Reiter: It was never my posse, although, guys my
age and I'm 81 years old.
I was born in 1943.
Guys my age will turn them onto black music.
Jim Conrad: Okay, and when did that happen?
Bill Reiter: That was probably 1959.
Jim Conrad: 59, 60.
Bill Reiter: Yeah.
Yeah, because in 1959.
Jim Conrad: And you weren't hearing any of it on local radio anywhere.
Bill Reiter: No, no, no.
Yeah.
Well, you know, to be fair, Jack Cullen would play things,
uh, that were fantastic.
And it was Jack Cullen.
We listened to, I told Red this, you know.
Red, I love you.
Jim Conrad: That's Red Robinson.
Bill Reiter: Yeah.
Red, I love you, but Jack Cullen was our guy in East End.
It was Jack Cullen that was playing stuff.
Confidential, like a lovers prayer.
Nobody else would be playing stuff like that.
Jim Conrad: Okay.
Who was that?
Bill Reiter: Uh, Sonny Knight.
Jim Conrad: Sunny Knight?
Bill Reiter: Yeah.
And nobody else would be playing things like that except for Jack.
And Jack would, uh, he'd, he'd F around with the, with the kids.
Jim Conrad: You can say the word fuck on the Conovision podcast.
You can say anything you like.
Bill Reiter: There'll be times when that, that word will be appropriate.
Maybe a little later.
But he would, he would F around with the kids, you know, that were listening.
Like, he'd say, oh, I don't want to do this, but you know, I just don't, uh, I
don't like this music, but here you go.
Here's, uh, Larry Williams, followed by Little Richard.
I don't know why I am do.
Well, I mean, that's a second.
You know, he and the kids are going, oh boy, oh boy.
You know, but he knows what
Jim Conrad: And management was going well.
Okay.
Bill Reiter: Oh no.
Management loved it because he got great numbers on the Owl Prowl, right?
Jim Conrad: Yeah.
Yeah.
The Owl Powl.
So you heard, you heard Jack playing some of this stuff.
Bill Reiter: So I had to find out more about it.
Jim Conrad: And so you went to the local record store?
Bill Reiter: Yeah, but I would order records.
'Cause they never had them in, right?
So I'd ordered them in, but uh, I would get on the Greyhound, go down to Seattle,
walk up the hill to Eagles Ballroom.
Uh, the guys I went with were all East Enders, so they were either
Chinese, Japanese, or black guys.
In that Eagles auditorium were 3000 people.
I, one cop, and three women were the only Caucasians, that in those days, to
see James Brown and the Famous Flames, Hank Ballard and the Midnighters.
Jackie Wilson.
The show sometime went on to three o'clock in the morning.
One o'clock.
You've gotta run down the hill to the Greyhound bus depot.
'Cause the last bus for Vancouver left at 1:15.
And if you miss that, you know I'm a kid.
16 years old.
All the guys with me were kids.
We haven't got money to stay in Seattle.
You know, we're, so, you get on the bus, you buy some chocolate bars or
candy bars as Americans call 'em.
Buy some chocolate bars.
Go and sit in the back of the bus, eat the chocolate bar.
Did you see what James Brown did when he did the thing with the fan
and the Oregon player comes out with that big Fats Gonder guy playing?
Oh man.
And we'd talk for half the way back to Vancouver and then
maybe go to sleep for a while.
And I said to my mother when I was 50 years old, she was sitting,
had a Japanese garden by then.
Thank you uh, Actra Fraternal Benefit Society.
Yeah, for, for, for taking 16 cents of every dollar that I made on commercials.
Boy, Actra Fraternal Benefit Society, God bless them.
Because as Ava, my wife, said to me when I, I looked one day, I
said, geez, I got $60,000 in the Actra Fraternal Benefit Society.
She says, And, and none of that was your doing.
Because I didn't, I didn't save a cent.
I didn't save a cent.
Jim Conrad: You weren't thinking about anything.
Bill Reiter: No.
No.
It's the Actra Fraternal Benefit Society that's saving the money for me.
God bless the Union.
Jim Conrad: So this, you're coming back from Seattle.
This is your first immersion into black music.
Uh, what is, what is it that, about?
Bill Reiter: And a friend of mine, Mike Cvetkovich, who was 10 years
older than me, he went down by car.
He was a mentor.
Mike Cvetkovich was a mentor for me, and he had his girlfriend.
So he'd stay in a hotel overnight.
And he would tell me that he would go to the Penthouse in
Seattle, which was a club.
And at 3 o'clock in the morning, 3:30 in the morning, 4 o'clock in
the morning, who would come in?
James Brown, the Famous Flames, and all the band, and they'd get up on
stage and do another 2 hour show on stage at the Penthouse, you know?
Jim Conrad: That's amazing.
Amazing.
Your first immersion into black music was a bonding experience with you and
your pals in East Van, and this was almost kind of like a secret club.
'Cause you, you weren't hearing any of this music on local radio.
Bill Reiter: No, and I'll tell you, there was a place called, and my
friend Dennis Joe said, wasn't the Chinatown Y. It was the Pender Y. Okay.
All right.
Geez, settle down.
I always knew it was the Chinatown Y, you know, it was in Chinatown.
It was the Y-M-C-A.
But I heard when I was a kid that, oh, you know, the only place where
you can hear great records and they, if you went there they were playing
Little Richard, Larry Williams.
I always remember, I always mention Larry Williams.
It's funny what humans do.
You know what you just did.
Jim Conrad: What did I just do?
Bill Reiter: You covered your, you have Jimmy's sitting here now.
He's got his hand in front of his chin, but when I said Larry Williams,
you covered your mouth with one finger so that you wouldn't say anything.
And that's because I was gonna say, and I think you knew it.
It's funny how people never mentioned Larry Williams.
Do you know Larry Williams?
Jim Conrad: I have never heard of Larry Williams.
Bill Reiter: Larry Williams.
You know when people talk about great voices?
They never mention Larry Williams, Larry Williams has got one of the greatest
voices in rock, rhythm and blues.
He sits there below Little Richard, who's got the greatest voice in black music.
But Larry Williams is absolutely fabulous.
And people who don't know him, I say, find out about Larry Williams.
He's the guy that had, uh, short fat Fannie she's my heart desire.
That's Larry Williams.
Yeah.
Anyway, you go to the YMCA in Chinatown and that's where the music is.
So I went to the YMCA in Chinatown.
Jim Conrad: Pender, Pender or Chinatown.
I'm not sure.
Bill Reiter: What are you, Dennis Joe.
Gee, how quickly they turned.
You're picking his side now already.
I went to the Pender YMCA, not the Chinatown YMCA.
God.
People today.
So I went there and, uh, I, I'm a big kid.
I'm big for my age.
I walk in and, uh, Eddie Ostapovich right away.
You know you shouldn't.
Don't fuck around with Eddie.
See, there's where you can use, see, you gotta pick where you use the F word.
Jim Conrad: Yeah.
Because it becomes meaningless when you use it way too much.
Bill Reiter: That's right.
Yeah.
Don't fuck around with Eddie Ostapovich.
Because Eddie Ostapovich was a boxer.
He's this blonde kid, skinny blonde kid who loved to fight and he was the,
he was the scourge of the East End.
And this is the East End.
Jim Conrad: You don't cross Eddie.
Bill Reiter: You don't even look at Eddie.
So I'm there.
Slightly overweight perhaps, you know, buck teeth.
I'm digging the music, right?
You are Eddie ostapovich, you're there, and that's where he lives.
He lives in the East End in the toughest part of Vancouver.
He looks around, he sees me, right?
Oh God, I don't, I don't know who Eddie Ostapovich.
I live slightly up on the hill, you know, sort of more in, almost in Burnaby.
Comes over and, you know, says a couple of things that if I thought I was tough,
I would take offense at, you know?
That's, that's,
Jim Conrad: I have to make a choice here.
Do I think these are offensive to me?
And if I, if I do make that choice it, what are the consequences?
Bill Reiter: It would be, yeah, it would be like if, say you were in Gastown and
some little guy came up to you and said something and then you got in a fight.
My dad always said to me, so maybe your dad didn't teach you this.
My dad taught me.
Only fight if, A, there's no other way out, or B, you really want to do it.
Like you have to be very committed.
And I thought, I'm looking at this guy.
He looked as if he, he could kick the shit out of me, and, and then it wasn't, then
later I found out, 'cause I asked one of the guys I knew, Chinatown guys, you know.
Hey, Sonny Wong?
Yeah.
Have you ever heard of this guy?
Eddie Ostapovich.
Oh, Sonny, what's the matter?
Eddie Ostapovich!
What do you know about him?
Well, I, he, he wanted me to come outside and fight him.
Silence.
Ah, okay.
So, so I did the right thing by not going outside.
Jim Conrad: Um, down at the Y listening to this music.
You began to collect records?
Bill Reiter: Yeah, well, I had, uh, 20,000 albums, 7000 45's.
I've sold a few of them since.
I sold all of my reggae collection pretty well.
I sold all of my classical music collection.
I sold most of my jazz collection.
I sold a lot of my CD collections.
I had 8,000 CDs.
But I've still got a lot of the collection.
Jim Conrad: You've culled, you've culled everything down to, to the, the
special stuff that you just wanna keep.
Bill Reiter: That's what I tell my wife, Ava.
Jim Conrad: Yes.
Uh, collecting that music then led to you getting a job offer or, or
someone saying to you, or you had, you worked with in a record store?
Bill Reiter: I didn't.
I never worked in a record store.
Jim Conrad: You owned a record store?
Bill Reiter: I owned a record store called Bill and Bob's records in
the narrowest store in the world.
Jim Conrad: Narrowest building in the world right at
Bill Reiter: Pender and Carroll, uh, it was, uh, in,
um, Ripley's Believe It or Not.
Jim Conrad: The narrowest building.
Bill Reiter: Yeah.
Narrowest building in the world.
As a matter of fact, it's owned by a guy called Jack Chow who happens
to be my good pal's Buddy Chow and a whole bunch of kids in that family,
it's their uncle Jack Chow's building.
But so I, I had a record store.
Jim Conrad: So what was the genesis of owning a records store.
Bill Reiter: Bill and Bob's record shop with Bobby Garrison.
Jim Conrad: Right.
Okay.
Bill Reiter: So we were porters on the C and R at the time.
I thought, well, porter would be a good 'cause black guys are porters, and
then I could talk to them about music.
Everything I do has has another, another, there's another thing level.
Jim Conrad: There's a musical dimension.
Bill Reiter: Yeah.
There's that, many times there's a musical dimension.
You're right.
So, uh, this kid came in one day buying records and he said to me, he said,
would you, uh, sign your name to this?
It's a, a group of, uh, businesses that, 'cause uh, I'd like to do a jazz show on
CKLG fm. Would you like to be a sponsor?
And I said, oh yeah.
Sounds great.
Wow.
Congratulations.
That sounds fabulous.
He said, or better still, would you go down and maybe say that you would,
uh, now that I know this sounds weird.
And it sounds like one of those stories where, you know, the bad older kid goes
down and riffs this kid, but honest to God, this kid did say, would you go
down and, you know, tell Frank Callahan that you'd be interested in, uh,
Jim Conrad: Coming on the show and,
Bill Reiter: No, just be a sponsor on the show.
Jim Conrad: Just be a sponsor on the show.
Bill Reiter: So I said, sure, I'll do that.
You know, so I went down and, uh, talked to Frank and we talked for,
Christ, about two hours, you know?
And at the end of it, Frank says, well, listen, that kid that came
into your shop, he's one of about 12 people that we've been talking to,
but how would you like to do the show?
I was like,
Jim Conrad: So it wasn't exactly poaching a gig, but, uh, but Frank
was making the decision, so, hey,
Bill Reiter: Yeah.
And I was like, yeah, that sounds great.
Jim Conrad: How old now?
Bill Reiter: I would say 22.
Jim Conrad: Okay.
And you own the record store with your, with your buddy?
Bill Reiter: Yeah.
Bill, uh, Bobby Garrison.
Who was the right hand man of Danny Baceda.
Oh, you don't know Danny Baceda?
Jim Conrad: No.
Bill Reiter: Oh, he's legendary in Vancouver.
He owned, uh, the Pink Pussycat nightclub in Gastown.
He owned Oil Can Harry's.
Jim Conrad: Oh, okay.
I've heard of that.
Yes.
Bill Reiter: Yeah.
Oh my God.
I can't believe you don't know Danny Baceda.
Jim Conrad: Okay.
I, now I do.
Bill Reiter: Many people thought he had mafia connections.
I'm here to tell you that.
He was my, one of my best pals growing up.
I'm here to tell you that he, as far as I know, I never saw that.
Never heard about that.
But his mom, Ruby, was a gem.
I used to call her my second mom at one time.
So where was I going with that?
Jim Conrad: Danny Baceda.
The clubs downtown.
You had a record store, but now you're on your way to working
radio, doing the radio show.
Having no experience whatsoever.
Bill Reiter: No experience whatsoever.
Every Saturday.
Jim Conrad: But you knew the music.
Bill Reiter: I knew the music really well.
And more importantly, I loved the music with all my heart and soul.
Jim Conrad: Passion.
Bill Reiter: Yeah.
So every Saturday, six o'clock to eight o'clock, Groovin' Blue.
And I stole that name from a record album, a jazz record album, Groovin' Blue.
Uh, Groovin' didn't have a G on the end.
Jim Conrad: No, of course not.
Bill Reiter: IN.
It was October, I believe that Groovin' Blue started the
end of October, around april.
Callahan came to me and said, we're going progressive rock.
It's a new form of music that's happening in San Francisco.
It's actually a new format where they play album cuts, et cetera, et cetera.
How would you like to do your Groovin' Blue show, I think
it was seven nights a week.
Could have been six nights a week.
They thought initially that the Groovin' Blue Show was a blues show.
Well, it wasn't.
It was a black music show, so it, my show played Nina Simone,
Muddy Waters, John Coltrane.
Jim Conrad: But in the era of progressive radio that was perfect.
Bill Reiter: Yeah.
And it was,
Jim Conrad: Because it was an evening show.
It wasn't, it wasn't the main day part where, where they
played, uh, the Rolling Stones.
It was in the evening.
Bill Reiter: Yeah.
I mean, I played people that had never been heard.
Sly and the Family Stone.
Bobby Womack.
People who had never been heard in Canada before.
So for two years, that show ran.
Ironically, when he offered me it, I guess he thought it was a blues show.
This kid that came in thought it was a jazz show, so I don't know what
the hell was going on, you know?
Jim Conrad: But yeah, they couldn't define it,
Bill Reiter: But I defined it.
Jim Conrad: Yes, you defined it.
Bill Reiter: And it became the first black music radio show in Canada.
Jim Conrad: That's remarkable.
Bill Reiter: This is where I don't say a word.
Also, I had my career as an actor.
Jim Conrad: Where was the spark for that?
Bill Reiter: Well, I told you I loved
Jim Conrad: CBC radio drama.
Bill Reiter: Yeah.
And more importantly, and why I, you and I love it.
You loved every time you went into the studio with me and with
Miles and, uh, Freddy, Marla.
Jane Mordefi.
You loved doing radio commercials.
Jim Conrad: Oh yeah.
Bill Reiter: Yeah.
You loved it.
Jim Conrad: When I would go in, uh, when I was first exposed to you and
that whole group was Kokanee Beer from the Columbia Brewing Company.
Free plug for Kokanee.
I would go in, do my tag, and then I would sit there with a cup of coffee with
Darrell She, and then you guys would come in and do exactly like you just described
for 20 minutes, you'd fuck around.
And I, I'd never been exposed to that.
I just thought, that's amazing.
And then when it came time to do the stuff, you did it and
then you ad-libbed everything.
And then Darrell would count on Fred for a punchline.
Is this, Fred?
You got anything?
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
And the same with you?
Yeah.
You got anything?
Yeah.
Okay.
Bill Reiter: I used to this, this is neat, guys like Darrell,
directors and ad agency guys.
Would you know, phone me up and say, are you free Tuesday at 10:00 AM okay.
Well we've got a commercial for, you know, for you to do.
I, i've only got a few ideas.
10 o'clock GGRP.
Yeah.
Okay.
See you there.
And then they'd bring the idea in, and they'd say, you know, we, we
wanna mention this, this, and this.
Jim Conrad: So you've been kind of writing copy on the fly?
Bill Reiter: I'd write the copy as, yeah, on the fly.
Jim Conrad: Which is improv.
Bill Reiter: Yeah.
Does it get any better than that?
Jim Conrad: No.
No it doesn't.
I was fascinated.
I was so entertained and that's where I, I got the real spark to understand
where I needed to go to continue to work, which was, as you told me, many
years later, Jim, you're a voice actor.
You're not just an announcer.
Bill Reiter: Was I the first person to tell you that?
Jim Conrad: Yeah.
Bill Reiter: Oh, great.
Jim Conrad: So thank you.
Bill Reiter: Nice to hear.
Oh, you're very welcome.
I love you very much.
I'm getting emotional, no, well, I do love you very much.
Jim Conrad: You know, that emotion was felt every time I got into the
studio with everyone that I eventually had a relationship with in this town,
everybody, you know, I could feel, I understood what the, what their job
was, they understood what my job was.
I understood what my job was.
And I delivered it and had fun and they appreciated it.
And that's where the love came from.
Bill Reiter: Yeah.
Well, can you imagine, you know the guy that I hooked up with at CHUM in Toronto?
Mike Occomore.
Jim Conrad: Oh, Mike Occomore.
Yes.
Bill Reiter: He, he eventually became,
Jim Conrad: And he was a funny writer.
Very funny writer.
Bill Reiter: Yeah.
And eventually he became the head writer at CHUM.
And this is our relationship.
What it led to was me going, oh my God, i'm a writer.
Because he would send the commercial out to me, written, I would rewrite it.
Send it back to him.
He would always say, oh, that's fabulous.
That's great.
Then I would hire you and Miles and Phil Buck and Jane Mordefi, or whoever.
Jim Conrad: Whoever was appropriate.
And Norm Grohmann.
Bill Reiter: And Norm Grohmann, and we'd come into the studio and do it.
And so that was a whole new thing for me now.
Jim Conrad: Writing and producing.
How did the television career, on camera career start?
Bill Reiter: Well, people don't know how much television I did when I was a kid.
Because I was on shows that people never heard about and I
can't even remember, you know?
And I was a kid, really?
I was, I was really young, you know?
Like just doing little bit things, you know?
Not a child.
I wasn't a child, but I was like,
Jim Conrad: 12, 13?
Bill Reiter: No, no, no, no.
Late teens.
Jim Conrad: Okay.
On the CBC.
Bill Reiter: Yeah.
And CBC was very, very good for me.
But then I, then Mulligan and I, Terry, Terry, David Mulligan.
Jim Conrad: Oh, we have a Mulligan story, incoming.
Bill Reiter: Well, we got three shows that, I don't know if they were national
or not, but they were shown nationally.
Hey, Taxi.
Piffle & Co.
Jim Conrad: And Hey Taxi, you were the taxi cab driver and
Michael, a young Michael J. Fox.
Bill Reiter: Well, no, that's when I did Leo and Me.
Yeah, that was Michael J. Fox and, uh, Brent Carver.
But I wasn't, I only did two or three bit parts on Leo and me, but the
other three that, you know, I was the main lead with Mulligan, but I,
you know what, I loved radio so much more than any television or film.
I enjoyed being on stage too, doing plays, but you know, I
love radio is what I loved.
Jim Conrad: And one of the greatest, uh, radio play comedy shows of
record that I remember as a kid listening to on the CBC was Dr.
Bundolo's Pandemonium Medicine Show.
How did that come about?
Bill Reiter: Another one of those totally different, but you'll see why I've
framed it the way I am about to frame it.
Another one of those kid comes down to the record store and
says, I want to do a jazz show.
And I was wondering would you go in and talk to the guy, in a way.
Don Kowalchuk, the producer.
Jeff Groberman, the writer, Donny Thatchuk, who later changed his name to
Colin Yardley, really liked JB Shayne.
And in Vancouver and
in
Byron's a legend.
Yeah.
And a guy that some people absolutely adored.
So Kowalchuk, because Jeff Groberman and Danny Thatchuk,
really liked JB Shayne 'cause of his quirkiness, phones JB Shayne.
And says, you know, we're doing a show called, I think it was called Saturday
Satiracon, but in point of fact, Saturday Satiracon was the forerunner of Dr.
Bundolo's Pandemonium Medicine Show.
And, uh, we're doing a show called Saturday Satiracon.
I'm Don Kowalchuk, CBC producer.
We'd like you to be part of it.
Wednesday morning could you come down here to the studio?
Yeah.
Okay, great.
9 o'clock Wednesday morning, no JB.
9:30, no JB.
Quarter to 10, no JB.
They phoned JB.
Hello?
Yeah, JB, uh, we're waiting down here at the studio.
Oh.
Oh, yeah.
Um, oh yeah.
Um, uh, are you sleeping?
No.
I'm, I'm up now.
Okay, good.
Well look, um, what we, let's just cancel today and we'll give you a call back.
They call me.
Jim Conrad: Ah, isn't it interesting how chance and luck plays such a
huge part in all of our careers.
Bill Reiter: But don't tell a businessman that.
Jim Conrad: No, no, they don't believe that.
Bill Reiter: 'Cause my friend Terry Wong, who's one of my best friends
along with the Sonny Wong I told you about earlier, he would deny that.
Jim Conrad: No, no way.
Hard work.
Bill Reiter: Because Terry's a very successful businessman, and businessmen do
not like to hear that luck plays a part.
Jim Conrad: They don't like to hear it.
But I having known a number of really successful business guys, one in
particular who's been on the Conovision podcast, his name is John Goode.
Been very successful in, as I call it, the serengeti of Wall Street
and Bay Street and Howe street.
Bill Reiter: Oh, yes.
Jim Conrad: And he acknowledges it.
He says, luck and chance, you know, guys will deny it.
They, they'd like to PR that it was all of their hard work, but sometimes in deals
or in business right place, right time.
JB Shayne didn't wake up.
Bill Reiter was available.
Bill Reiter: Yeah.
Well, there's two things that came across my mind.
I don't wanna forget.
Uh, calendar.
Just remember that.
Jim Conrad: Calendar, the word calendar.
Bill Reiter: Yeah.
But I've come down here, Griff phoned me once and said, Bill,
so and so didn't show up.
Can you come down here as soon as possible?
I said, whoa.
Well, gee, I, um.
Bill, you know, this is important.
It's a heavy customer of ours.
Heavy client.
Uh, can you, could you come down right away?
So what I did was I, I was in my pajamas.
I put my house coat on.
Jim Conrad: I thought that that was just your style, Bill.
Bill Reiter: Well, it was.
So it fit in.
But I, I put the plaid,
Jim Conrad: Comfy pants and the slippers, and the robe.
Bill Reiter: Yeah.
And got in my car and came down.
Jim Conrad: It was just, just coming from a shoot.
It was a, it was a breakfast scene.
Bill Reiter: Yeah.
But it was well received.
Uh, but I said, well, you, you know, I mean, the line is.
Now, calendar.
As, as far as this luck thing goes, I was coming from a meeting, it's a meeting
that I went to at this particular time.
I, I had to go three times or something.
And the first two times I walked up this one street, Howe street or something.
The third time I thought, nah, I'm gonna take this other route.
And I walked up this other street, which was a little outta my way,
but I thought, oh, I wanted to see, and a woman, I can't remember who
it was, was walking towards me.
She said, Bill.
Oh, hi.
How are you?
Are you good?
She was in advertising.
She said, oh my god.
You know, I just came from this meeting.
We're all sitting around thinking, who should we get for this Eaton's campaign?
And we're going over names and da, da, da, and nobody could.
You are the perfect guy for it, but nobody could think of it.
And I thought, oh, great.
You know, well, I took it with a grain of salt because, you know, like,
Jim Conrad: Yeah, you never know.
Bill Reiter: No, you don't.
You don't.
Jim Conrad: Don't count on that.
Bill Reiter: Oh, great.
And then as soon as you, Oh, good.
Have a great day.
Soon as you let them pass by, throw it outta your brain, right?
Don't think about it.
Jim Conrad: Don't think about it.
Bill Reiter: So three days later they phone me and it was a great gig.
It was a campaign and I was the major voice in the campaign.
So I, I thought about it after like, is that how fickle it is?
What can I do to make it less fickle?
Like what can I do so that my face is at least, now this may sound
stupid and naive, et cetera, but you remember that calendar I used to put
out with three photos of me on it?
And I'd give it to people.
Like, and it was a huge calendar.
Maybe that sounds stupid, but that's why I did it so that one of those
people in that office or in that boardroom would go back to their
office and there would be my photo.
Jim Conrad: And they would go, right.
It was Bill that we wanted.
Yeah.
I get it.
Yeah.
Let's not, um,
Bill Reiter: That didn't go anywhere, that.
Jim Conrad: Calendar.
Bill Reiter: Calendar.
Yeah.
But, but yeah.
Jim Conrad: But I can't let you at all, but I can't let you go, um, without
talking about two of our dear friends, uh, Miles Ramsay and Brian griffiths,
your memories of Miles and Griff.
Bill Reiter: Well, Griff, once I said to him, I exposed him.
I ripped the veneer.
Because you know, Griff, he didn't like to be exposed.
He always played the bass playing Smothers Brother.
He didn't want anybody to say what I said to him, and it suddenly came to me
one day when I heard him on the phone and there was probably a juxtaposition
of hearing him on the phone and hearing him talking somewhere else.
And I, there was this juxtaposition of two conversations.
One after another here in Griffiths Gibson Ramsay production building.
And I said to him, holy fuck, you are the smart guy.
I never knew that.
I never realized it until now.
You are the guy, it's not Miles or, or hoot, it's you and you are the
guy that always seems to be the least of, you know, effective of the three.
Like the laid back guy.
The guy, oh, I'm just here.
I just do music and I just, but you are the fucking smart guy here.
And that's a little rude of me to say, you're the fucking smart guy,
Jim Conrad: But it's a compliment.
Bill Reiter: I know it's the, I know.
Jim Conrad: One of the highest compliments.
Bill Reiter: And, and if he had taken offense or if anyone
takes offense, I feel, and this is my ego, raw ego on my part.
If someone does take offense, would I say something like that?
I probably will discount them.
Like, I can't be honest.
Like basic rudely honest with you.
Because I am giving you a compliment.
I'm giving you a real honest from the dirt compliment, but I, but I
didn't realize it until this one day.
He talked to, he talked to a client on the phone and I thought, I'm, wow.
I'm listening to what you're talking to this guy and how you have to talk to him.
Holy macro.
Wow.
What a brain.
Yeah.
Jim Conrad: And Miles?
Bill Reiter: I get, I'm getting emotional again see, you triggered it.
You, you turned on the switch.
I love Miles.
Miles was fabulous, but Miles, uh, maybe it's 'cause he's a yank, but he, but he's,
there was a, I don't know if it was a coldness, but there was a stand, you know,
there's a arm's length, arm's length, and it could be the yank in him, I don't know.
But,
Jim Conrad: Detached bemusement.
Bill Reiter: Yeah, but it, it's more than bemusement, but you're on the right track.
Detached.
Yeah.
Smart.
And, uh, streetwise.
Uh, and, and it, there's the yank in them too, you know?
Like I'm a firm believer in that whole canadian American thing.
Like, you know, when Canadians become Americans.
That's okay.
Jim Conrad: But Americans can never truly become Canadian.
Bill Reiter: Oh, I wouldn't say that.
No, I wouldn't go that far.
But when Canadians become Americans, I'd sure like to understand why you did that.
Like, you know, I, my nephew, when he was like 17 or something.
He wanted to, he said to me, well, I'm gonna join the American, uh, Navy.
I didn't jump on him.
But I did say to him, I said, maybe when we were having a hamburger in
Seattle or something, 'cause that's where he saw these ships and he said,
I'm gonna join the American Navy.
You know, that's what I, I sort of, my dream and I said, if there was
a reason that America had to attack Canada and you were in the America,
American Navy, what would you do?
I'm just asking.
You know?
Anyways, I feel very strongly about it, but you know what, we've all got American
relatives, so I have a phrase too that, uh, may not go through a lot of Canadian's
minds, Americans, they're so like us.
Jim Conrad: Great ending.
Thank you, Bill.
Bill Reiter: You are welcome.
Jim Conrad: That's the Conovision podcast.
Episode two.
Storytelling is the essence of Conovision and to a larger degree, life.
From a story about why stories are so important to us to a rather
fractured and crypto Grimm Brothers tale of innocence in the woods.
And finally, a master of story, my friend and fellow actor, Bill Reiter.
We are indeed all stories to be told.
Until next time, kids.
I'm Jim Conrad.
Thanks for listening.
This has been Conovision.