The Early Years

Hi, I'm Steve Cutway and I invite you to join me for The Early Years, Wednesday at 4 PM Eastern North America time, or on the replay, Friday at 7 AM Eastern North America time, where and when you'll hear the best music from the first quarter century of Rock with occasional nods to other decades and genres.
What is The Early Years? To paraphrase Harry Chapin using the tune of his 1974 hit, "W.O.L.D.":
"I am the oldest fun guy on Mushroom FM dot Com,
Playing all my songs for you from long ago that's gone;
My warm inviting voice that's heard but never seen,
Feeling all of 75, going on 15."
Everyone likes the music they grew up with best and I am no exception. Born in Kingston, Ontario, Canada, a city at the confluence of Lake Ontario and the St. Lawrence river, I grew up listening to the huge music transformation in the 50s and 60s. This era saw the move from the big bands through the smaller combos to the start of rock, the payola scandal, the popularization of the blues, the folk-rock era, and the impact of the Beatles and the British Invasion. An advantage of my location was the ability to listen to a variety of radio stations from both the US and Canada.
From a very young age, the only thing I wanted to be was a broadcaster, a dream of a blind kid that was not supported by many friends and family. But there were two broadcasters who believed in me and I owe them more for their mentorship than I can ever repay. First was the late John McFadyen, whom I met in 1966 when he was an announcer at CKPC radio in Brantford, where I was attending school at the Ontario school for the Blind, now the W. Ross MacDonald School. Every Sunday afternoon during my grade 12 year, John's wife, Audrey, would pick me up at the school and drive me to the station where I would sit with him in the control room for most of his 5-hour show. As luck would have it, our paths would cross again later when he became a news man at CKWS Radio and Television here in Kingston.
I started as a volunteer on-air announcer at CFRC and CFRC-FM, the Queen's University radio stations in Kingston in the Fall of 1968. CFRC is the world's oldest continuously broadcasting campus/community radio station that celebrated its 100th anniversary October 7, 2022. My second mentor was then Station Manager, Andrew Marshall.
I did formats from Album Rock to Classical music and almost everything in between. Working in radio in Canada in the early 70s was exciting with the introduction of the Canadian Content regulations which provided a huge step up for Canadian artists' presence around the world. I continued my volunteer on-air work until 1974 when I became station manager replacing Andrew Marshall, which position I held until December 1989 when I left radio for an IT career which I enjoyed until my retirement in 2008.
When I left CFRC, I never dreamed I'd return to broadcasting 27 years later; but the siren beckoned and on July 4, 2016 at 5 PM, I debuted on Mushroom Fm with a daily hour-long show called Lost in the 50s. Three months later, I moved to Sunday at 6 PM with my weekly 2-hour show, The Early Years. I moved to Saturday at 6 PM June 1, 2019 and to the 5 PM slot in February 2020 until jamuary 25 of this year when I had to stop broadcasting for health reasons. But I'm back now Wednesday afternoon at 4 PM with a replay Friday morning at 7 AM.
Over the past eight years, The Early Years has evolved from a general music show of 50s and 60s music to a show playing the music of the four decades that Mushroom FM typically plays, based on themes that I've developed or have been suggested by listeners, such as artist profiles, chart countdowns, and songs about almost anything imaginable: birthdays and anniversaries; fools; friends and friendship; hockey; jaw-dropping; mining and minerals; pleasant places; radio; relations and relationships; time; and version comparisons. You'll never know what theme I might come up with next.
You can contact me any time by email at steve at mushroomfm.com with comments about the show and suggestions for future shows. (Replace 'at' with the 'at-sign' when writing the email address).
To my longtime listeners, thanks for listening. to new listeners, welcome aboard. I hope you'll make The Early Years part of your radio listening week.
Chat GPT describes the accompanying photo:
"This image shows a person in what appears to be a radio studio or broadcasting setup. They are sitting at a desk with a professional microphone mounted on an adjustable arm stand. The person is wearing a black jacket or sweater with red and yellow stripes on the sleeve. They appear to be bald and have a short grey beard. On the desk, there's a computer keyboard visible, and in the background, you can see some office equipment and wooden shelving. The setting looks professional but comfortable, typical of a radio station or podcast studio environment."