Red robinson biography

Robert Gordon Robinson, OBC, broadcaster, television host .
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Robert "Red" Robinson OBC (March 30, 1937 – April 1, 2023) was a Canadian disc jockey.

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Red Robinson: The Last Deejay

Red Robinson details the life and career of Red Robinson, one of Canada's most celebrated pioneers of rock and roll. Robinson began spinning hits while in high school in the early 1950s, laying the foundation for what would become a glamorous, impossible-to-stop and ultimately fulfilling career that has made him a household name west of the Rockies.

Raised by a single mother, Robinson worked as a delivery boy to help support the family. From such humble beginnings, he developed a strong work ethic and unflappable moral core that enabled him to pursue a career that has endured. Here is the account of how Robinson pranked his way into his first radio job. Readers will be delighted by behind-the-scenes stories from close encounters with Vancouver's visiting celebrities, like the time Robinson spent an hour with Elvis Presley in the BC Lions dressing room talking cars, women, movies and opera, or when Robinson nearly killed Roy Orbison and Bobby Goldsboro in a 1962 Grand Parisienne convertible while speeding to catch the Nanaimo ferry.

Robinson

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 thanks to red for this photo

Robert Gordon Robinson was born in Comox, BC on March 30, 1937. He received much of his education at King Edward High School at West 12th at Oak in Vancouver. He phoned into CJOR’s “Theme for Teens” show with imitations of Jimmy Stewart and Peter Lorre. He began hanging around ‘OR downstairs in the Grosvenor Hotel at the age of 15. That was 1953 and Al Jordan was a young broadcaster not much older than Robinson. Jordan allowed Red to write scripts for the show. He called the gangly teenager a “natural”.

Rock and Roll had not really arrived yet with teenagers dancing at sock hops to rhythm and blues. But that was going to change with the “new music” - black-based rhythms call rock-a-billy.

Vic Waters, CJOR Program Director at the time said Red Robinson was a radio groupie and got his start like a lot of other young broadcasters by hanging around the station on Howe Street. Al Jordan moved on in the summer of ’54 heading to the sunshine

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Author Tags: Music

Usually cited as Vancouver's first rock 'n' roll deejay, Robert Gordon 'Red' Robinson was born in Comox, B.C. on March 30, 1937. He started his career in radio by contributing to Al Jordan's afternoon show for teenagers on CJOR in 1953. They made contact after Robinson phoned into the show impersonating Hollywood actor Jimmy Stewart who was visiting Vancouver at the time.

Red Robinson's first program called Theme for Teens has been described as the first scheduled radio program for rock 'n' roll in Canada. As soon as he graduated from high school in 1954, Robinson became an on-air host, befriending major artists who came to play in British Columbia and frequently serving as an emcee for the likes of Elvis Presley (1957) and The Beatles (1964). For EXPO 86, he presented 40 acts for Legends of Rock'n'Roll that included Ray Charles, Roy Orbison, Fats Domino, Jerry Lee Lewis and The Righteous Brothers.

On October 23, 1957, as the host of the Teen Canteen program on CKWX, Robinson also hosted two shows for the Biggest Show Of Stars For 1957 at the Georgia