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Conovision is all about stories — and the storytellers who bring them to life. Stories about art, culture, and philosophy. Stories that inform, entertain, and inspire. Stories that invite us to reflect on who we are and where we’re going.
Hosted by Jim Conrad — a seasoned broadcaster and voice actor with over 40 years of experience, giving voice to the visions of others in film, radio, and television for a global audience — Conovision marks a new chapter: a platform for Jim to share the stories that matter most to him.
On Conovision, you’ll hear stories of success and hard-won truths, love and laughter, and personal histories from people whose lived experiences offer wisdom for the modern age.
At its heart, Conovision is a living archive — a home for spoken-word prose, poetry, and what Jim calls “Aural Intelligence”: a place where sound, storytelling, and meaning come together to spark reflection and connection.
Production and sound design by GGRP Studios in Vancouver, Canada.
Jim Conrad: Hi, I'm Jim Conrad,
AKA Cono, and this is Conovison.
Conovison is about storytelling.
We all have stories to tell.
We tell each other our stories because
that's how we interpret reality.
Make sense of the world around us.
Make sense of our environment.
And every story has to have a
start, an inception, a birth.
So to kick things off,
how about our story?
The story of us?
So in the beginning, maybe even
long before that, but about 4
billion years ago, give or take,
earth was a lifeless place.
Nothing struggled, thought, or wanted.
Then very, very slowly that changed.
Seawater leached chemicals
from rocks, near thermal vents.
Those chemicals jostled and combined.
Some hit upon the trick of
making copies of themselves.
That in turn made more copies.
The replicating chains were caught
in oily bubbles, which protected
them and made replication easier.
Eventually, they began to
venture out into the open sea.
A new level of order had
been achieved on Earth.
Life had begun.
Then the Tree of Life grew and
once again, very, very slowly, its
branches stretching toward complexity.
Organisms developed systems,
subsystems, and sub-subsystems
layered in ever deepening regression.
They used these systems to anticipate
their future and to change it.
When they looked within, some
found that they had cells.
Constellations of memories,
ideas and purposes that emerged
from the systems inside them.
They experienced being alive.
And had thoughts about that experience.
They developed language and
used it to know themselves.
Then they began to ask how?
How?
How had they been made?
This to a first approximation is
the secular story of our creation.
It has no single author.
It's been written collaboratively
by scientists over the past
few centuries, but now in the
age of artificial intelligence,
possibly, the next question is why.
Here's a story about dude philosophy.
The wisdom of the surfer is often
understood to be a kind of anti-wisdom,
a rejection of the idea that life's
deepest truths must be elusive or
hard won, or even especially deep.
Jeff Spicoli: A surfing's not a sport.
It's a way of life.
No hobby.
It's a way of looking at that wave
and saying, Hey bud, let's party.
Jim Conrad: Thus speak Jeff Spicoli
in Fast Times at Ridgemont High.
This is surfing as the unexamined
life, the renunciation of philosophy.
An opposing school of thought
holds that surfers do discover deep
truths, presumably by virtue of their
spending a lot of time in the ocean.
We are all equal before a wave.
This somewhat immersive aphorism from
big wave surfing god Laird Hamilton
is illustrative of the genre, an
earnest maxim of kinship and humility.
It is also, as anyone who has
ever watched Hamilton surf
could attest, simply not true.
This is surfing is pseudo philosophy.
The problem in both cases
is a category error.
We're not drawn to surfers
because of what they say.
We are drawn to surfers
because of what they do.
It's not their insights that
interest us, it's their knowhow.
If there is wisdom to be
gleaned from the surfer, that's
where we're going to find it.
In the characteristic competencies
that constitute his form of life.
Reading waves, riding waves,
weighing the duties of work against
the capricious call of the sea.
What a proper philosophy of surfing
requires, in other words, is a thinker
good enough at surfing to possess all that
practical knowledge, but also good enough
at philosophy to make explicit what theory
of the world, if any, it amounts to.
Enter Aaron James.
He is a professor of philosophy
at the University of California
Irvine and an accomplished surfer.
His book, Surfing With Sartre, aims to
articulate the distinctive philosophical
value of the surfer way of being.
His conclusion is bold.
What the surfer knows, in knowing how to
ride a wave, bears on questions for the
ages about freedom, control, happiness,
society, our relation to nature, the value
of work, and the very meaning of life.
Professor James is aware that his
enterprise will strike some as a
comically grandiose rationalization for
his favorite pastime and the somewhat
obligatory ambition of his argument.
Can you imagine writing a book
that says, surfing explains just
two of the questions for the ages.
No.
Means some chapters are more
compelling than others, but it is as
genuinely a philosophical book about
surfing as you're ever gonna get.
Savvy philosophers distill their
core insight as a short phrase.
For Adam Smith, it was invisible hand.
For David Hume, confined generosity.
For John Rawls, veil of ignorance.
In James' book, the fundamental
idea is adaptive attunement.
This is what he takes to
be the essence of surfing.
For someone to be surfing,
three conditions must be met.
He must be attuned to a
shifting phenomenon outside
of himself, like a wave.
He must be adjusting himself in
response to it, adapting, so as to be
carried along by its propulsive forces.
And he must be doing so
intentionally and for its own sake.
That is because negotiating the
world in this manner strikes
him as intrinsically valuable.
You are surfing if, and only
if, you are adaptively attuned.
By defining surfing in this formal and
abstract way, James frees himself to
talk not just about surfing waves, but
also about surfing in an extended sense.
For example, surfing through a
cocktail party conversation or
down a busy Manhattan sidewalk.
Surfers surf when they're in the
water, but in other aspects of
their lives too, as can we all, and,
well, we should, James contends.
He presents adaptive attunement as
a fruitful way to understand how
much of the world works, as well
as a winning strategy for life.
Take the question of free will.
There is a curious passage in Jean-Paul
Sartre's Being and Nothingness
in which Sartre discusses human
freedom by likening it to skiing.
Sartre's was a radical conception
of freedom, according to which human
beings in an almost godlike way
could fashion themselves unencumbered
by the constraints of the world.
In searching for a metaphor
for this, Sartre considered
but rejected ice skating.
The skater's path was too dependent
on the hard resistance of the ice,
and eventually hit upon skiing.
Snow was soft, so the skier
imposed his will more easily.
It left behind a less defined trace.
Sartre conceded that a better metaphor
would be some form of sliding on water.
The vanishing trace of the rider's
path would suggest an even greater
degree of autonomy from the world.
But evidently he wasn't
familiar with surfing.
Professor James regrets that Sartre
did not get to think about surfing.
If he had, he might have been led to
a different, and as James sees it,
more convincing theory of freedom.
Sartre was an incompatibilist
about free will.
He considered freedom to be at odds
with the deterministic universe
implied by our best physics.
In what sense are you free if you
could not have acted otherwise?
But James is a compatibilist.
He thinks there is a meaningful
sense of freedom consistent with
being trapped by the laws of nature.
Indeed, he thinks the surfer
derived notion of adaptive
attunement captures that sense.
As the surfer knows, freedom is
not a matter of imposing your
will, Sartre like on the world.
That's a surefire way to wipe out,
freedom, rather is a matter
of trying ascending your will.
And accepting the exchange or two-way
relationship between what you intend
to do and what you are constrained
to do by the forces around you.
You take what the wave gives you.
In the deterministic universe, freedom
is the sensation known to the adaptively
attuned of efficacy without control.
The surfer is right.
Sartre is wrong.
Given that Professor James's principle
area of academic expertise is political
philosophy, it's not surprising that
his chapters in the book on society
and work are particularly strong.
Surfers may want to flip straight to
his argument for the necessity of a
more leisurely, surfer friendly style
of capitalism, in which some people work
less and surf more in the interest of
offsetting carbon emissions, of course.
But hey, why stop at reforming capitalism.
To those people who spend their
workday sitting at desks in front
of computers, furtively checking
webcam footage of their local breaks,
I say, surfers of the world unite.
We have nothing to lose but our jobs.
A review of the book, Surfing with
Sartre: An Aquatic Inquiry into a Life
of Meaning, by Aaron James, written by
James Ryerson of the New York Times.
And now a story from a guy who grew
up in Surf City, US of A. Ladies
and gentlemen, please welcome
the one, the only, Jesse Dylan.
Can you hear me, Jesse?
Jesse Dylan: I can hear you and myself.
Jim Conrad: It's the Conovison podcast.
I am Jim Conrad, AKA
Cono with Jesse Dylan.
Hi Jesse.
Jesse Dylan: I forgot to ask, is it
scale, or scale and a half, or double
scale, or do we not do that anymore?
What am I getting paid for this?
Jim Conrad: Oh no, it's
uh, cyber currency.
It's the cyber scale.
Yeah, but okay.
But we gotta start somewhere.
Let's start the story with your dad.
He was born in Edmonton.
Jesse Dylan: My dad was born in Edmonton
and he started his radio career at
CKUA and one day they brought this
guy in, good looking guy, and I think
they were both about 19 years old.
And he said, this is
gonna be your sports guy.
And it was Robert Goulet.
Jim Conrad: The, the famous.
Jesse Dylan: The crooner.
Jim Conrad: Robert Goulet, who
we know kind of, but crooner.
But he was a Broadway star.
Jesse Dylan: Yes.
Yeah.
He was a Broadway star.
Vegas star.
Jim Conrad: But from Edmonton?
Jesse Dylan: No, he's an American.
I can't remember where.
Minnesota, something like that.
But I guess his family moved to Edmonton
when he was a young lad, and when he was
19 he had this huge baritone voice, right?
So they, uh, my dad and
him became fast friends.
They had a lot of fun.
Jim Conrad: In Edmonton.
Jesse Dylan: In Edmonton.
And years later, my dad's career took
him to Montreal, CFCF TV and radio.
We also had a, um, a puppet
show back in the day.
You like puppets?
Jim Conrad: I like puppets.
High heels and hand puppets.
Jesse Dylan: So I remember, we couldn't
find dates, but we had puppets on a
camping trip, but we won't go there.
So from, uh, from Montreal to Vancouver.
CKWX back in the, uh, early days,
and then we moved to Toronto.
Jim Conrad: So in between all of
this, you were born in which city?
Jesse Dylan: Montreal.
And then we lived in Vancouver,
West Vancouver when I was a young
boy, and then suddenly we're in
Toronto and my dad's doing mornings
with Keith Rich, Woodman and Rich.
My dad's name Steve Woodman.
And so Woodman and Rich on CKY,
big morning show in Toronto
back in the early sixties.
Kind of a funny story.
Jim Conrad: I'll be the judge of that.
Jesse Dylan: The president of programming
for NBC radio out of New York City
was flying through bad weather.
They had to land in Toronto and I guess he
spent the night before they could fly, he
was flying from like Alaska to New York.
And then the next morning he's turning
on the radio on the way to the airport
and he's listening to Woodman and Rich.
He gets to New York.
Phones up Steve Woodman, my dad,
and says, Hey man, how would you
and your partner like to come and do
national radio out of New York on NBC?
Jim Conrad: Luck.
Jesse Dylan: Luck, right?
So they did, and we, so we
had an estate in New Jersey.
My dad was doing TV and radio
in New York City at 30 Rock.
He and Robert Goulet and all their
pals, Jimmy Dean, Chuck McCann.
My dad and Goulet had a
penthouse in Manhattan.
Although he lived with his
family, us, in New Jersey.
It was Rat Pack, right.
Sixties.
So these guys would be out partying,
having a ball, uh, doing their thing.
Goulet was on cam a lot at
the time with Richard Burton.
And my dad was TV, radio, NBC.
Jim Conrad: Wow.
How old were you when you were
living in New Jersey on the estate?
Did you get to see the penthouse?
Jesse Dylan: No, no.
That was the poon palace.
I wasn't poon.
I would've been if Diddy had been there.
But I'm, I missed that charade.
Jim Conrad: Uh, you grew up then in,
in and around New Jersey and New York.
And then when did you leave?
Jesse Dylan: Nine.
About nine years old we
moved to Malibu, California.
Jim Conrad: Right.
And your dad did radio in LA.
Jesse Dylan: He did, uh, the
morning show at KDAY, which was a
legendary station back in the day.
And he did a television
show and a teen show.
So the show he was doing in New York
was very much like what Dick Clark was
doing with Bandstand in Philadelphia
only they were doing it in New York.
Never became quite as famous as Dick's.
Jim Conrad: So Malibu, California.
Mbu, And this is now, you're nine,
10 years old, landing in Surf City.
Jesse Dylan: Zuma Beach.
We lived just above Zuma Beach.
And we had horses.
A lot of people don't know that.
You know, they see the fires and
they think everybody is a Hollywood
legend living on the ocean.
But Malibu had ranch country,
wineries, horses, agriculture.
So we were part of the, the horse group
and the beach group and the surfing group.
Was a junior lifeguard there
for three or four years.
Jim Conrad: And then what
phase of your development did
you decide, enough of this.
I want to get out of here,
or do I wanna stay here?
What do I wanna do?
Jesse Dylan: Where?
In Malibu?
Jim Conrad: Yeah.
Jesse Dylan: Oh, well, we
moved back as a family.
Jim Conrad: Oh, okay.
So you came back.
Jesse Dylan: 1970 we moved back to Canada.
My dad again was at CKWX in 1970.
I think from 70 to 74.
Jim Conrad: Yeah.
I wanna talk about, because
there obviously there was
something that happened.
He, he worked very hard and was very
successful in LA and in Hollywood.
And then something happened
that caused you all or him to
decide to move back to Canada.
What was that?
Jesse Dylan: Well, I was 16 at the time.
My brother was, uh, 18.
My older brother, come
from a family of seven.
There was some concern that we were
coming up for the draft in Vietnam.
So that's what my parents say.
It was probably the,
you know, tax evasion.
Jim Conrad: You're 17, 18, 19 years old.
Jesse Dylan: 1974.
It was a brand new high school
in Tsawwassen where we lived.
South Delta Senior Secondary.
They were looking for a
president, brand new school.
I knew no one, we just moved
from Fort Langley to there.
Good move, by the way.
Fort Langley was rough in the
seventies, man, I'm telling you.
You're not from around here, are you?
No.
No.
When we parachuted in from Malibu,
California to Fort Langley in 1970.
I don't know why my dad thought it'd,
Jim Conrad: Well, that's,
it was still 1954 there.
Jesse Dylan: Yeah, it was
American graffiti basically.
It was white T-shirts,
tight jeans, cowboy boots.
Farm boys.
And all of them were tough.
Every single one of them.
Took my licks.
Eventually, you know, took
a few, got a couple in, and
eventually we all became friends.
The first guy I met in that school at
Fort Langley looked like the wicked
witch from the original Wizard of Oz.
Jim Conrad: Was
he green?
Jesse Dylan: Pretty close.
Had a, the large witch nose,
beady eyes, And a white t-shirt.
Cigarettes rolled up.
And he came up to me in the hallway,
first day at school and he said, uh,
lovingly of course, you wait till,
he grabbed me by the throat, put me
against the lockers and said, just wait
till lunch you long-haired cocksucker.
And as I said, I wasn't disappointed.
He made, he made good on that promise.
Him and his buddies, him and his buddies.
Jim Conrad: Didn't kill ya.
Didn't maim you.
Jesse Dylan: Nope.
But like, it wasn't a welcome basket
and say, welcome to our neighborhood.
Jim Conrad: Well that was, well that
was how, that's how they did it.
That, that was, he was the welcome wagon.
Strange Fort Langley welcome wagon.
Jesse Dylan: Yeah.
It was.
And it, it actually got worse on the bus.
It was bad enough at lunchtime, but fun on
the bus after school that day was worse.
Jim Conrad: Oh.
But so you got outta there to Tsawwassen,
which was in the mid seventies.
Jesse Dylan: Um, 1974.
Jim Conrad: A bit of an isolated
community wasn't it, out there?
Jesse Dylan: It was a nice community.
Nice.
No greasers.
Jim Conrad: Tunnel town.
And then you went to BCIT?
Jesse Dylan: I did.
I was doing the, um, as I, I, I
ran for student council president.
I won.
And for two years as student council
president at South Delta Senior Secondary
I got to read the PA announcements.
Turned it into a little mini radio show.
I think all of us did that.
All of us started in high school.
So I was kind of never really with
it, or maybe out of it, while my
dad was in the business, certainly
out of it in Malibu in the sixties.
I can promise you that.
Uh, we were all out of it in
California in the sixties.
Jim Conrad: Did you drop acid?
Jesse Dylan: Oh, yeah.
Jim Conrad: Uh, in Malibu with
the Beach Boys, with Brian Wilson.
Jesse Dylan: I didn't drop with Brian
Wilson, but pretty well everyone else.
I had done a Tony the Tiger
Sugar Frosted Flake commercial.
And we had seven kids and
we, Dorothy Day Otis Agency.
I remember that.
And we all had an agent.
My mother or father
would schlep us around.
My parents would whore us out for
the lowest common denominator.
And so I got a, uh, sugar Frosted
Flake commercial, Tony the Tiger.
So I'm this like teenage
guy, 13 years old, right?
And I got the commercial.
And back in the day the
residuals were fucking massive.
In the US they went on forever, right?
It was a national Tony the Tiger
sugar Frosted Flake commercial.
I'm dancing with this chick to
some fucking hip music, right?
This is the commercial.
And I hadn't, there was a pan
of her eating her breakfast,
which was sugar Frosted Flakes.
Jim Conrad: And then you get up and dance.
Jesse Dylan: And we get up and dance, but
I hadn't eaten my sugar Frosted Flakes.
So I run out of energy.
And when the tiger says, go, go, go, as
Tony the Tiger, I faint and pass out.
And then it pans to me
eating sugar Frosted Flakes.
And now you're back.
I get my energy,
right?
So the residual started pouring in.
And uh, my parents took the money,
of course, we had seven kids.
Jim Conrad: Not as much as
Tony the Tiger, but, yeah.
Jesse Dylan: Yeah.
They, they had mouths to
feed, but, but checks.
Jim Conrad: So they got, they
got the, they took the checks.
Jesse Dylan: Yeah, they took
the checks, as they should.
Jim Conrad: Which is kind of a, yeah.
Uh, I mean, that's kind
of a Hollywood tradition.
Jesse Dylan: But, but
I gotta check one day.
I found it hadn't been open yet.
$235. 1968, 69. I take the check,
I go to the Bank of America.
I don't have a bank account.
I don't even know what a bank account
is, but I'm gonna cash this check.
I cashed the check.
They gave me the money.
I went down to the beach and I
think I bought a hundred hits
of yellow uh, orange sunshine.
Jim Conrad: Orange sunshine.
Well, of course it's California.
Jesse Dylan: Lemme
think what I got for it.
I think it was like 235 bucks.
I think at the time it
was two bucks a hit.
Sound about right?
So when you asked about
LSD, that was a bad night.
Jim Conrad: Oh, not a
good, not a good trip.
Jesse Dylan: No.
I shared a lot of it with
friends, but I did way too much.
Jim Conrad: Oh.
Oh, okay.
Yeah.
Jesse Dylan: So that
was the beginning of a,
Jim Conrad: Not microdosing.
What, whatever the opposite of that is.
Jesse Dylan: Yeah, yeah.
But you asked if I did acid.
That wasn't the only time, but that
was one of the more prolific nights.
That did not end well.
That night ended badly.
Jim Conrad: Did you have an epiphany?
No, but the neighbors did.
Jesse Dylan: They found me in their car,
which they had packed up the night before
for their summer vacation, torn to pieces.
You know, I'm gonna be honest with you.
10 hits of Orange
Sunshine is one too many.
Jim Conrad: Oh, that's funny.
That's a great story.
I love it.
Okay.
Now we're back from Fort Langley to
Tsawwassen and now you're going to BCIT.
Jesse Dylan: Yeah, two
years, PA Announcements.
Counselor said, would you
consider going to BCIT?
I said, sure.
You know, if I was gonna be a lawyer.
Weirdly enough, a lot of lawyers
wanted to be broadcasters and a lot
of broadcasters wanted to be lawyers.
Like it must have something to do with
performing in front of a group, right?
Jim Conrad: Yeah.
Maybe we're all just dicks.
Jesse Dylan: There we go.
I said, sure, yeah, I'll, I'll go for
an interview at BCIT and I went for an
interview at BCIT, Sandy Sanderson, Doug
Short, all these legendary broadcasters.
I had a little interview and
they said, well, if you're, if
you're bound to be even half as
good as your father, you're in.
So BCIT two years.
I was working full-time in my second
year at BCIT, but I didn't want to quit.
And then I got placed in Victoria.
Jim Conrad: CJVI.
Jesse Dylan: Yeah.
CJVI.
And you were at CFAX.
Jim Conrad: And I think the
ships just passed in the night.
'Cause I think you left and I
got there probably March 1st, 79.
Jesse Dylan: I left around
the same time to come to LG73.
Jim Conrad: I saw you at the airport.
I flew from Medicine Hat where it was
minus 30 to Calgary where it was the same.
And then, uh, met a friend
of mine in the parking lot.
We didn't do acid, but we did
pretty much everything else.
Got on the plane and now I
am leaving to go to Victoria
to this new job in Victoria.
I get there.
Paul Tividar, he was the program director
of CFAX, picked me up in his ragtop
MG and we're cruising down from the
airport, right, down the Pat Bay Highway.
You come over that rise
just before Elk Lake.
Jesse Dylan: Oh yeah.
Beautiful spot.
Jim Conrad: And you see the
Victoria in the foreground.
Juan de Fuca Strait, the ocean
for a prairie kid, you know,
and then the Olympic Mountains.
And the radio station was
on the top floor of, uh,
Jesse Dylan: The Douglas Hotel.
Jim Conrad: Yeah.
No, View Street.
Jesse Dylan: Okay.
Yeah.
The basement was CKDA.
Yeah.
Jim Conrad: That was in the basement.
Jesse Dylan: See, um, yeah.
Radio hell.
Das Boot we call it.
Jim Conrad: But CKDA was the cool station.
'Cause they was played rock.
Jesse Dylan: It was, it was
the LG73 or C fund of Victoria.
Jim Conrad: Definitely.
Jesse Dylan: CFAX was the NW.
CJVI was the CGOR wannabe, you know,
we wanted to be CFAX, so we had Joe
Ewood, Ed Mackenzie, all those guys.
Me, I did the midday show, nine till noon.
It was a request.
It was country.
So I saw, I started in country.
It was horrible.
I mean CJVI was fun.
It was really fun.
I started on the All night show.
I lasted there about three months.
And then Bob Morris, at CKDA, made me
an an offer to come and work in top 40.
And my buddy there, Richard
Saxton, Richard was there and I
was really looking forward to it.
And then CJVI made me a better offer.
They wanted to keep me and this was
cool 'cause I was only supposed to do a
practicum and I was now working full time.
Jim Conrad: Yeah, you're 20 years old.
Jesse Dylan: Yeah.
Well if that, and I've got a job
offer from Bob Morris at CKDA
to go work at the cool station.
But Harry Boone, the program director
at CJVI, gave me more money, moved
me off the all night show, gave me
my own show Monday through Friday,
night till noon, the request show.
Jim Conrad: But it was
country and western requests.
Jesse Dylan: But when you start,
when you start radio back in the
days, uh, you and I are are both old
enough to remember block formatting.
So you would play some shit from the CBC.
You would have some bad religious
motherfucker that you had to play
'cause they would buy an hour of time.
Jim Conrad: Bernice Gerard.
Jesse Dylan: Oh no.
I had Garner Ted Armstrong, so
I'd have to play him in the middle
of the night off reel to reel.
And then I had comedy hour and that's
where I discovered George Carlin.
George Carlin: Politicians are
put there to give you the idea
that you have freedom of choice.
You don't.
You have no choice.
You have owners.
They own you.
They own everything.
They own all the important land.
They own and control the corporations.
They've long since bought and
paid for the Senate, the Congress,
the state houses, the city halls.
They got the judges in their back pockets
and they own all the big media companies,
so they control just about all of the
news and information you get to hear.
They got you by the balls.
Jesse Dylan: Oh, it's still very relevant.
More so now than ever.
Jim Conrad: So Carlin and comedy, but
Victoria was too small for Jesse Dylan,
and you had to come to the Big Smoke LG73.
Jesse Dylan: I stayed there a year.
And then Roy Hennessy, who was programming
CFOX took me with him to CHED in
Edmonton and that was, uh, fun because
CHED in the day had like a 53 share of
market, not my favorite place to live.
I mean that in the nicest, kindest way.
You know, if God was gonna give Canada
an enema or if he was playing golf,
Jim Conrad: I thought
it's, it's Moose Jaw.
Jesse Dylan: If he had to shit
in a bush playing golf, Edmonton.
Jim Conrad: Dear diary,
everything is going to be okay.
And if it isn't, we'll fix it in post.
Jesse Dylan: So, um, how do I put this?
As delicately as I can.
We fucked off as quickly
as we could from Edmonton.
Jim Conrad: Yes.
Yeah.
Luckily the airport is on, on your
way outta town, which is really good.
Like way outta town.
Jesse Dylan: Yeah.
The two best things to come out of
Edmonton, Highway South and the airport.
Jim Conrad: Yeah.
It leads Canada in squirrel suicides.
Jesse Dylan: Yogurt, more
culture than the entire city.
Uh, I was there when the
whole city was drunk.
Drunk all the time.
All the time.
Jim Conrad: Well, what
else do you do in it?
Jesse Dylan: Because 630CHED, 53 share.
They had so much contra at bars we
had to go out and drink and eat.
We had to go out and
try and use the contra.
'Cause it drove them nuts.
They were losing the contra battle.
So anyway.
Jim Conrad: Edmonton back to Vancouver.
Jesse Dylan: Uh uh, was out
here on holidays, CGOR was
gonna take a run at CKNW.
They were looking for a guy that sounded
like Rick Honey to do the afternoon show.
They offered it to me,
gave me a lot more money.
I took it.
I moved to, uh, the coast, CGOR.
They weren't successful
going up against CKNW.
They tried, but they had, you know, Frosty
in the morning who'd been there forever.
You know, CGOR brought in some heavies.
Man, they had Jack Webster.
Jim Conrad: It's because of CJOR
that made NW that much more better.
That, that much more better.
That much better.
Jesse Dylan: I'll count you in.
We're gonna do that again.
3, 2, 1.
Jim Conrad: It was because
of CJOR, uh, and what they
were trying to do, which was.
Jesse Dylan: I'm sorry.
No, we're gonna, we're
gonna do that again.
I'm gonna count you in and, and this
time we'll put a little music behind it.
Softer read.
Come closer to the mic.
Okay.
This is for Dania Down Quilts.
I want you to tell the CJOR story, but
as if you're seducing somebody to get on
a Dania Down Quilt and it's nighttime.
In 3 2 1.
Jim Conrad: CJOR because of their
competitiveness made NW better.
Jesse Dylan: Would it be untoward
to whack off to your voice.
Jim Conrad: When traffic's slow, I do.
Jesse Dylan: Jim and I
have faces for radio.
We digress though.
Lovely Family story going.
Jim Conrad: There's, there
were some legends around OR,
and that includes Pat Burns.
Jesse Dylan: Oh, fuck.
I can't tell that story.
You know what, that's
the only radio story.
Jim Conrad: Okay.
Can you tell that story in a way
that you're not telling the story?
Jesse Dylan: Okay.
So CJOR.
I'm their version of Rick Honey.
God rest his soul.
So anyway, good afternoon.
And my name at the time
was Steve Woodman Jr.
Jim Conrad: Nice.
Nice tribute.
Jesse Dylan: Thank you.
So when my father passed away, not
only did I steal everything that he
previously owned, but I, I took the name.
Jim Conrad: Pat Burns and
you're, uh, doing a crossover.
It's the end of your show, Pat's show's
about to begin, and you're doing a
two mic crossover with Pat Burns.
Jesse Dylan: Yeah.
And a crossover for the uninitiated is
when I'm finishing a show and the next
guy coming on and you do this thing.
so it's like 5:55.
I'm Steve Woodman.
CJOR in Vancouver.
Some fucking advertising
genius came up with that, CJOR.
We, the one, So, CJOR, oh are we the one.
How fucking genius is that?
Every time I said it, I wanna
stab myself in the, the needle.
I'm doing the crossover.
It's 5:55.
I'm Steve Woodman.
CJOR.
Oh, are we the one.
Hey Pat, what's on the show tonight?
I'm just coming off of
like Barry Manalow, right?
Pat Burns comes in, he's
got a styrofoam cup.
He's about four and a half feet
tall, greasy, dandruff ridden
hair, came out of a little room.
I think it was a closet that they
had turned into the Pat Burns office.
And the reason they gave him his
own office is 'cause he drinks.
All day and all night.
So anyway, what's on the show Pat?
He's got the Vancouver Province or the
Vancouver Sun, I can't remember which, and
the headline said, racism, parenthetically
below, tearing this province apart.
So Pat comes in.
I said, Hey Pat, what's on the show today?
Well, Steve, after the blah,
blah, blah, blah, blah, headline's
in the Province newspaper.
You know how he talk, right?
Pat Burns.
I'm Pat Burns.
Steve, headlines in the province
today, racism is tearing
this, this province apart.
I'm all for getting
racism outta the province.
And he's on and off the mic, right?
I'm all for getting racism out of the
province, but before we do that, we
gotta get the and the, and the, and
the, and he just kept going on and on.
Dude, I'm telling you, I can't say
those, I can't say those words today.
But he did and, and it must have
been like 20 of them, 20 slangs for,
fuck, it must have been every nation.
Jim Conrad: Racial epithets.
Jesse Dylan: Oh, it's horrible.
And, and he's, and then he ends it by
saying, we gotta get racism outta here.
But we can't until we get those
people the fuck out of this province.
I'm Pat Burns.
I'll see you in 35 minutes.
How old am I?
22, 24? I don't, 23?
I haven't been in the
business that long full time.
It's kind of my first major market.
Sure there was Edmonton,
but that's a mistake.
And now I'm in Vancouver and
I sat there with my mouth open
thinking there goes my career.
I'm done.
This is 1980.
The news guys didn't say rape.
Jim, we didn't say rape on the air.
This guy just went through every
fucking horrible, as you say, racial
epithet, I would've said another word.
And so I, I, I don't know.
It, it felt like an eternity.
And, and finally the next thing you
heard on CJOR was, here's the Eagles.
I'm Steve Woodman.
Film at 11.
And you know what?
Not a single fucking complaint.
Not management, not program
director, not a call.
And we had listeners.
Jim Conrad: Did anybody mention it?
Jesse Dylan: No.
No one.
And that was the weirdest thing, right?
It's like,
Jim Conrad: The silence is
another story, isn't it?
Jesse Dylan: Yeah.
We had listeners at the time.
Yeah, we had listeners,
CJOR had lots of listeners.
After CJOR, they decided
to, uh, fuck, I don't know.
I think they went news, I
think they went news 24/7.
They were like NW two for a little
while, and then they decided to go news.
They offered me a position to do news.
Can you imagine me doing news?
Jim Conrad: Well, maybe, Les Nessman.
Jesse Dylan: Yeah, now
it wouldn't work for me.
Les Nessman and more music on CJOR.
Oh, are we the one.
Uh, it's funny, we only have white people
listening to us now after that last
break, but we've lost 75% of our audience.
Thank you, Pat.
Bye-bye.
You've cleansed the cube Pat.
Well done.
One fell swoop gone.
Why did we go from a seven
share to a 0.5 share?
Two words.
That motherfucker,
he's in the styrofoam office drinking.
It's him.
I had an offer to go to
Kelowna or Toronto, CFTR.
And Toronto was a big top 40 station.
Jim Conrad: Kelowna is a step down.
Toronto was a, is a step up.
Jesse Dylan: Oh God bless you, Jim.
Everybody listening in Kelowna right now.
They think they've landed and
gone to heaven and now you,
Jim Conrad: Compared
to Toronto, of course.
Jesse Dylan: Hey, where do you look?
Jim Conrad: People in Kelowna
would agree with that.
Jesse Dylan: I, I'm Anthony Von Mandel.
I, I own Mission Hills.
Did you know that you're
living in a step down.
You stupid fuck.
What were you thinking?
You rich, billionaire
bastards are all the same.
I had an offer to go to Toronto.
I was gonna take it.
It was uh, CFTR.
So CFTR and CHUM were the LG
and CFUN in the big smoke.
I was gonna take it.
Then he called me back
to say, I'm really sorry.
Our swing guy, which we were gonna give
to you, has decided to stay and, or the
all night guy we're moving up to swing.
So now we've only got the all night show.
And Sandy Sanderson, president of
program for Rogers and he said, uh,
you know, you're better than that.
I can't put you on the all night show.
So I took the gig in Kelowna,
but to pay me enough to make a
living, I was the morning man.
I got a small salary for that.
I was the promotion director.
I never did anything
for them in that regard.
But I got a small salary for that
and I was the music director and
I got a small salary for that.
So I got three salaries and I did the
morning show in Kelowna for almost four
years at, uh, FM 104.7, which is out.
Jim Conrad: All right.
So you paid your dues, uh, doing
everything at a radio station?
Okay.
Not a step down.
I take that back.
Jesse Dylan: In terms of market size,
you are correct from Vancouver to
Kelowna is not up, and that's what I did.
Jim Conrad: Of course you did.
Yeah.
And then what happened?
Jesse Dylan: We're going to Calgary.
Do you know why we're gonna Calgary?
Jim Conrad: Why we're gonna Calgary?
Jesse Dylan: Because we can't
go anywhere else in Alberta.
God shit all over the bushes
and the people in Edmonton.
So that leaves Calgary.
So I went to Calgary.
I was in the CFCN building
that housed CFCN TV.
Did some of that by the way.
It was fun.
Jim Conrad: Right.
What year?
Jesse Dylan: Oh, this was, uh, 84.
So I left Kelowna, got an offer.
Dave Charles, you know the name?
Jim Conrad: Heard it.
Jesse Dylan: They were looking
for a morning guy to sign
on this new radio station.
He said, Steve Woodman's doing,
you know, mornings in Kelowna.
He's what you want.
They hired me.
I went to Calgary.
It was really fun.
Calgary was really fun for two years.
Yeah, it really was.
And I was on the ski team.
Jim Conrad: Got a cowboy hat.
Jesse Dylan: Yep.
Cowboy hat.
I was,
Lake Louise.
Sunshine, uh, panorama,
kimberly, all that stuff.
Jim Conrad: Perfect.
Yeah.
Yeah.
What a gig.
Jesse Dylan: But you know, the funny
thing is we, I get in the van, it's
like nine o'clock in the morning,
we're off to Lake Louise for an outing
with the radio stations and, uh,
they got beers, coolers, and beers.
And they say, you want a roadie?
Okay.
So we're drinking beer.
Roadies.
In Alberta back in the days you
drank, and it's, I know it's horrible.
Right?
And I'm not recommending
this at all for anyone.
I'm with MAAD.
I'm with everybody on this, right?
You do not drink and drive.
But in 1984 in Calgary, I got in
a, in a vehicle with the ski team.
Nice young men and women.
Clean cut, well-spoken fit,
and they said, Hey, road pops.
Jim Conrad: Yeah.
So, uh, but you get there, you ski.
Have fun.
Two years in Calgary.
Any great stories from Calgary?
Jesse Dylan: There's a, there's some,
there's some stories from Calgary.
You want, you don't wanna hear one.
Okay.
I'll tell you, I'll tell you a story.
I won't mention names.
The program director and I, we're friends
when I was doing the morning show.
Steve Woodman on AM 106.
That was the new station.
We did really well by the way.
And I was doing the morning
show and I had a good team
around me and I was the anchor.
And then program director at the
time and his wife and my wife
thought it'd be fun to be friends.
So we partied together.
We'd go to his house.
He'd come to our house.
We're a pretty good pals.
And so, um, one day my buddies
says, wouldn't it be fun to
do a two man morning show?
The program director says that?
On paper it's a conflict of interest.
'Cause this is the guy that's
supposed to be telling me how to
sound and what's funny and what's not.
Jim Conrad: But he wants
to be on the air with you.
Jesse Dylan: Now he wants
to be on the air with me.
So we do a two man show.
It's now somebody and Steve
where it was the Steve Show.
Now it's somebody and Steve.
It was fun, right?
We get along.
We had a good time.
I thought the show was really fun.
He and I had similar senses of humor,
twisted, and then Dave Charles comes
to town and he told Vince Dimaggio and
some of the other people that would
listen that the show's gone downhill
since it's been a two-man show.
Get that motherfucker off the
air back in programming full
time and let Steve do his thing.
So they did that?
They pulled so and so off the air and
suddenly everything that we were doing
one week that was funny and great
and cool is now not funny, not great.
It's shit.
And the bitterness I suppose,
that he must have had was,
Jim Conrad: But it was the consultant,
it was Darth Vader coming in.
Jesse Dylan: It doesn't matter.
Somehow that happened.
He made it horrible for me.
It's, and I, I was, I was
enjoying Calgary a lot till then.
So I phoned Gary Slate who was the
program director, Q107 Toronto.
I said, I'd like to come and work for you.
He said, are you any good?
I said, yeah, I'm really good.
He said, can you overnight me a tape?
And uh, a couple of days later,
he called me and said, I'd
like to fly you out to Toronto.
Gave me the gig, said, You
have to change your name.
I said, what's wrong with Steve Woodman?
He said, it's a nowhere
not happening name.
He said, the creative director,
Dave Barker will meet you tomorrow
and you'll pick a new name.
I'm thinking, what's
wrong with Steve Woodman?
I ripped it off from my dad.
So Dave Barker, the creative
director, super nice guy, but
crazier than a shithouse rat.
Jim Conrad: So this was your
name change was a meeting.
Jesse Dylan: No, it was
a vision from Jesus.
Yeah, it was a meeting.
Fuck.
I'm trying to work with you.
So Dave Barker, the creative director.
I just wanted to reiterate this
'cause I don't think you heard it.
Nice guy, but crazier
than a shit house rat.
My hope is he hears this someday.
Okay.
Okay.
Here's a list of 12 first names,
Jesse or Steve, whatever my name was.
Here's a list of 12 last names.
By the way, I've been, I've
been Jesse Dylan longer in my
life than I was Steve Woodman.
Jim Conrad: So you're Steve Woodman.
You get first names and
last names on a list.
Jesse Dylan: And the lists are McLovesit.
Mudcat.
Derringer.
And I hated them all with the
exception of the first list.
Which had the names Jesse and Dylan.
And I thought, well, I like
Jesse and I like Dylan.
Jim Conrad: Jesse James.
Jesse Dylan: Oh, strong.
Yeah.
Dylan.
Good names Dylan Rock.
Dylan Thomas the poet.
Bob Dylan.
Bob Dylan.
Yeah.
So I said, Hey, uh, can
I have two first names?
What are you thinking?
Well, I was thinking either
Dylan Jesse or Jesse Dylan.
Yeah.
I like Jesse Dylan has a
nice iambic pentameter to it.
Go with Jesse Dylan.
So September 6th, 1986
I became Jesse Dylan.
And the news guy at Q107 was Gene Vilitus.
And he was doing news
and he was very straight.
And they thought that Jesse
and Gene would work out.
First 10 weeks on the air was horrible.
Absolutely fucking horrible.
Well, first of all, Gene has a
head the size of a cement mixer.
He's Lithuanian.
Jim Conrad: I've been sitting next to Gene
and his head, it's huge, many, many times.
Jesse Dylan: And he's got this
very stoic, pierced lip thing going
on where he almost never smiles.
And also the other thing was they
called me Huey Lewis, hip to be square.
'Cause even though I did acid and
all that stuff, when I was young,
I got myself in shape when we moved
to Kelowna, I lost the weight.
I started running, doing triathlons,
marathons, and now I'm at Q107,
which is the hippest place, right?
There's a lot of cocaine going on and
a lot of rock bands, you know, Rush.
We all wanted to be.
Everybody's living the
rock and roll lifestyle.
Everyone except me.
I'm, I'm kind of straight.
Jim Conrad: Well, to do a
morning show as well, right?
Jesse Dylan: Yeah, yeah.
Jim Conrad: You need stamina and
you need to be able to get up early.
Jesse Dylan: So my nickname was
Huey Lewis, hip to be square.
Thank you.
Thank you for drawing that up.
I should have, I'm
remiss in not doing that.
I'll punish myself tonight when
I'm in the tub with Mr. Bubbles.
Thank you.
A little lower, Bob.
Jim Conrad: Don't try.
Don't, don't go too low.
If you try to go too low and
it's not natural, Jess, your
testicle can actually explode.
Jesse Dylan: Thank you.
My wife has seen that happen.
So anyway, I'm, I'm on the
air 10 weeks Q107, 10 weeks.
Jesse and Gene was horrible.
It was my dream gig of being in
the biggest smoke in the country.
And being the quarterback for the radio
station, the morning guy was failing.
Failing worse than, oh are we the one.
Gary Slate pulls me in the
office about 10 weeks in.
I know he's gonna fire me.
And you know what?
I deserved it.
It was horrible.
It was bad.
Even by my standards.
I'm sure there was some modicum
of professionalism 'cause I
had a nice voice and I knew the
format and I played the music.
We got the weather in the news on
time, but there was no entertainment.
So I got, I went into his office and
then he said, what happened to the
guy on the air check that I hired?
Where's that guy?
I said, dude, I don't blame you.
I, I don't know.
We're not gelling.
There's something, you know, I look
at this guy and it looks like he
hates me and he's reading the fucking
newspaper while I'm trying to do a
bit, and the show's going nowhere
and the plane is in a death spiral.
And honestly, Gary, I don't
know how to pull it out.
So if you're firing me, I get it.
I'm not firing you.
He said, when was the last time,
if ever, that you and Gene went out
and got high or stoned or drunk?
And I said, well, we haven't yet, other
than the initial party that you threw in
this office for all the jocks to meet me.
He pulled out a wad of hundreds
and he gave me some of them, which
was a lot of money in those days.
I didn't have a wad of hundreds.
And he said, take Gene out tonight and
get fucked up, get to know each other.
And he said, that's an order.
And if you don't do
that, I'm gonna fire you.
So I phoned Gene, I said,
Hey, we're going out tonight.
I can't, you know, Kathleen.
I said, yeah, you're coming with me.
I just left Gary Slate's office.
He gave me a bunch of a
hundred dollars bills.
And he said, you and I are going
out tonight to get fucked up.
And if we don't, we're both
fired tomorrow morning.
Where do you wanna meet?
It became a regular occurrence.
We got drunk out of our fucking skulls,
and then some, and I think we were
still hammered the next day on the air.
I spent everything he gave me, and it
was a lot of money back in the day.
Right?
The next show was one of the best
shows I've ever done in my life.
I correct myself, one of the best
shows we've ever done in our life.
Jesse and Gene were born at 10
weeks and one day in, and then
we took the market by storm.
The station's highest quarter
hours were about 70,000.
Within six months, we were
now at 140,000 quarter hours.
A neck and neck with Roger, Rick,
and Marilyn at CHUM Stations.
You know, two, we were
like 12 and a half share.
I think at the time each SharePoint
in Toronto was worth 2 million.
So the morning shows building
around 25 million a year.
We were the talk of the town.
Jim Conrad: Tell me the story about being,
you had a bit about wrecking weddings and
then you got sued by the Catholic church.
Jesse Dylan: Our most popular feature
was called Wreck a Wedding Wednesday.
Let's say it together, Jim.
Wreck a Wedding Wednesday.
Wreck a Wedding Wednesday
was our most popular feature.
We would get faxes, phone calls,
stacks of faxes, hundreds of them.
We can only do one or two a week.
We did 'em on Wednesday, so
at 7:15 and 8:15, we played a
Wreck a Wedding Wednesday call.
Somebody would be getting married.
We'd call to say that the
bridal gown burnt, the holiday's
been canceled, whatever.
Right?
And they would have these
amazing things for us.
So we used to pretend
to be Catholic priests.
Not all the time, but every now and then.
Phone would ring.
You'd hear someone answer.
Hello.
And we'd say, hello.
Is that Sandra?
Yeah.
Hi, it's Father Giuseppe and Father Gino
calling from the Archdiocese of Toronto.
Yes my child and then we go into it.
Right?
Have you been taking
your Catholicism classes?
And we know that they hadn't been
because the people that were setting
them up, they were loved ones, say
they're skipping Catholicism classes.
Jim Conrad: And that's
with the Catholic church.
If you're wanted to be married
in the Catholic church, you
had to take wedding classes.
Jesse Dylan: A wedding course.
Marriage classes.
Marriage classes.
That's right.
Jim Conrad: So you're
impersonating the priests.
Jesse Dylan: Yes, we did a full prank.
Yeah, we did these bits that
were great, that were funny.
Yeah, people loved them.
We impersonate Catholic priests, so
Jim Conrad: They got a bit too popular
and it became, it got on the radar.
Jesse Dylan: We did one one morning, the
guy's name was Pinot and Gene saying stuff
like, we can't, Sandra, we can't, wed you,
if you've seen Pinot's wino, have you?
You know, of course we knew
they were sleeping together.
Right?
So anyway, okay.
So, uh, somebody at the Archdiocese
of Toronto thought this wasn't funny.
Thought we were making fun of Catholicism,
the Catholic church, priests, and they,
yeah, they didn't dig it, so they sued the
radio station and it was a big lawsuit.
You haven't been sued until you're
sued by the Catholic church.
So the station capitulated, they said,
whatever you want, we'll hang these guys.
We'll, we'll strip off their skin.
We'll, whatever, whatever you need to do.
Jim Conrad: Burned at the
stake at Young and Bluer.
Jesse Dylan: And they said, okay,
we want a 60 second apology.
Every morning right at 7:15, the
time of the incident for a month.
And the radio, and we want
Jesse and Gene to do it.
And the radio station said, sure, but, but
you don't want Jesse and Gene to do it.
We've got a much, 'cause they
knew what would happen, right?
Yeah.
We turned it into a fucking live copy.
Yeah.
Are you kidding?
We recently, we were, can you imagine?
Oh hey, we were making fun
of the Catholic church.
Oh, come on.
So they got Earl Mann, Earl the Pearl.
Earl had almost as nice a voice as yours.
And he was the voice of the NFL.
He was huge.
Like you.
Every, every time you turn on the
radio or television, you'd hear Earl.
So they got Earl to do it.
And it was a lovely voiceover.
Nice little music in the background.
Very, very, innocuous, apologetic.
And it was like, you know, recently
on the radio show with Jesse and
Gene, messers Jesse Dylan and Eugene
Vilitus, used his full name, Eugene
Vilitus, were pretending to be and
purporting to be Catholic priests.
Well, not only is that against the
law, it's against the principles of
the Archdiocese and it went on and on.
Right.
And it basically self aggrandized
the church, the priest, the Cardinal,
everybody else, the bishops.
And it made Jesse and Jean look like bad.
So that went really
well for the first week.
And then tragically, regrettably, and
ironically, the touring version of Jesus
Christ Superstar, the musical was in town,
appearing at the Royal Thompson Hall in
Toronto, and they were up from New York.
And it was a, yeah, a
big production, right?
Jesus Christ Superstar.
And they were advertising on the
radio station, but the voice that
they used to voice Jesus Christ
Superstar, was not Jim Conrad.
It was not Earl Mann.
It was not Lauren Green, it was the
guy that does the monster truck pull,
monster truck pull wristband policy.
They ah, you know,
screaming like that, right?
So the ad comes on and goes, big music,
big rock music go, Jesus Christ Superstar.
It was meaner than that.
It was like Jesus Christ, right?
Slow.
And I can't even say it right.
It was the guy that,
Jim Conrad: Can I try do it?
Jesus Christ Superstar.
Jesse Dylan: Yeah.
Now we got it.
Do the Jesus Christ again,
but just a little bit angrier.
Jim Conrad: Jesus Christ.
Jesse Dylan: Now, well, as soon as
I heard that, oh, here's an idea.
It went off in my head.
I, I saw the whole thing
flash in front of my eyes.
So I got Tony the cheap voice guy who
was our producer and did great voices.
I said, Tony, lift those words.
Jesus Christ.
He said, are you gonna do what
I think, he said, don't do it.
You're gonna get fired.
Fuck you.
You work for me.
You're doing it.
So, uh, he lifted Jesus Christ, put
thunder and lightning behind it.
And so the very next day,
here's what you hear.
Recently, you did the Jesus Christ.
Okay?
Okay.
Recently on the Jesse and Jean Show,
messers Jesse Dylan and Eugene Vilitus
were purporting to be Catholic priests.
Jim Conrad: Jesus christ.
Jesse Dylan: 60 seconds of that.
And then toward the end it was
nothing but do Jesus Christ,
over and over again on the fade.
Okay?
Jim Conrad: Jesus christ.
Jesus Christ.
Jesus Christ.
Jesse Dylan: Yeah.
Lawsuit was back on after the show.
They were listening every day for
the ad. That didn't go over well.
No.
Clever.
And brilliant.
But it didn't go over well.
I'll quickly end.
I got off the air, 30 years,
nine o'clock in the morning.
No one to play with.
Gene and I would go into a studio,
we'd prerecord some, some shit.
Uh, and then all day long.
And throughout the day, someone would
call and say, Hey, Madonna's in town.
I know where she's staying.
You wanna try and get her guest?
Lionel Alzado NFL, you know?
Triumph is on tour.
Yeah.
Have him as a guest.
8:15, 7:15. So all day you long,
you're doing this rolling show prep.
Then the next day you show up, you've
got a fucking game plan like an NFL game.
But you might change it, you might
throw it all out if something happens.
Jim Conrad: Call an audible.
Yeah, life was good.
Uh, and, and in between all day long
having almost nothing to do, four
fifths of five eighths a fuck all,
I became a member of the National
Canadian Triathlon Team, competed in
55 events worldwide with the team.
And my second hobby I was
negotiating deals for Jesse and Gene.
We did record deals, we did these
deals, and I liked the art of
negotiation and eventually that
led me to building companies.
And today I've built eight companies.
I sold a couple.
One exploded brilliantly.
And, um.
I've taken five companies public.
Jesse Dylan: What you've learned over all
of those years in broadcasting to be able
to get into that boardroom and present
and develop a relationship immediately
with whoever you're talking to.
How much is story and the power
of storytelling a part of that?
Every success that I've ever had in
my life, every success that I will
ever have in my life is because
of the ability to tell a story.
Whether I'm telling it or
somebody on my team is telling it.
It won't be an AI chatbot telling it
because the AI chatbot doesn't have
this emotional human connection.
It's close, but when you're telling
a story and you're communicating
at an effective level, that is a
difference between success and failure.
Jim Conrad: Beautiful.
Oh,
how I love a great story, and I
also love playing Yuck Monkey to the
Irreverent Snake Charmer, Jesse Dylan.
What a marvelous storyteller.
That's episode one of
the Conovison podcast.
Thank you for listening, and thank
you for actually getting to the end.
To hear this on episode one, we
rode the giant existential wave
with JP Sartre and Aaron James.
And I know after hearing the secular
story of creation from a profile in the
New Yorker magazine from March 27th,
2017, called a Science of the Soul.
A Philosopher's Quest to understand the
making of the mind, by Joshua Rothman.
I don't think life here on earth
will ever be the same, do you?
So stay by the stream for episode two
featuring a story about stories, a
fractured fairytale, and the inimitable,
and I mean that sincerely, Bill Reiter aKA
DJ ZigZag, the original groove and blue.
And remember, we are
all stories to be told.
I'm Jim Conrad, AKA Cono, and the
story of how I got that nickname will
be an entire episode in and of itself.
And this has been Conovison..