Rock Radio Scrapbook: AIRCHECK OF THE WEEK

Nowadays, you're lucky to hear any AM stations in a given city playing contemporary hit music. But for a short time in the early '70s, Toronto had three.

There was CHUM, which became a full-time Top 40 station on May 27, 1957 and CKFH, which began playing contemporary hit music on January 2, 1967. Both were still going strong when CFTR joined the fray in March, 1972.

The three-way battle continued until CKFH switched to country in March, 1975. That left two. CHUM would drop Top 40 in favour of soft rock in June, 1986 while CFTR became an all-news station in June, 1993.

A key figure on CFTR's launch as a rock station was Keith Elshaw. He posted his memories of 'TR's early days to the Southern Ontario/Western New York message board in 2007 and has given us permission to republish it here:

"When they changed the name from CHFI in '71, it hobbled along for almost a year still very MOR. Ted and Keith Dancy sucked it up and went for the big change they knew was needed. On March 1, 1972, George Johns became Station Manager. On March 2, I became Assistant PD/Music Director. (Ted and Dancy were stingy with the titles they handed out). There are reasons George is a legend in Canadian radio. His 14 months at TR a big part of it, of course.

It was kind of obvious what the station should do: go rock. But, Ted had been hoping he could beat CFRB. Well, changing the focus to go after CHUM made sense. After-all, they paid Buzz Bennett a whack of dough to tell them that was what they should do. Buzz (with spurs, saddlebags, leather) came for a couple of weeks and scared the pants off the competition (who reportedly put guards at their transmitter site) and Ted bought into the program. Then George was given the go ahead. So Keith E. had to go out and scrounge up records and talent. Both were not that easy to come by in the first days, actually. If you can believe it, even after ordering everything we could from the record companies and buying everything worthwhile at Sam's and A&A's, I still had to drive to Hamilton and Sarnia to empty out the libraries of the company's stations there for old hits. To build a library, you had to work.

On the talent end, we started with the announcers already on staff. Great people who were really well paid - but not really wanting to be rock jocks again. But, they were pros and did what they were told. Bob McAdorey, Earl Mann, R.O. Horning, Jr.; John Woodbridge; Todd Russell. Here they were, playing Sinatra and Peggy Lee and Matt Monroe and just gliding through life, and all of a sudden they had to turn on the juice and make like CHUM was about to be taken. And it WAS all-of-a-sudden.

I had collected the music and put a system together and George had finalized the format he wanted. We just sat around in the office (I had to share his in the old building at 13 Adelaide) telling people we weren't going to be a rock station. (Yah, right). One morning, in the middle of the March (72) ratings, we got knocked off the air by an electrical storm for a couple of hours. George looked at me and said, OK - let's go. We've got no listeners anyway! So he went into the booth where Earl was on the air to give him the format and liners and I went into the control room with the op to hand him the records and the clock. The first record was Spinning Wheel. Earl said, who? Blood Sweat and Tears? You don't mean Peggy Lee?

Anyhow, those first jocks were real troopers. It wasn't in the cards that they (or we!) would stay around that long, but they answered the call. Especially wonderful Todd. I believe he was about 65 at the time; and for a few weeks, he rocked the pants off the other guys. We played airchecks of him to the other guys to show them what we wanted. Todd was the first Good TR Rock Jock. Trust me. Todd Russell - you de man, sir. As I say, it was not that easy to find the talent we really wanted in the early days. I mean, there weren't many believers - even if it was Ted Rogers' company. Maybe especially because.

A first big catch was Mike Marshall. He was a name because of his CKLW background, of course. But just as important was the stealing of Sandy Hoyt from CKFM. Sandy was my PD in Orillia when I was 15 and first got on the air. Introducing him to George and convincing him to come with us crazy people was a thing that worked out well. Both Sandy and Mike were good for Rogers for decades. Sandy was a BIG influence on one of our ops - Rick Moranis -whom George put on the air for the first time. We were so short of people who had an idea of what to do. So, Rick got his shot and George brought in his friend the wonderful Roger Klein from Ottawa ("Don Valley"!) and I even did some shifts as "Steve Yonge."

We are the crew no one remembers, I think. We did outrageous things (yes - there are many stories). We were bold, cheeky in the old radio way, totally committed. You wouldn't believe the tales and the tricks. But I was part of George's team and he was destined for bigger things. Off he went to the US, and that was that. Not for the last time, I showed my preference for staying in Canada. I was there long enough to be able to design my new digs when we moved to 25 Adelaide on the 13th floor. The company was growing. The station was soon to get traction.

It did become something and have a life. It was fun for me to look at what good friends of mine like Dan Williamson and Tom Rivers and so many others did with it as time went by. Because ... it did have a beginning that worked. It was SO crazy in the beginning. So great. We brought in the The Magic Christian. The Duker.

I was 22 in 72. Oh, don't get me started. I wasn't at the Q reunion (there at the beginning, of course and a couple of times after). But if there is a TR reunion, don't forget the guys who started it and paved the way. Even if you've never heard of them."

One of the jocks during CFTR's early time as a rock station was Doc Holliday, who later went on to a long career in Vancouver radio as Doc Harris.

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