Jeff Woods and his new book Radio Records & Rockstars

Jeff Woods, who has long been the voice of classic rock in Canada, has released a brand new book called Radio, Records, & Rockstars.

I had the pleasure of working with Jeff at 100.3 The Bear in Edmonton in 1994 for about eight or nine months. We also worked at Corus Entertainment for a number of years; albeit in different provinces so we would only see one another occasionally.

I am a big fan of his interviews, probably because he taught me how to do an interview with artists. So it felt odd preparing for an interview with someone who taught me how to prepare for interviews.

Jeff and I had dinner last September when he was riding his motorcycle across Canada and setting off to write his book. It was one of those great meals you have catching up and owning luggage and then ordering another bottle of wine so you can tell an even nuttier story.

The book contains enough for both classic rock aficionados and those who acquired their taste for it through the radio. Jeff pulls no punches on summarizing the current state of media today:

Maybe you’ve noticed, too: the sound-bite culture, reinforced by early evening so-called entertainment television, focused mostly on what’s “coming up,” when the answer to that is “not very much of anything.” The keepers of the keys of too many traditional media outlets, including radio and television, have in their overly corporatized culture become curators of insignificance. The mandate seems to be hell-bent on little beyond scratching the surface, intended to be inoffensive but titillating enough to keep you around to hear more advertisements necessary to keep the idiot box or the jukebox that radio has become chugging along."

Jeff has a podcast on iTunes.

His website can be found here.

Buy the Book here. (The Book is nearly sold out)

Jeff has found his way back to Toronto and I spoke with him about the efforts that go into compiling a book, interviewing rock stars and the future of radio.