Rock Radio Scrapbook: AIRCHECK OF THE WEEK

In the 1960s and early '70s, Canada's leading Top 40 station was home to the ground-breaking and sometimes controversial talk show "Speak Your Mind", hosted by the outspoken man with the booming voice, Larry Solway. The Toronto-born Solway arrived at CHUM in the mid-'50s, before it was a Top 40 station, and in addition to his talk show duties served as Creative Director of CHUM and briefly as its Program Director during his decade-and-a-half with the station. He and promotions head Gary Ferrier did an on-air shtick called "Larry and Gary" for a time. Solway was also a vice-president and was responsible for bringing in Murray the K to CHUM-FM and Jack Armstrong on the AM side in 1968.

"Speak Your Mind" debuted on CHUM in 1960 with host Dr. Marcus Long, a professor of philosophy at the University of Toronto. Trent Frayne and June Callwood, a married couple at the time, later co-hosted together or did the show individually. Solway took over the reins permanently in 1964. "Speak Your Mind" originally aired from 10:30-10:55 p.m., then became a two-hour show beginning at 10:00 p.m. in 1964. It moved to late mornings in 1968, first from 10:00 a.m. to noon then 9-11 a.m.

The show was renamed "The Larry Solway Show" for the 1970-71 season but Solway left CHUM in November of that year after airing a controversial series of shows about sex (the content would be considered mild today). John Gilbert replaced him as host and continued with "The John Gilbert Show" until 1977. Solway later did talk shows at CHIC Brampton, Ont., (1976-79), CKAR Oshawa, Ont. (circa 1983), CFGM Richmond Hill, Ont., (1986-1989), CFLY Kingston, Ont., (circa 1989), CFRB Toronto (1991-92) and CHOG Toronto (1996-97).

Larry Solway (r) and Pierre Berton (l) at the CHUM mic in 1961
(Courtesy Doug Thompson/The CHUM Archives)

Solway wore many hats. He wrote two books - "The Day I Invented Sex" (after his departure from CHUM) and "Don't Be Blindsided by Retirement" (with former investment counsellor Andrew Bertram) about adjusting to retirement. Solway was a panellist on the CBC-TV shows "Flashback" (1966-68) and "This is The Law" (1971-75). He appeared in the films "Meatballs" and "The Brood" among others and was an accomplished stage actor, producer and director. Solway was a columnist for the Sunday Star in Toronto in the late '70s, and was an active blogger in his '80s. Solway also dabbled in politics, running unsuccessfully for the New Democratic Party in the 1999 Ontario provincial election.

An avid sailor and piano player, Solway died of complications from bladder cancer on January 9, 2012. He was 83. In his final blog post, he wrote, "I hope to survive. If not. It’s been good.”

Hear Larry Solway with "Speak Your Mind" on CHUM from January 29, 1964 here.

Upon learning of Solway's death, Doug Thompson wrote about his former CHUM colleague on the SOWNY Radio-TV Forum. You can read it in its entirety below.

"My first shift at CHUM on February 1st, 1965 was 6PM to midnight, which meant working the last hour with Bob McAdorey, all 3 hours with Dave Johnson, then 2 hours with Larry Solway on "Speak Your Mind". There was no phone screener. I was it. For my first day, Larry only yelled at me once on the talkback. "Don't put callers like that through again" was exactly what he said because it's forever etched in my brain. I was 18 and terrified of Larry...at least that first night.. I don't exactly remember what kind of caller he was referring to however.

In Chuck Blore's "History of Radio" montage that he produced for the 1968 Bill Gavin convention, Chuck used a brief clip of Solway berating a caller. That was the kind of thing Larry did extremely well. I remember one time, he took one listener apart, ranting and yelling...up one side and down the other. After he hung up on the caller and while he was still talking about it on air, he turned to me and winked.

He was one hell of an actor.

I worked with Larry on "Speak Your Mind" for the 18 months I was a board op, then we shifted into a different relationship once I moved into production. Larry was CHUM's Creative Director and I recorded more Steinbergs and Bad Boy commercials with Larry than I care to think about. Garry Ferrier was always fun to work with because he joked around with you in the studio. Larry would too, if Garry was recording with him or Bob Laine or any of the CHUM jocks, but on his own, he was all business.

After he was fired for that series of daytime programs on sex, which today wouldn't even make a nun blush, I went to a book signing for "The Day I Invented Sex", the book Larry wrote about that time. He inscribed an absolutely wonderful note to me inside the fly leaf that I'll always cherish.

In 1969, Larry wrote the original CHUM History Of Rock. All 28 hours of it. It was a lot of Larry's opinions about rock'n'roll (he wasn't a fan) with some facts thrown in. If I remember correctly, we had about a week to produce it (that sounds like old times eh Warren?). The always lovely Chuck Riley flew up from Indianapolis the weekend before to record the narration. We had very few interviews, but I managed to insert a couple of Elvis and Beatles interviews in anyway.

When Bob Laine and I started working on the CHUM Archives in October 2003, I found those 28 original History of Rock master tapes intact.

They still had my hand written cue sheets inside the boxes.

The best advice Larry ever gave me was in 1967 when CHUM stock was about to go on the market. Staff could buy them for $10.50 a share. The week before the stock launched, he told me, "borrow as much money as you can and buy, buy, buy".

The CHUM stock opened at $18.00.

Larry was right...once again.

"Turn your radio down" tonight in honour of one of Canada's greatest broadcasters. Larry Solway."