Grillless

That’s what Ron Nelson said to me once, after the ending of a school jam. This was pre Reggaemania of course, when he held it down Saturday afternoons on Toronto’s CKLN, with a show called The Fantastic Voyage. He handed down the afternoon hip hop show to DJ X’s Power Move to change formats with Reggaemania, at the time, he wanted to step away from the commercialization that he felt hip hop had become.

This man has been in Toronto Radio for a long time and deserves all the respect and accolades he gets, but even when he was controlling the airwaves of Saturday afternoons, he was somewhat of a legend.  So one fateful day in class when I saw that there was a flyer being passed around, I immediately got excited. It was Ron’s sound system flyer, and it was in the hands of the class president, and I just had a feeling that Ron would be coming to my school.

Sure enough, the fateful night came and I was there loving it, to have the one and only Ron Nelson DJ at my school’s dance. Only problem, this was Deer Park Sr PS, and the P stood for Preppy. I knew Dave would probably be rather disappointed at the energy, playing to the crowd meant more of the likes of Siouxsie and the Banshees than it did KRS One. I was disappointed too, somewhat ideally, as being enrolled at this school meant I knew the 411. I knew better but I had hoped that more of The Fantastic Voyage and less of The Breakfast Club could come to this dance and turn on more ears to the energy of Hip Hop. Sure, I was deluded. Delusional. Then Disillusioned.

So after the show, I went up to Ron, caught him on the stairwell, and told him there was a fan of Hip Hop (and The Fantastic Voyage), as I was empathizing about the lack of knowledge. In my own way, I wanted to cheer him up, as not all of us were Zombies there that night. I wanted to make a request, I had the request in mind, and I said it, as politely as I could.

Now maybe I didn’t realize how disappointed he was, and possibly mad, at how the night turned out, so this may have had something to do with his response, but not entirely. He ended up saying…

Ask Dave to play Whodini.

Now the Dave he was referring to is Dave Ahmad, another Toronto Radio personality and legend from CKLN. Dave hosted Dave’s Dance Music on Sunday Afternoons, which was more dance oriented in format. Ron was telling me that they were more funk and R&B and would get play on Dave’s show, but not on his.

Respect to Ron Nelson, but Whodini is hip hop.

The moral of the story?

Play lots of Hip Hop (and learn the history) and also listen to Reggaemania, Friday 9pm - Midnight on CKLN FM, Toronto.