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Jack Cullen:

Remembering radio’s irreverent rascal

Brandon Yip
OP Contributor

Vancouver has lost one of its radio greats;
Jack Cullen died April 27 of heart failure at
the age of 80. The long-time host of CKNW’s
The Owl Prowl, going to bed listening
to Jack Cullen became a nightly rit-
ual, as the music he played consist-
ed of big band jazz and pop. He had
a penchant for rum and loved to take
remote broadcasts to the extreme,
including a famous 1959 on-air seg-
ment on CKNW-where he swam
naked at the YMCA.

He was also renowned for bootleg-
ging concerts, recording perform-
ances given by Louis Armstrong,
Harry Belafonte, Frank Sinatra, and
the Beatles. He interviewed some of
the biggest names in show busi-
ness: Jack Benny, Nat King Cole,
Sammy Davis Jr., Bob Hope, and
Marilyn Monroe were among the
many. And his record collection was
astounding, having one of the
largest in North America.

John Francis Cullen was born and
raised in Vancouver on February 16,
1922. After graduating from King
Edward High School, he joined the
Royal Canadian Navy—becoming a
radio operator during the Second
World War. His broadcasting career
began at Vancouver's CKMO where
he hosted Pacific Patrol, which ran
from midnight to dawn. He eventual-
ly moved on to CKNW, where his
Owl Prowl show would become an
institution for five decades.

David Geddes, former programming
director for AM 1040 and who now is the
media consultant for TransLink, says Cullen
had a tremendous spirit. “Jack was brilliant.
He was a great guy, a true legend in his era.
It’s a terrible loss. He was one of those peo-
ple who loved life.” In October 1999, when
Geddes was still the programming director for
AM 1040, the station revived Cullen’s Owl
Prowl show-after he had been fired by
CKNW five months earlier. “Jack, of course,
never came into the studio,” Geddes said. “He
just supplied tapes to us. But eventually his
health became a problem.”

Norm Pringle, former CKDA disc jockey in

Victoria remembered Cullen’s eccentricity.
“The first time | met Jack was next door to
CKMO on Robson Street,” Pringle said. “He
was on CKNW (in New Westminster) at this
time and had a satellite studio in Vancouver.
The studio looked more like a junkyard for old
16 mm and 35 mm projectors. Tapes were

 

Jack Cullen

whirring everywhere. The projector was shin-
ing on a wall and Fred Astaire and Ginger
Rogers were singing and dancing and Jack
was dubbing off the music. Highly illegal, |
said.

“There was a bottle of Jack Daniels sitting
on the shelf. ‘Have a drink Norm, said Cullen,
as he was climbing out on the roof to give a
weather forecast. What a talent! What an orig-
inal, a pioneer in fun shock radio. Vancouver
will miss him?

| never did meet Jack Cullen, but | had the
fortunate opportunity to interview him over
the phone. In July 1999, | began writing a

manuscript about Elvis Presley. Two months
earlier, Cullen was let go by CKNW for budg-
etary reasons. However, he returned to the
airwaves later that fall, when his Owl Prowl
show appeared on AM 1040. On September
30, 1999, | called the station and left my
name with the receptionist, telling her | want-
ed to get in contact with Cullen. The
next day Cullen left me a message on
my voice mail. | was surprised that he
responded so quickly. | called Cullen
at his Burnaby home, told him | was
writing a book about Elvis and want-
ed him to share his thoughts about
the King.

Cullen told me that he was not an
Elvis fan, saying, “I don’t think | would
be of much help. But good luck to
you.” Our conversation ended. |
thought about what Cullen had said,
and then | called him back an hour
later. | said to him, “You told me that
you wouldn’t be of much help to me.
But | think you would be of great
help.” | explained to Cullen that his
dislike for Elvis would give a different
perspective to my manuscript. He
agreed and was nice enough to
answer some of my questions.

During our conversation, | asked
Cullen about his weekly record col-
umn he had written for The

Vancouver Sun in the 1950s. He was
impressed. “You remember that?
God, that was years ago! Good
research, very good research!” In
1955, Cullen played his first Elvis
record on the air. The song was
“Milkcow Blues Boogie”. Cullen hated
it. “When | played it, | said, ‘What kind
of garbage is this?’ and immediately
pulled the record off halfway through
the song.’

Cullen gave his reasons why he never
warmed up to Elvis and rock ‘n’ roll. “I’m more
into jazz, Ella Fitzgerald, Sarah Vaughn, and
Frank [Sinatra], and all that sort of stuff...
always resisted rock ‘n’ roll, all my life. All my
life, I've resisted it. It’s music built on percus-
sion, rather than melody, and it incited riots.
It’s still particularly these days [corrupt]; it’s a
violent form of music. | come from the old
school.”

In the 1950s, Cullen had his own record
store in Vancouver at 10 East Hastings at
Carrall and shared a memorable story about

 

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