Ken Gibson
In 1955 Ken Gibson emigrated from England to Canada. He joined CBC TV in Vancouver in ‘61, progressing from Props Specialist to Production Assistant to Producer/Director in Variety programming in ‘67 when he was assigned to the weekly pop music series LET’S GO which was retitled WHERE IT’S AT a year later. When the series ended in ’69, nearly 100 new young B.C. singers and groups had been given a chance to perform for national audiences.
In ‘68 Ken introduced Terry David Mulligan as host of the series HITS-A-POPPIN’(they worked on 4 series altogether), and in ‘71 a group called THE IRISH ROVERS. The Rovers were contracted for 7 half hour shows but the phenomenal ratings made them overnight household names and they continued with Ken producing several series and 11 Specials taped in studios, on location across Canada and in Ireland, the UK and New Zealand for the next 18 years, picking up a Nellie (Genie) Award and beating Hockey Night in Canada’s ratings along the way. Ken was now a freelance Producer/Writer. From 1973 to ’76 he produced IT’S A MUSICAL WORLD with host Tommy Common. His Remembrance Day ‘76 Super Special LET US REMEMBER with the Rovers and Vera Lynn was CBC’s entry at the Montreux Festival. In ’76 & ’77 Ken worked with Red Robinson on the game show series TRIVIA.
In 1978/79 disco was in and THE RAES was his next popular hit. In ’83 Ken introduced a talent search concept which he titled FAME GAME in which 4 media panellists (chosen weekly from personal managers, disc jockeys, club owners, critics, record producers) judged new performers. That segued in ’85 to the ROCK WARS series. In ‘83 CBC asked Ken for a video series (one of the first) and GOOD ROCKIN’ TONITE with Terry David Mulligan was conceived. That ran for 10 years and over 500 shows on national TV. When Terry left for Muchmusic in ’85, guest hosts Bruce Allen, David Foster, Anne Murray and Loverboy filled in till Stu Jeffries took over. In 1987 CTV (now Global) and The Canadian Country Music Assn. contracted Ken to create THE CANADIAN COUNTRY MUSIC AWARDS and he produced the first 7 Specials which were major critical and ratings winners. Among his many other Specials were CHRISTMAS WITH JULIETTE (’76), EASTER IN ISRAEL (’77) with Tommy Common, ONCE UPON AN EVENING (’77) with Shari Lewis, ALL MY BEST (’77) with Roger Whittaker, WALT DISNEY WORLD SALUTES CANADA (’78) with Rene Simard, CARROLL BAKER IN NASHVILLE (’81), ROCKY MOUNTAIN CHRISTMAS (’84) with Frank Mills, NEW FACES (’89) with David Foster, and HAPPY BIRTHDAY, CANADA! (‘92) with Alan Thicke. He retired 30 years later in ’97 following 2 years of the DU MAURIER CONCERT STAGE series with host John McDermott.
Ken credits his artistic and commercial success to knowing his audience and being supported by incredibly talented and dedicated performers, production, technical and design crews.
