R.I.P.: Buddy Gee, Iconic Montreal Radio Personality

Iconic Montreal radio personality Buddy Gee, real name George Morris, died this past Sunday at age 78, reports The Montreal Gazette.

To many, GMorris was known as the man with the golden voice, which could be heard in scores of commercials. But to a generation of ’60s kids, he will be forever remembered as rock jock Buddy Gee — even more than 50 years after leaving full-time radio work.

“George was sensational as a radio DJ, and the inspiration for me to get into that business. But as a voice-over artist, he was phenomenal — one of the greatest,” marvels Marc Denis, veteran Montreal DJ and radio archivist. “As funny as he was on air, he was all business at his studio. When you showed up to do a session at Listen! Audio, you had to have your best stuff. But he was always so generous.”

Denis did many French voice-overs for Morris. He also hosted the Solid Gold Show, Sundays on CJFM in the early ‘90s, after it started with Buddy Gee, who had been lured out of radio retirement to do it for a few years in the late ‘80s.

“It was like pulling molars to get him to come back to do radio after his five-year ride in the ‘60s at CKGM. He was just too busy, too successful with other work,” Denis says.

Born Jerzy Delman, he was six when he and his mother fled their native Poland in the midst of the Second World War. They eventually made their way to Winnipeg in 1948 and moved to Montreal in 1950. He learned English and the ways of the world in no time, and became George Morris.

“His backstory is one of the most interesting of all the personalities I’ve ever met,” notes Ian Howarth, author of Rock ‘n’ Radio: When DJs and Rock Music Ruled the Airwaves, a fascinating chronicle that brings back the glory days of Montreal radio icons like Dave Boxer, Dean Hagopian and Buddy Gee.

Morris left home at 15 for Toronto, where he toured grocery stores doing yo-yo tricks. Still underage, he talked his way into a radio gig in Blind River, Ont. He ended up working at 10 radio stations around the country before landing an all-night easy-listening show, The GM Affair, at CKGM in 1963.

“After Boxer went Top 40 at CFCF in ‘64, CKGM put Morris more or less opposite Boxer and a rivalry was born,” Howarth says. “Buddy Gee was the name management gave him. He never did match or beat Boxer in the ratings, possibly because his show ended at 9 p.m., whereas Boxer was on until 11:30, when kids were still up.”