Born in the nation's capitol Ross grew up listening to the pop musicians of the day on Ottawa, Ontario radio stations with hosts such as Brian Murphy and Al "Pussycat" Pascal.

At one point in his early life he served as tour manager for the Ottawa band The Cooper Brothers, and worked as a teenager at Harvey Glatt's famous Treble Clef record store, here he was paid in albums.

Ross hosts a "After Hours" on CBC stereo five nights a week from Winnipeg, his home base now. Now in it's fifth year (February 1998), this popular show reaches an audience of over 300.000 listeners in 28 cities and is considered by the CBC to be a success.

His jazz entry point was with the old CTI catalogue which contained a good deal of jazz-rock explorations. Says Porter "I learned in those years that there were no musical boundaries, the fact that my roots are in rock I think makes me do a better job in jazz. I've got no blinders, no blinkers on".

He began freelancing while still at the University of Ottawa. A move to Winnipeg followed where he soon became involved with stints as a jazz columnist for the Winnipeg Free Press, production duties, voice over work and the beginnings of a long relationship with the CBC, for whom he now works on a contract basis.

Apart from his chores, a labour of love for Ross, as a jazz radio personality he has compiled three CD's full of music from artists from major labels, MC's concerts and festivals and travels to collect interviews with jazz artists national and internationally known. He has shared his compilation duties with well known guitarist Jeff Healey (also a self confessed jazz fan and player too), and the world famous trombonist leader of the Boss Brass, Rob McConnell. In 1997 he completed a task for RCA in compiling a jazz history box set of CD's and also produced a documentary on the late Chet Baker.

For a complete schedule of Ross' shows go to our "Radio" page.

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