Alan Cross Autobiography

Written Exclusive for The Beat Goes On by Alan Cross

The most common question I get is, "How did you get your job?” The answer is: "I have no idea. It just kind of...happened when I wasn't paying attention."

I blame it on my grandmother and an uncle. For my sixth birthday, Grandma gave me a transistor radio. A few years later, Uncle Nick--who moonlighted servicing jukeboxes--dumped a big box of 7-inch singles on me. That formed the foundations of my music collection. (I still have some of those singles in the basement).

High school was spent collecting vast amounts of vinyl. By the time I had my first radio show at the University of Winnipeg's campus station, the collection had its own room in my parent's basement. When I moved out to take my first full-time radio job in Kenora, Ontario, my parents reclaimed enough space to add an office and a bathroom.

Over the years, my music collection began to include stupid numbers of CDs and 12-inch singles, which meant that everytime I moved, I needed a bigger truck. The collection followed me to radio gigs in Brandon, Manitoba, Winnipeg, and ultimately, the Edge in Toronto in 1986.

Wait--back up: The Edge used to be in Brampton until a 1995 move to its current location in the Eaton Centre. The new digs didn't have enough space for old vinyl library, which is how I came to rent a Ryder truck one night. Those records are now taking up about half my basement.

The Ongoing History of New Music came about as an assignment I was given by management in 1993. From there, it just kinda blew up into what it is now: some 535 episodes and syndication across Canada. Spin-offs have included four books, a ton of compilation CDs, trivia questions, TV gigs, band biographies, newspaper and magazine articles--even infomercials. Meanwhile, management figured that since I wasn't going to go away, they might as well make me the program director of the Edge.

Like I said, it all just sort of...happened.

Alan Cross