Of Mikes and Me 1940-'64: Stories from the Broadcast Life and Times of Lew Short

Dean Tudor is a journalism professor at the Ryerson Polytechnical
Institute and founding editor of the CBRA.

Here are some reminiscences of a long radio career in announcing,
newscasting, and deejaying work. It begins in 1940, when Short was only
10 years old, and abruptly finishes in 1964, when he left the business
forever to become (eventually) a highly successful financier.

The value of the book lies in its anecdotal character. Along the way we
are introduced to hundreds of well-known personalities and treated to
descriptions of radio (and then television) stations and equipment, the
politics of the moment (such as the payola scandals of the late 1950s),
transcription services, musicians and big bands, logbooks, remotes, and
engineering skills. Short had an army career in telecommunications in
Greenland, Korea, and Antarctica. This all culminated with a major NBC
jazz show in the mid-1950s and a subsequent return to Canadian radio
(CFPL in London, Ontario) and television.

There are some unfortunate spelling errors (e.g., “Autrey” for
[Gene] Autry, “discrete” for discreet, and “payolla” for payola)
and some inaccuracies (e.g., Bluebird was not RCA’s Canadian version;
it was a whole American series on blues and jazz).