Spring 1985: Switchback!

Unfortunately, this 14-second clip is all that survives of the Calgary edition of Switchback, a Sunday-morning teen-themed show that ran on  CBC for about five or six years.

But no matter.

Because my sister Jacquie and I sure remember getting up early Sunday mornings in Edmonton for a year and a half to watch a mix of teen topics music, fun, and two 60s Batman episodes to boot!

And the host for a lot of that time was one Humble Howard, a former standup comic who also was a DJ at Calgary's KIK FM at the time.

With all that experience under his belt, Howard was witty and quick on his feet. He really knew how to keep the show moving.

Jacquie and I thought it would be cool to meet him on the week Dad got us tickets for, as he lived in Calgary at that time..

Unfortunately, that was also the week that Humble Howard got himself fired.

So our host was Johnny Danger.

And it was still cool.

Somebody (unfortunately not us) won a then-state-of-the-art 4 head VCR.

We noticed that the Switchback set was much smaller than it appeared on TV.

And we learned the four rules of live TV, from Len Perry, the friendly and energetic floor director.

1) Never look directly into the camera.
2) Waving or saying "Hi Mom" into said camera is not cool.
3) When Len waved his hand in a circle, we were to clap.
4)When Len did this quickly, we were to clap longer.

Jacquie and I were somewhat experienced at this already, having been to several of Edmonton's ACT Teleramas at that point.

But  it was still very cool!

To provide some idea of what Switchback was like, here's a clip from the Vancouver edition with Stu Jeffries, introducing a very iconic piece of 80s tech:





And a clip from what I believe is the first edition of Switchback in the Maritimes:







MTMG