ight Lines is_ billed “the late night weekend alternative” by the Ca- nadian _ Broadcasting Corporation and after 11 pm on Friday and 10 pm on Saturday till 5 am, it fills a void for people tired of top 40. e try to create a soundscape, a rounded experience,” says current host Ralph Benmurgui. “Pop culture happens all around us -- we can ghettoise it or accept it as a part of a continuum and pluck the important parts of our white noise. While Night Lines proper alternative format for those who are bored with conventional radio, it enables new or obscure bands to get the exposure they require. re on a potato farm. What do you call home?” asks Walt Ohamma of Ranier, Alberta as the first chords of his song ra- diate from the radio. oss Porter, the producer of - ight Lines, said he wants people to say “I can’t believe they did that” when they listen to the program. His goal‘is to achieve the 80’s equivalent of free format radio of a decade ago, when ra- dio was more than just back- ground music. hen Night Lines was creat- Wea in 1984, it was to fill the night time hole in CBC Stereo programming, to Bppeal to list- eners in their early 20’s and to be cheap, explains Ron Robinson, the original host. While it is dif- ficult to gauge the exact size of the present audience, a Broad- cast Bureau of Measurement (BBM) survey showed that 5 per cent of the Canadian population listens to the radio between mid- night and six. inding a balance between T new and established bands was their task and it was diffi- cult, said Robinson. “We played music with intelligence an promise and overlooked the technical problems.” inding the new music re- quired just as much effort as finding the balance. “It took two hours of work to put just one hour of Night Lines on the air,” Robinson explained. During the daylight hours of 9 to 5:30 they “- wrote music news, did research, interviews and_ listened to music, listened to music, listen- ed to music. It was a sifting pro- cess and we picked the best and most interesting.” any of their early leads came Merom the magazines New Music Express and Melody Maker. “Britain really is a place of fads and fashion,” says Robin- son. “What they go through in months, we struggle to keep up with.” hile Night Lines has the WV coaperation of major record companies and has a record li- brary of 5,000 and a growing col- lection of CD’s, Benmergui maintains that they’re not a “flack for record companies. We don’t play disc after disc.” t’s a lot harder to track down Line independent labels” (- those like Netwerk of British Co- lumbia and Green Fuse), the host says. In addition to finding bands wich play in Winnipeg's alternative venues of Verna’s, Wellington’s and Broadway’s, - Night Lines solicits material. e get tapes from people and those with the best chance are those who can afford to put together a disc. Bands must real- ize that music is a business, it just means you have to be organ- ized,” said Benmergui, once the lead in a 1960’s bar band in southern Ontario. M“c is getting the message across. You must think it through. The tension in art is be- tween expression and acces- |; Jsiblity. How much are you say- ing and how much are people listening?” ooking for gems in the chaff has paid off for the Night Lines staff, and for deserving Canadian Siberry. WwW: were on to her long before she got her 50 stop tour con- tract,” said Robinson. “She is on a different astral plane, like a stranger passing in the night ... we did three interviews with her. e were very happy that we Wraa been playing the music that Liz Tanta wrote about in her new music column in Music Express. We _ were always ahead.” etween the music and a few unusual contests, — inter- views are important Night Lines fare. Benmergui has in- terviewed people of the night, like strippers, but the majority of interviews are with band members. While many _inter- views are CBC studio hookups to Toronto, some are live and any- thing may happen. qechinson escribed two such unforgettable incidents. “Sugar Cane Harris was at the mike for an interview and I asked him to say hello to Canada and as if he were on stage, he shouted, “Hello Canada!” The technician with his hands on the (control) dials almost died.” pines time, Blues Gatemouth Brown, “who had been travelling for 24 hours, suffering from asthma, drink and who was almost out of it, hit the mike with his head and belched. I asked ‘is that a state- ment or a question?’ and went on. Seconds on air seem like an eternity if it is silent.” f the hours do bring out the crazies, the time slot has created more problems than are talent like Jane readily apparent. Robinson’s role was “to be there, be awake and stay happy. We did it on coffee - the only drug we took or were offered.” Toe late hour slot had one more drawback because - Brave New Waves with host Brent Brambury is_ broadcast Sunday to Thursday from CBC Montreal. This show is a forum for the ‘truly unusual,’ said Rob- inson and some listeners ex- pected Night Lines to copy the same style. Yet the composition of the audience is markedly dif- ferent on the weekends from the weekdays. “We’re not Brave New Waves. ‘Drone and Shout’ is strongest when it is be- tween ‘normal’ stuff. I’d never steal drama from a performer by Eats five such songs in a row. e played the Residents on Ralph records and had a lot of fun with that.” Te unique ability of both - Night Lines and Brave New Waves to cater to a particu- lar listening public comes from being part of CBC Radio which is entirely supported by taxes. This frees the CBC programs from the trap of commercialism. ife is not all roses being Lidependant on government financing. Benmergui says his “biggest frustration is the lack of money to promote the program. People don’t know we’re there.” noe other peeve is when people call up the answering machine and Say, “play this. What am I? A service industry?...but most people give art of themselves. I think its a air trade. Spark my imagina- tion, I'll spark yours.” ce 22: Music, voices, and more music. Says Benmergui: “We like to have just plain fun.”