Danny Finkleman

Danny Finkleman
Born	1942 (age 68–69) Winnipeg, Manitoba
Occupation	Journalist, radio personality

Danny Finkleman (born 1942 in Winnipeg, Manitoba) is a Canadian journalist and radio host, best known for his work on CBC Radio.^[1][2] He was host of Finkleman's 45s from 1985 until 2005, when he retired from CBC.

Finkleman began working at CBC in 1967 after completing a degree in law at the University of Manitoba. He hosted a show called Danny Finkleman's Saturday Morning Show from 1972 to 1979. He also worked for This Country in the Morning,^[3] preparing three seven-minute segments a week.

He was probably best known for Finkleman's 45s.^[4] The show played music from the 1950s, 60s, and early 70s and was noted for Danny's rants about the modern world, including topics such as modern music and computers. Finkleman was generally opposed to both. In general the show was quite informal. The show's playlist was noted for its fairly wide selection of music from the period. Danny often played less famous songs than commercial "oldies" shows were able to. Favourite groups included the Shirelles, the Diamonds, Patti Labelle, the Four Preps, the Box Tops, Gladys Knight and the Pips, Georgie Fame and the True Blues, The Crew-Cuts, Paul Anka, Otis Redding and Dusty Springfield. Finkleman disliked the Rolling Stones and partly blamed them, among many others, for the decline of music in the 1970s. According to Finkleman, the shows title was loosely based on the name of Gilmour's Albums, a popular variety show on CBC at the time Finkleman's show was conceived.

One of Finkleman's central ideas was that the politicization of music in the mid-1970s ruined music, making it "mean spirited", "pretentious" and "ugly". Among other bands that took a turn for the worse, according to Finkleman, were the Beatles. He thinks that the Beatles lost their touch after Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band, and the Beach Boys after Good Vibrations. Another feature of Danny's character on the show was his opposition to e-mail. He never accepted e-mail for the show because he said it was too distracting and was too much work.

Finkleman retired from CBC radio in June, 2005 and the show ended with him. Since 1993 Finkleman had worked only part-time at the CBC; he was also a stockbroker at Canaccord Capital in Toronto. His brother, Ken Finkleman, is also a well known Canadian media personality.

Danny’s rants duly recorded from his CBC program "Finkleman's 45s"

• With new technology it’s 17 key strokes for a Snapple. In the old days it was 3 strokes: 1-8-7.
• If the telephone was just invented it would be promoted as your new “business communication solution.”
• Look it’s snowing outside (as an antidote to the media hysteria about a simple snowstorm).
• Some guy using a debit card to buy a box of Glossettes. Debit cards should be banned for purchases under $20. Automatic tellers are everywhere. Toronto (Ottawa) is not a tough town. Take a chance and carry some money with you.
• Left-wingers should find out what it’s like to make a payroll.
• Only 3% of the fibre-optic cable they are digging up our roads for is being used.
• We don’t need answering machines. If we don’t answer the phone they can call back. No big deal.
• The ridiculous advertisement about the watch that kept time to the millionth of a second because you wouldn’t want to be late for an appointment.
• People got their clothes stained by leaning on a freshly painted table in a boardroom because an office worker wasn’t keeping his email application up-to-date. Simply use a “Wet Paint” sign (that was really hilarious!).
• Most computers are just expensive whiteout.
• Your children will be failures if you don’t have high-speed Internet access - hogwash.
• It costs $4,000 for a treadmill? Go for a walk!
• What is a 20-year-old woman with tattoos all over their neck going to look like at 50?
• My computer is a $2,000 paper dispenser.
• A good whack on the rear end is the best “child psychology.”
• The Bay’s “Shopping is good” ad. Is that’s what’s good now? Shopping? Not honesty, loyalty, or love, etc?
• Completely inaccurate weather forecasts even with satellite pictures.
• Polyester is now called micro-fibre.
• People saying, “Have a nice weekend.” on Tuesday.
• Keeping up with the 46 teams NHL is a full time job.
• The plot of most movies these days is dynamite.
• “Now ~ Joshua!” with that weird tone. Talk you kids like they are human beings.
• Lazy-boy therapy (I’ve tried it and it works). I love to pull that handle back.
• When I was a kid 300 hundred kids could go to a theatre, unaccompanied by adults and it was okay.
• Bicycle helmets for kids riding tricycles in their driveways.
• Closing kitchen cabinet doors is genetic.
• The resurgence of pick-up and ball hockey as a re-action against organized structured sports.
• In my house every day is laundry day. There is not enough water in the Ottawa River to wash my “environmentally concerned” kid’s clothes.
• Office workers wearing cut off jeans to work.
• Before email life was much more civil.
• What is an administrative assistant? A secretary?
• We managed before all this digital technology.
• There are no bums or hobos any more. Nowadays we have the “homeless”.
• Body cleansing gel! Is that liquid soap?
• The more the complicated the technology, the more that can go wrong.
• It’s 22o but with the humidity it feels more like 28o. It’s -5o but with the wind chill it feels more like -20o. They always want to make the weather feel worse than it is to create anxiety. Just give us the temperature please.
• Bread makers, choppers, ice cream machines are the new Cuisine-arts. You can now buy them on EBay for -$8.00 (that’s minus $8). You give people $8 to take it away. Just clutter.
• Everyone nowadays has a telephone plan, a cable plan, or a checking plan. Just give me a phone.
• No one solves problems anymore. They provide solutions. Does Loblaws provide hunger and thirst solutions?
• Use of the word menu on computer applications has changed and distorted the meaning of the word. The word menu used to have a good connotation. It was used in restaurants to select your favourite food. Now it’s used for complicated telephone push button selections and annoying computer applications.
• Fishers not fishermen. People in Newfoundland and New Brunswick have never used the word fishers. But we don’t want to offend anyone. Danny Finkleperson. Sony Walkperson.
• New SUVs have $2,000 geo-location satellite devices on board that no one knows how to use. Get a $2 map from Canadian Tire.
• He (a golfer) is having issues with his putter. Issues with his son sure but not with his putter surely.
• The New Democratic Party changed from the CCF 50 years ago. Shouldn’t the “New” be dropped? For example, the group “The Young Rascals” changed their name to “The Rascals” after only a few years.
• Tim Horton’s steeped tea is just a bag. The difference between a medium and a large is $.40 so they are charging you $.40 for warm water. Just leave the bag in longer.
• Everyone gives Gift Certificates these days. How about the universal gift certificate, CASH!
• Those ridiculous laser levels for $50 will end up as clutter. Use a $2 bubble or just eyeball your picture. How often do you put up cabinets up on your wall to justify a $50 purchase?
• People are waiting for High Definition (HD) Television to come down in price before they buy one. It is $2,000 now but it will soon be $900. I’m waiting for them to give me money to buy one.
• The news media are in the business of creating anxiety so you will keep watching so they can deliver you to advertisers.
• I have a “Palm Pilot.” I take a pen and write on the palm of my hand.
• The Greatest Canadian television show should really be called The Most Popular Canadian.
• School kids on a bus using incredibly foul language but what if someone was to light up a cigarette? All hell would break loose. That’s terrible put it out!
• A brisk 30-minute walk a day takes care all of your cardiovascular needs but no one promotes it. Why? Because there is no money in it – there is no gear that can be sold. It’s the same with Ultimate Frisbee – no equipment is needed.
• Get the defibrillator out! (When mentioning something really stupid people do.)
• The “Olympic community?” Is a weightlifter from Poland in the same community as a tennis table player from Peru?
• You can’t get through to people or executives by phone nowadays. It’s like Fort Knox. You are either in the service business or not.
• 7-Grain bread? Can you name seven grains? 12-Grains? You’ll have to go Indonesia for that.
• 90% of people who get tattoos regret it.
• There are 364 colours of paint at Canadian Tire. Do we really have to have that many? Doesn’t it just create anxiety in the consumer? Too much choice.
• Ban the slap shot from hockey. It’s random and you can’t see it.
• Flying to Halifax on West Jet, Danny heard the following: “The plane will be flown by Captain Bob and his assistant Dave.” It’s too familiar. It’s not friendly, it’s familiar. Getting on the plane they said, “Have a good trip Dan.” I’m 65 and they are 27.
• Guests are to board at Gate 7. Guests? Guests are invited – I paid $400 for this trip.
• Body Spray from Old Spice. Hmmm. Isn’t that perfume? Wear this stuff and you will have to fight off the girls. Even if you are obnoxious?
• In a restaurant servers say, “Have a great dinner.” Well that’s up to the cook if I have a great dinner or not isn’t it? Not me. If the food is great I’ll have a great dinner.
• Eating a $70 meal at a restaurant gives me indigestion. I can’t enjoy the food because it cost too much.
• When I was a kid and got into trouble at school the teacher and my parents were both on the same side. These days parents side with their kids. “My kid has riiiights!”
• Q. Will you sponsor me $1 a kilometre for an upcoming 10K race? A. No but I’ll give you $10 if you do something useful like mowing my lawn.

References

1. ^ "(article title unclear)". Bulletin - Entomological Society of Canada (Entomological Society of Canada) 35-36: 129. 2003. http://books.google.com/books?id=EsrzAAAAMAAJ&q=%22Danny+Finkleman%22&dq=%22Danny+Finkleman%22&hl=en&ei=McQ1TYn0NJC4sAP25-nZBQ&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=9&ved=0CEsQ6AEwCA. Retrieved 18 January 2011. 
2. ^ Craig MacInnis (21 October 1987). "Ambrose, Finkleman prove one critic wrong". Toronto Star: p. D2. http://pqasb.pqarchiver.com/thestar/access/473122201.html?FMT=ABS&FMTS=ABS:FT&type=current&date=Oct+21,+1987&author=Craig+MacInnis+Toronto+Star&pub=Toronto+Star&desc=Ambrose,+Finkleman+prove+one+critic+wrong&pqatl=google. Retrieved 18 January 2011. 
3. ^ Gzowski, Peter (1987). The new Morningside papers (Reprint. ed.). Toronto: McClelland and Stewart. p. 26. ISBN 9780771037450. http://books.google.com/books?id=RhjraJJ7Q_sC&q=%22Danny+Finkleman%22&dq=%22Danny+Finkleman%22&hl=en&ei=LMU1Tb_eAYnCsAPqiNXaBQ&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=1&ved=0CCUQ6AEwADgK. Retrieved 18 January 2011. 
4. ^ Heberlein, L. A. (2002). The Rough guide to internet radio. London: Rough Guides. pp. 87. ISBN 9781858289618. http://books.google.com/books?id=5zV2XWD8q5sC&pg=PA87&dq=%22Danny+Finkleman%22&hl=en&ei=McQ1TYn0NJC4sAP25-nZBQ&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=8&ved=0CEYQ6AEwBw#v=onepage&q=%22Danny%20Finkleman%22&f=false. Retrieved 18 January 2011. 

External Links

• Archive of Finkleman's 45s page

Persondata
Name	Finkleman, Danny
Alternative names
Short description
Date of birth	1942
Place of birth	Winnipeg, Manitoba
Date of death
Place of death