In 1955 a 16-year-old kid walked into the CKSF Radio manager’s office (station at the time owned by The Standard-Freeholder) and announced that he wanted to be an announcer. In one of those “Ah, what have I got to lose?” moves, plus the fact the kid was willing to put in a 48-hour week for $35, the manager signed him up. Besides, the kid had a “radio” voice.To say the radio newbie struggled would not be an exaggeration, but he worked at it and got better. A lot better.
“I wasn’t the best announcer, but I was willing to learn and pay my dues,” Bill LaSalle told this scribbler years ago. “And besides, I was living at home, so was able to survive on $35 a week.” Along with regular news reading, he was handed a Saturday evening country show and given the handle “The Old Saddle Tramp.” A promo picture had him dressed in gold rush miner’s duds, a bushy beard and a pick axe swung over his shoulder.
The show became a huge hit, this at a time when radio ruled the air waves.
Then along came a big-city guy called Stanley Shankman, a Montreal businessman who purchased the station and re-named it CJSS. The bad news for “The Old Saddle Tramp” was that Shankman was not big on cowboys and country music. In fact, he couldn’t stand the stuff. “The Old Saddle Tramp” show drifted, actually was pushed, into the sunset. He stayed in radio until the late 1960s when he came over to the Standard-Freeholder as entertainment editor and helped produce the popular Hometown Saturday supplement, which got caught in one John ‘The Hatchet’ Farrington’s cost-cutting moves and disappeared. So did LaSalle.
It was back to radio with a Saturday night country show, sans the Saddle Tramp moniker. LaSalle’s collection of interview tapes included one-on-ones with Charlie Pride, Johnny Cash, Louis Armstrong, Brenda Lee, Marty Robbins, Wilf Carter and Hank Snow. “It was a great time to be in radio,” he said. “The big names were accessible (for interviews).”
One of his last interviews was with Charlie Pride who did two sold-out shows at the civic complex. When LaSalle walked into the dressing room, Pride looked up and said, “Hi, Charlie Pride, and I want to thank you for not asking me what it is like to be a Black country and western singer.” Then he laughed. “It was a great interview. Down to earth guy. He even gave me his address and phone number, just in case I ever made it to Texas,” LaSalle recalled.
Bill LaSalle, “The Old Saddle Tramp”, passed away on Sept. 21. Former radio colleague Michael Terry said LaSalle had a “wonderful broadcasting voice and was a humble, dedicated professional.” Terry said LaSalle was never recognized for being the “great journalist and broadcaster he was.”
OCTOBER 1937 – Sure sign that winter was approaching was seen at Cornwall wharf with the steamer Coalhaven unloading 2,500 tons of coal destined for the local dealer Munro Coal Co…St. Lawrence Sanatorium received its first 14 tuberculosis patients at the 109-bed unit in Glen Walter…Daisy Dairy, 217 Third St. E., discontinued Sunday milk deliveries to city customers. Instead, the dairy would have two deliveries on Saturdays so customers could stock up for the weekend…Archie Legault was the new manager of the Supertest service station at 204 Montreal Rd…A man who gave Mag. P. C. Bergeron a strong opinion of a judgment against his son convicted of careless driving cost him $5 after the judge found him guilty of contempt of court…Glengarry native Rev. Charles Gordon, Presbyterian pastor and novelist, died in Winnipeg at age 77. He wrote under the name Ralph Connor. Some of his novels had a Glengarry theme. His best selling novel “The Sky Pilot” sold one million copies..James Whitham, president of Palace Amusements Co., said the company had purchased property on Montreal Road for a fourth local movie theatre. The property was purchased from William Waldroff…A posse made up of township and provincial police officers tracked down two young men, 17 and 20, wanted in the theft of a vehicle and break-in and theft at McDonell’s General Store at Grant’s Corners. They were found hiding in a barn…A city man who had racked up 53 convictions, mostly for public intoxication, begged Mag. P. C. Bergeron for a “break” when he made his 54th appearance in court, on an intoxication charge, just a few days after he was released from the local slammer. It was back to jail, this time for two months…When Joe Burns found a sack of undelivered parcels under a blanket in his Aberdeen Avenue barn, he called township police. Since September, the post office had been receiving complaints of undelivered parcels. An investigation found three more sacks of parcels, all unopened, in a heap of sawdust near the barn. The man, hired to delivery parcels, claimed that he had removed the parcels from the delivery rig while it was being repaired and didn’t have time to make the deliveries when the rig was up and running. “Don’t believe you,” said the judge who sentenced him to six months in jail.
TRIVIA: Which 1950s TV show had the character Buffalo Bob?
TRIVIA ANSWER Donald Trump was a five-time draft dodger. He avoided draft deferment once because of a medical condition (bone spurs) and four times because he was in college.
QUOTED: If everybody is thinking alike, then somebody isn’t thinking – Gen. George Patton.
ONE FINAL THING: Guy Henri, a smooth skating, shifty forward who played the last three seasons of his hockey career with the senior A Cornwall Chevies, passed away Sept. 6 in Montreal. He played for the Straftford Kroehlers of the Ontario Hockey Association junior A circuit before returning to his hometown to suit up with the senior A Cornwall Chevies.
