I'm delighted to help promote Keith Martin's new TV show "Million Dollar Collections." As publisher of Sports Car Market and American Car Collector, Martin knows the classics and will be taking viewers inside the car collections of personal museums, curators and owners to tell the tales of how and why they did it.
The series premiere on Monday, Feb 20, uncovers the magical Milhous Collection in Boca Raton, Florida - the result of 50 years of dedicated collecting by brothers Bob & Paul Milhous. Regarded as one of the world's finest private museums, the collection boasts an unprecedented series of rare automobiles, exquisite mechanical musical instruments and collectibles, including a custom carousel. All of which will be up for auction on Feb 24-25.
This allows me to boast a little of my own background with cars and broadcasting, which predates anything on the air today. If I hadn't been having so much fun I might even be jealous of Keith's new venture. Most of it took place in Canada, by the way, so when I say "first" it applies to my country but quite probably included the USA.
As a young radio announcer in the 50s I produced the first broadcast test drive, a Studebaker Starlight coupe that I tossed around the temporarily closed runways of Timmins Ontario's airport with the agreement of a fascinated airport manager. This led to hosting "Revving Up" for the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation, the first weekly radio show about motorsport. And from that I became host of "Wheelspin," North America's first weekly automotive television show. One of Wheelspin's features was the interviewing of of classic collectors, but where Keith will be visiting the collections, the collectors came to us.
I was also the action announcer for the first live telecast of a motor race in Canada (from Mosport). I announced the Canadian Grand Prix at Mosport for the CBC, and did the first radio play-by-play of the Sebring 12-hours, also for the CBC. According to the station manager the race action outdrew an NHL hockey game, which is quite extraordinary for Canada. The CBC's Bob McGegor and I also covered the Indy 500 and the Shell 4000 (Trans Canada) Rally from Montreal to Vancouver.
There was more, including my own class-championship sedan racing, but before I could turn these efforts into a lifetime career I executed a four-wheel-drift as an ad agency copywriter, and later creative director, in New York, London, and Toronto. Years later I was back into radio with Tales of the Open Road, 60-second spots that were half automotive history and half dealer promos. And now I'm an Internet guy, happily producing Marque1.com. Behind that lies more than 50 years of automotive media history.
My only regret is that Keith's Velocity show may not appear on our Vancouver cable outlet. Described as "an upscale male lifestyle network" Velocity is part of the Discovery group and while we do get the latter, its programming is selective. But I do recommend it to you and as for Keith Martin... "congratulations, Keith, but I was there first." Though as my ex-wife used to remind me, "that and 25 cents won't get you a cup of coffee."