Ryerson Alumni - 2018 Summer - 40

ALUMNI DIARY

The Northside Hip Hop Archive/Fantastic Voyage Award helps Black students. To contribute, contact crichards@ryerson.ca

LIFE STORY

Hip-hop radio pioneer
Ron Nelson, RTA '85, remembers
starting out at Ryerson

Ron Nelson
created Canada's
first hip-hop
radio show in 1983.

tape, reel-to-reel recorders, I was in my
glory! I rented a recorder from Ryerson
pretty well every day and took it on the
TTC all the way up to Brimley and Steeles. I
would be recording at home and practising
my editing and splicing. I was obsessed.
› At CKLN I hosted the Fantastic Voyage
program. Later it was credited with being

Canada's first hip-hop radio show. At the
time, there was no infrastructure, no promoters, no TV shows, no record labels or other
radio shows, but when people started loving
this music, they wanted to see these artists
live in concert. I guess I had promotional
skills, because I began promoting concerts
featuring these artists, not knowing I was
pioneering a movement. Eventually I became
not just a credible radio broadcaster but the
leading concert promoter for hip hop in the
city. I used to get up in the morning and my
bedroom would be my office. The Concert
Hall at Yonge Street and Davenport Road
became my home.
› People like Maestro Fresh Wes and Michie
Mee were amongst the first wave of listeners

who were falling in love with rap and learning how to do it. They came down to my
show at CKLN and performed live, or they
hung around if they weren't performing. It
was a place where Torontonians who had
something in common could get a sense of
identity and confidence going forward. The
radio show made it all possible.

In high school (circa 1979), I set up a

makeshift radio station. The school
let me hook up speakers in the cafeteria
and wire them through a main operations
room - two turntables, a mixer and a microphone. I started programming and had people who were really cool play music before
and after school and at lunch. When I did
40

Ryerson University Magazine / Summer 2018

my interview with Ryerson, I think they
were really impressed.
› The very first day at Ryerson, before my
first class, I applied for a job at CKLN, the
campus radio station. That was as real as
it could be.
› I was very into the RTA course. I discovered editing with a razor blade and editing

outside America and I was such a young
enthusiastic radio host with my reel-to-reel
recorder and microphone. I remember they
were both just chillin' on the bed and I was
sitting on the floor and we had a talk for an
hour and it was such a beautiful conversation. At the end of it they gave me the best
compliment. They said that was the best
radio interview that they've ever had. That
still lingers to this day because you know
DMC are gods in this business.
› I was swept away by hip hop. I invested
in a recording studio for years. I made beats
for people every day from morning to night.
I went to New York, where I got to see a lot
of things, meet a lot of people, bring up a
lot of artists.
› I've never had a 9-to-5 job. My life changed
because of my passion for music and my
experience at Ryerson.

› I'm now the proprietor of www.Reggae
Mania.com and I'm active promoting Reg-

gae Sound Clash in Canada.
-As told to Colleen Mellor.

PHOTOGRAPH BY LEILAH DHORÉ

› My favourite memory was when I went to
interview Run-DMC. It was their first time


http://www.ReggaeMania.com http://www.ReggaeMania.com

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