BY DAVID DeROCCO

A display of genuine reverence for classic records and legendary rock stars has always been the mark of a great rock radio station – and a great rock jock.  Luckily for Niagara classic rock fans, those two elements have come together in the form of “Records and Rock Stars,” a brand new show on 91.7 GIANT-FM featuring none other than sonic storyteller Jeff Woods.

Once a mainstay on Toronto’s Q-107, Woods emerged nationally as Canada’s leading vintage rock authority by virtue of having created and hosted The Legends of Class Rock,  the incomparably compelling weekly radio program gracing rock radio airwaves for over 14 seasons.  With “Records and Rock Stars,” Woods returns to his role as aural archivist, bringing us the stories behind the greatest music in rock history and interviews with the rock stars who created it.

The new series takes its title from Woods' recently published book of the same name. It’s a natural fit for a classic rock station like GIANT-FM according to station program director Pete Morena.

“The first attraction was Jeff Woods, whose reputation precedes him,” said Morena, whose radio station was the first in Canada to broadcast the new series. “When I heard the demo it was a no brainer. GIANT FM programs classic rock. I’m always looking at different ways of presenting, in my opinion, the best music ever made. One way is to present the stories behind the music, which Jeff does amazingly with Records and Rock Stars.”

The fact Woods is launching a new series is the direct result of his unceremonious and unexpected departure from the airwaves, another  recent victim of the ongoing purging of quality broadcasters by Canada’s myopic media companies.  While the idea of publishing a book of his interviews and radio experiences had been suggested to him years earlier, it wasn’t until he left radio that Woods found the necessary time to deliver his memoir.

“When I parted ways from the corporation I had nothing but time; it was sort of a gift to have the time to write full time, so I did,” said Woods, who set up an office in Canmore, Alberta and spent six months enduring marathon dusk till dawn writing sessions in the shadows of Three Sisters Mountain Range. “I’d never written that intensely before, in the context of an actual book, so I learned a lot about writing. I was excited every day just to pour out my mind and my heart on the page. It just seemed every day I had reams and reams of stories and memories.”

Pouring over the tapes of interviews he’d conducted through the years proved both inspiring and poignant for Woods, who found himself reliving cherished conversations with recently departed rock legends.

“I always considered the David Bowie interviews I did in 2002-2003 as personal favourites of my career,” said Woods. “But imagine how poignant they did become as a result of his absence in January 2016, because I really started writing the Bowie chapter after that. It was heart wrenching to listen in detail to the things he had to say, in particular about his own mortality. He was sort of suggesting that he was trying to figure out if he could fit in all the things he wanted to do in his remaining  years on the earth. And that was previous to knowing he was ill. He hadn’t had any brushes with ill health at that point, his heart or subsequent cancer. But he was already thinking in those terms, how much time he had left to be a father to his then young daughter. So that really struck my heart.”

With the book project satiating his love for writing, Woods set his sights on satisfying his hunger as a broadcaster to get back on the air. Thankfully, easily-accessible technology existed that allowed him to circumvent the corporate machinery that had temporarily derailed his radio career.

“As I was putting the book out I thought ‘I want to be back behind the microphone too.’ I wanted to be able to repurpose some of the stuff that’s in the book, to let the world know there’s a book out. So how can I do that? Well podcasting is relatively inexpensive. You can do it from your home and you don’t need a network of radio stations. You just publish on iTunes which I did. So I started with the podcast with the intention of morphing it into a new radio series.”

Woods’ new series made its local debut on GIANT-FM in October, and as expected there is already  international interest in “Records and Rock Stars.” After signing a deal with Momentum Media out of Vancouver, Woods says there’s been talk of a U.S. syndication deal that could see the number of potential affiliates for the new program surpass the 17 he had when his former employer pulled the plug on The Legends of Classic Rock.

“I have hope and confidence because they’ve had lots of experience with syndication that they will be able to find more stations south of the border. And you know how life works in all sorts of artistic pursuits. Once the Americans take it the Canadians go, 'hey, wait a minute, that must be good.’ They’re less prone to jump at something Canadian unless someone in the U.S. tells them it’s good.”

With the success of the book and interest in his new series, it's life that's good once again for Woods, one of Canada’s most distinctive broadcasters thanks in part to his smooth charcoal-infused vocal  – a quality the long-time rock jock says was shaped by “smoking and alcohol and lack of sleep.”   With the time he has recently spent reliving endless  hours of rock star interviews, however, Woods says his fondest career memory still has less to do with rock legends and more to do with time spent at a legendary rock station.

 “The first thing that comes to mind was early 1988, just the feeling I  had  sitting on the 30^th floor of the Hudson Bay Tower at Yonge and Bloor, where “Q” was originally, sitting in the control room after dark, looking straight down Yonge Street through those tall thin windows. And it felt like a privilege, as a kid who had grown up with Toronto radio, Scruff Connors and Q107 and Bob Mackowycz, sitting in that chair, looking down Yonge in Toronto Canada. It just  felt like I had arrived where I wanted to be all through high school on my favourite radio station, playing records from the bands I so love and being able to tells stories about them. That’s my fondest memory.”

Hear “Records and Rock Stars” with host Jeff Woods Saturdays and Sundays at 6pm on 91.7 GIANT-FM. To purchase his book, visit http://jeffwoodsradio.bigcartel.com/product/jeff-woods-book.