Ten months after RPM started,
the magazine announced a yearly poll to pick the top
artists and the best in the industry, and publish the
results every December. The poll results appeared each
year in RPM.
Stan Klees presented Walt Grealis with the idea of an
annual RPM award event which would give the winners
of the poll a memento of the poll. Klees suggested the
name The Annual RPM Gold Leaf Awards and hoped that
some day the awards could have a four- or five-letter
nickname.
The first awards presentation was held in 1970 at Toronto's
St. Lawrence Hall. Invited were 125 people but 250 showed
up: the music industry was not accustomed to holding
social events and even more unaccustomed to being treated
to free drinks and food. The food was all gone in 20
minutes and the bar went dry in half an hour.
Klees had designed
an 18-inch high stretched metronome in solid walnut.
It was very impressive. The first recipient was country
vocalist Dianne Leigh. Klees has always referred to
the awards as “building a star system in Canada”.
Later in l970, RPM held a contest asking readers to
suggest a nickname. Klees said he hoped someone would
suggest “Juno” because he would like the
award to be named after Pierre Juneau. (Juneau, who
had headed the Canadian Radio-Television and Telecommunications
Commission – CRTC – was much respected in
the industry for pushing the introduction of regulations
requiring radio stations to air Canadian content.) Hal
Phillips did send in the name Juneau and agreed to a
spelling change and the awards became the Juno Awards
in 1970.
In 1974, a faction of the industry looked at the success
of the Junos and attempted to start a new award show
called the Maple Music Awards based strictly on sales.
Stan and Walt supporters rallied around the duo and
the Maple Music Awards were dropped.
In l975 the Junos went to television with CBC telecasting
the show from the Queen Elizabeth Theatre with host
Paul Anka. The show didn't succeed with the daily papers,
whose critics deemed it lifeless and mediocre, with
performers lip-synching. The media critics also raised
questions about the nomination process. The critics
felt the nominations should reflect performers’
talent and performing ability and not their popularity
as recording artists.
To address the complaints, Stan and Walt helped the
industry form the Canadian Music Awards Association
to act as advisors to the Junos. But in 1977 the group
took over the Junos and the name on the front of the
award became Juno Award (the nickname). Stan and Walt
insisted the group be renamed the Canadian Academy of
Recording Arts and Sciences.
Legendary Canadian
artist Anne Murray paid
tribute to Walt at the 2004 Juno Awards, held
just weeks after his death.
Photo courtesy CARAS.
Today,
the Junos are big business and considered by many
to be the most successful non-sporting event on
Canadian television. In 2004, the Junos paid tribute
to Walt Grealis, who had passed away January 20
at the age of 74, by honouring him posthumously
with the Walt Grealis Special Achievement Award.
The Canadian Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences,
which named Grealis as this year’s recipient,
said in a media release that, “The prestigious
award – named after Grealis in recognition
of his extraordinary accomplishments – recognizes
individuals who have contributed to the growth and
development of the Canadian music industry.”
Previous recipients include Chum’s driving
force Allan Waters, promoter Michael Cohl, Rompin’
Ronnie Hawkins and Sam (The Record Man) Sniderman.
Afterword: Of course,
Grealis and Klees both had a hand in developing awards
and a separate association for the country music sector.
In fact, Stan Klees was inducted into the Canadian Country
Music Hall of Fame in 1995. But that’s another
story, some of which is discussed on this site and much
more on the LAC site.
