Alan Cross: His ongoing history

Being on the radio offers a certain mystique. The listener is left to build a face that they believe is an appropriate anatomy to be able to project this distinctively faceless voice onto the airwaves.

Now for a self-proclaimed “Music-Geek”, the first time I saw a picture of Ongoing History of New Music's Alan Cross, I was dumbfounded. He's just a regular guy? There was nothing extra ordinary about this extraordinary story teller. I didn't understand the normalcy of someone that I had elevated onto this giant pedestal.

Cross will be at Fanshawe College March 28 to share his vast knowledge and endless stories about musicians, mp3s, mishaps, mysteries, the modern day music industry and obviously much, much, more. It will be a treat to sit and listen to one of the best radio personalities out of the Great White North, in person instead of via crappy speakers.

Through photographs, spots on entertainment shows and having his own show online, it appears Cross has a completely normal, human size head. Unfortunately I had him on the phone rather than in person so I could not take a closer inspection for USB outlets or a direct hard drive hook up to his brain, because really, where does he put all that knowledge?

“The cool thing is that anybody could sort of do what I do if it was their job. I mean, it's what I do probably about 50 or 60 hours a week. So when your job is finding out this stuff and writing about it and broadcasting about it, it becomes a whole lot easier. In all honesty the moment I write stuff down I forget most of it because there is only a finite amount of space up there,” Cross modestly admitted.

But I don't buy it. Modest indeed, but there has to be a secret immortal power this man posses. If Harry Potter can be a wizard there has to be some sort of sorcery to Alan Cross! Nonetheless the humbleness of the music geek began in Winnipeg. A little town called Stonewall to be exact. Beginning his radio career while attending the University of Winnipeg, Cross would move on to numerous stations in Manitoba before ending up at Winnipeg's former CHIQ. In 1986 he would make the big move to Toronto to begin his career at CFNY, now 102.1 The Edge.

When did this obsession with Music start?
“There were two main things that happened. First, my grandmother gave me a transistor radio for my sixth birthday. That was a big deal because all of a sudden I was exposed to all these voices and this music that came from somewhere. Then about seven or eight years, my uncle worked for the Manitoba Telephone System and on the side he serviced jukeboxes. He had just come back from changing all the records on all the jukeboxes on his run. These records were kind of worn, so they couldn't go anywhere, they couldn't use anything, so he gave them all to me. And that became the start of my record collection.”

When did you start to realize you had this storytelling ability?
I didn't realize it, it was actually thrust upon me. There was a change of management at the radiostation I was working at. They needed some body to tell some stories about this new music which was called “grunge”. They thought that if they had some body that could put everything into context and perspective they might get higher ratings and more listeners. So they looked around and found one guy with a history degree and that was me. That was 1993.

What does the “On Going History Of Music” mean to you?
It's actually has come to pretty much identify who I am and what I do. I can't imagine not doing the program anymore. It's become something that I think about every single day, because I'm always looking for something new to talk about. I'm always looking for new stories, I'm looking for new facts, I'm looking for new anecdotes, new angles on things. So it has become my reason for existence for better or for worse.

Now, what was the catalyst for your new show, “Explore Music”?
It's sort of like the polar opposite of ‘Ongoing History.' ‘Ongoing History.' is all about the stuff from the past and trying to put everything in perspective so we can understand the future. ‘Explore Music' is all about now and the future, now and what's next. Most people under the age of 30 are going to the internet to find out new music or music that is new to them. We want to be able to play in that particular space, we want to be able to help you understand all of the stuff that is out there, so you can use us for a jumping off point for something else. We don't pretend to be experts. A lot of people spend a lot of their days walking around with an i-Pod and ear buds jammed in their head. They completely seal themselves off from anything they find disagreeable. They live in their own little bubble. Breaking through that bubble is very important.

What is the role of a rock journalist today?
That's a really tough one. The music journalist is changing. Because it used to be there were three types of journalist. Number one, there was the guy who wrote for print. Then there was the radio journalist. Then there was the VJ, some body who was associated with the video channel. Now with the rise of the internet there are all these different platforms. The journalist can't really afford to specialize in just one medium.

Continued next week.