John F. Cullen, 80; Canadian Disc Jockey Was ‘Irreverent Rebel’

John Francis “Jack” Cullen, 80, a madcap Canadian disc jockey who became friends with some of the leading names in entertainment but angered Frank Sinatra, died over the weekend in Vancouver of heart failure, it was announced Tuesday.

Cullen spent five decades at Vancouver’s radio CKNW as host of the late show “Owl Prowl” before he was forced off the air in a shakeup in 1999.

Known as “the irreverent rebel in radio,” he interviewed visiting celebrities and became friends with, among many others, Bob Hope, Sammy Davis Jr. and Henry Mancini.

Jazz trumpeter Louis Armstrong was so charmed by Cullen that he authorized the official release of a bootleg recording Cullen made of him in 1951.

But Sinatra was less amused. In 1957, Cullen plied ushers with booze so he could hide under a Vancouver stage to record Sinatra singing. Angered, Sinatra refused ever to do an interview with Cullen, and had him blackballed and scolded by the American Federation of Musicians.

Born in Vancouver, Cullen served in the Canadian navy as a wireless operator in World War II and then attended the Sprott-Shaw School of Commerce and Radio in Vancouver. He began working at CKNW in 1949.