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Best of Montreal Readers' Poll 2001
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Compiled by Mark Slutsky with assistance from Sharon Lax, Siobhàn O'Connor and Daniel Perlmutter
Late night hip hop hang-ups
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CKUT's Off the Hook clinches Best Radio Show
by SCOTT C
One listen to community radio in Montreal and you'll find countless examples of informative, worldly, yet uptight shows that you might have heard sitting in the back seat of the car on the way to piano lessons as a child.
But take another listen and maybe you'll find the fly-by-the-seat-of-their-pants antics of Pat Wreck (Pat Francis Guay) and Revolution (Orion Curiel, also in Shades of Culture) on their now award-winning hip hop show "Off the Hook," heard Wednesday night (Thursday morning) from 2-4a.m. on CKUT 90.3.
With a simple formula that involves taking the piss out of everything and anything that comes their way (balanced with a healthy dose of both new and old hip hop joints), the boys have somehow created a following of listeners who tune in week after week for the late night hilarity.
If anybody was surprised to hear that they had clinched Best Radio Show in this year's Best of Montreal poll, it was them. I spoke to the dynamic duo shortly after their Sunday-night poker game had come to a close.
Mirror: How long has the show been on the air, and has it always been the two of you?
Orion: It's been about three and a half years that we've been on the air, but Flow came onboard to answer the phones a little later on.
Pat: We took the show over from DJ Choice and D-Shade who were doing something called Hittin' Switches.
O: We kept it as Hittin' Switches for a little while when we were still getting pre-recorded tapes of music off of Choice, but when we changed the name to Off the Hook, I decided it was time to buy vinyl again.
M: How would you describe the direction of the show?
P: Basically I think a lot of people take hip hop too seriously, and we just try to bring some fun back to it. It was like one day we just came out of our shells on the air and people took to it.
O: The format of the show we took over was a lot more straightforward, and we just thought, it's already 3 in the morning, why make people more tired? We look around and we see DMX with fake blood and crazy chains and the motorcycles and it's hilarious, and we're not afraid to look at it like that. We're not afraid to dis who we don't like.
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Best radio show
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1. Off the Hook (CKUT)
2. André and Nat (MIX 96)
3. Rage with Claude Rajotte (CHOM)
4. Aaron and Tasso (Q92)
5. Steve and Andrew (CHOM)
Honourable mentions: After Hours (CBC) * Anti-Dedication Show (BUZZ) * Brave New Waves (CBC) * C'est bien meilleur le matin (CBF) * Club Mix with MC Mario (mix 96) * Daybreak with Dave Bronstetter (CBC) * Electric Lunch Hour (CHOM) * Folk Roots, Folk Branches (CKUT) * Howard Stern * Jazz Euphorium (CKUT) * Joe Schwartz (CJAD) * K103 all-request hour * K103 Street Sounds * Laurie & Olga (CJAD) * Dobbin's Den (CKUT) * Les Mouches noires (CISM) * Les Soupers du roy (CIME) * Metal Militia (CJLO) * Metal Nation (CISM) * Love Line (Mix 96) * Primetime (CKUT) * Radio Escapade (CBC) * Religious shows on Radio Ville-Marie * Sports Rap (CFMB) * Super Smallies (CIXS) * Sweet-ting.com (CKUT) * The unflappable Andy Kaye * Underground (98.5) * XX Files (CKUT)
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Best radio host
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1. Claude Rajotte (CHOM)
2. Tommy Schnurmacher (CJAD)
3. Steve Anthony (CHOM)
4. Mitch Melnick (CJAD)
Honourable mentions: Aaron and Tasso * André and Nat * Andy Williams * Any Montreal CBC announcer * Dave Fisher * DJ Hybrid * DJ Rev * Eramelinda Boquer * Franco Nuovo * Francois Morenzie * Howard Stern * John Moore * Len Dobbin * Peter Anthony Holder * Robert Vairo * Ted Tevan * Terry DiMonte * The folks at the Buzz * Too Tall * There aren't any
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P: People need to be dissed.
M: Speaking of dissing people you don't like, tell me about the on-air freestyle portion of the show.
P: That came about one day when D-Shade called us and said, "Yo, run an instrumental..." and then after that we just decided to take a half-hour of the show for freestyle call-ins. After about a month it was this infamous thing.
M: Any notable people call in that you can name off the top of your head?
P: Because it's on the internet (ckut.ca) we get calls from Banff, Sweden, Germany--
O: D-Shade calls every week. Manchilde, R-Kade. Sun Shan from CatBurglaz used to call in and rap quietly because he was living with his parents. New-C gets an honourable mention because he calls in with his own beats and sound effects which include machine guns, screaming people, fire, cars screeching to a stop and so on. He's this 16- year-old Portuguese kid from Montreal North.
M: I know there's cats out there who don't feel they get a fair shake on the air.
P: People have to understand that if you suck, we're gonna hang up on you.
O: Those kids on the Rant Line were complaining that they got cut off after six bars...
P: They were lucky to get six bars.
O: We were happy that they said that because it became our motto: if you can't handle six bars, you're gone. And if you're really, really bad we'll let you do a whole verse, 'cuz that's just funny. We don't hurt peoples feelings. We don't say, "You suck," and them hang up on them--we just hang up.*
Off The Hook can be heard Wednesday night from 2a.m.-4a.m. on CKUT 90.3 or at www.ckut.ca,
e-mail: offthehook@hiphopsite.com
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