He was so funny it hurt - Al Boliska either made your sides split, or you'd groan with agony.

The king of the corny joke, Boliska starred as CHUM's morning man for six years before heading the wake-up show at rival CKEY.

Boliska worked off-air at CBC news in his hometown of Montreal before taking on hosting duties at CKLC in Kingston, Ont., in 1953. It was there he began to develop his zany style. According to Allen Farrell's book "The CHUM Story", he often surprised his CKLC listeners by doing his show from the Kingston pen or the local community centre. In 1956, Boliska took over the morning show at CKSL London, Ont. Then it was on to Toronto as Boliska and his long-time operator George Nicholson were hired for CHUM's morning show in the fall of 1957.

Front and back cover of "The World's Worst Jokes" pocketbook edition. (Courtesy: Doug Thompson)

At CHUM, Boliska became a morning legend, with features like "The World's Worst Jokes", and a cast of characters like Just Plain George (Nicholson), Officer Tie Clip (CHUM janitor and handyman Al Deveraux) and Lou the Butcher (yes, a local meat-store operator). Boliska was Toronto's first Top 40 morning funnyman, and he paved the way for the many that would follow.

Front and back cover of "More of the World's Worst Jokes" pocketbook edition. (Courtesy: Doug Thompson)

Long-time CHUM producer Doug Thompson talks about the World's Worst Jokes:

"The World's Worst Jokes was the daily corny joke comedy bit that Boliska did at CHUM at 6:45, 7:45 and 8:45 AM, with George Nicholson ("Just Plain George"), his op, who he'd worked with at CKLC Kingston prior to coming to CHUM. I have several original WWJ segments from CHUM airchecks that Charlie (Ritenburg) and I re-built. What CHUM did in the early days (58-60) was repeat The World's Worst Jokes in the Dave Johnson Show at night. Dave usually talked over the end music, so you could never get a clean copy.

I also happen to have in my personal archives, the original albums that Boliska used for both his theme song "What D'Ye  Mean You Lost Your Dog" (listen to it here) and the WWJ. They're two separate albums by Albert White and the Gaslite Orchestra out of San Francisco. So, Charlie and I married the ending music from my album to the WWJ airchecks and viola...clean versions. Of course it took a lot of work to get them to match up, the airchecks were in really bad shape. I used them on the air as part of the 1050 CHUM Hall of Fame segments."

Front cover of "The World's Worst Jokes" pocketbook edition, Volume 3. (Courtesy: Doug Thompson)

Boliska enjoyed a memorable run at CHUM before CKEY hired him away for mornings in late 1963. After his CKEY stay ended, he moved to Johnny Lombardi's CHIN in mornings for the launch of that station in 1966. Boliska arrived at the morning show at Montreal's CFCF in 1967. He died on his 40th birthday. His producer George Nicholson later produced John Gilbert's talk show at CHUM. Nicholson passed away a few years ago.

Boliska kept busy outside of radio. His novelty-song "The Ballad of The Dying Cowboy" (listen to it here) reached #18 on the CHUM Chart in 1960. He also did a weekly travelling TV show on Toronto's CBLT-TV called "On the Scene", and wrote a column for the Toronto Telegram.

(Photos courtesy Doug Thompson/The CHUM Archives)

The "World's Worst Jokes" was made into record album in 1966. There was also a "World's Worst Jokes"  book - the first edition by McClelland and Stewart was published in 1966 and the Simon and Shuster pocketbook edition (pictured above) came out in 1968 (a followup, "More of the World's Worst Jokes", was also published by Simon and Shuster). Boliska also did three other books "It Is Written: A Collection of Graffiti from the washrooms, fences, alleys, walls, billboards and subways of North America" (1968), "The Mahareeshi Says" (A 1969 Pocket Books publication)", and "Wipe-Outs" (a 1969 book of insults, put-downs and caustic quips from Pocket Book).

Enjoy some Al Boliska humour below:

Segment One (with sidekick Just Plain George) can be heard here. (0:46)

Segment Two (with sidekick Peter Dickens) can be heard here. (1:04)

(The CHUM Archives/Bob Laine and Doug Thompson)

More airchecks from 1960 to 1963 here.

For more classic CHUM airchecks, visit The CHUM Archives