Christopher Ward was one of the first Much Music VJ's. His new book is called Is This Live? Inside the Wild Early Years of Much Music: The Nation's Music Station. There's a lot we forgot or don't know about the station's early years. Partly because not everyone had the channel for the first few years; it was not apart of the basic cable package until 1987. That led to some lean years budget wise. And this is where the genius of programming head John Martin came in: He hired creative types who knew how to fill a blank canvas. Enter Christopher Ward. You can learn a lot from the past. Being challenged by a budget can always be overcome by hiring creative people who can fill the space. Other things I learned: The first female VJ was Catherine McClanahan, (not Erica Ehm) that I once wrote to MuchMusic and complained, and how often Christopher's friend Mike Meyers would appear on the station. Christopher left for reasons that were all too obvious; writing and producing Alannah Myles' number one song in 1989, "Black Velvet". He told me about the joys of having a number one song on his resume.

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