Rock Radio Scrapbook

AIRCHECK OF THE WEEK
For week of September 6, 2015
Edition #850

Subject: OLDIES 1150 BECOMES TSN 1150
Station: CKOC Hamilton, Ont.
Date: September 7, 2015
Time: 3:04

CKOC's music era faded into history and its life as a sports station began on a sweltering Labour Day in 2015.

Just before 10 a.m. on September 7, 2015, Oldies 1150 morning man Mike Nabuurs bade farewell to the station's 55-year hit music era then played the #1 song on the station's final Big 500 countdown, Satisfaction by the Rolling Stones. As the song faded out, TSN 1150 - Hamilton's first all-sports station - was launched and the music era at CKOC became history.

A few days earlier - on Thursday, September 3 - legendary CKOC jocks Ted Yates, Dave Smith and Rockin' Ray Michaels all did live shifts to kick-off the final Big 500. Special guests like former CKOC program director Nevin Grant and ex-CKOC and long-time CHUM personality Roger Ashby helped make it a day of unforgettable on-air memories and a classy send-off to "Ontario's Music Leader."

Listen as Oldies 1150 becomes TSN 1150 here.

(The Rob Muir Collection)

More Rock Radio Goodbyes here!

Talent: KEN McDERMID & KEITH O'BRIEN
Station: CKOC Hamilton
Date: September 15, 1973
Time: 46:46 (unscoped)

For 55 years, CKOC played the hits.

The Top 40 era at the Hamilton station began on October 3, 1960 when the station started playing the hits of the day as "The Busy Bee." Previously CKOC had run a mixed bag of programming. Let's look back at a CKOC Top 40 schedule from that first month (from the Toronto Star radio listings for October 29) :

George Balcaen (6-9 a.m.) - Balcean was the first morning man of the Top 40 era. The native of St. Boniface, Man., had been with CKOC since 1956 after previous stops at CKDM Dauphin, Man., and CKY Winnipeg. Balcaen left CKOC in 1963 for a 35-year reign as morning man at CJAD Montreal where he spelled his name Balcan. He died in 2004 and was inducted into the Canadian Association of Broadcasters Hall of Fame the following year.

Stu Daly (9 a.m.-12 noon) - Daly had previously been at CHUC in Cobourg, Ont. He moved to CKOC in 1958 but didn't like the switch to the rock format two years later; he left in 1961 for CHOW Welland, Ont. After a short stay at CHOW, he left the station for CKLG Vancouver but lasted only three weeks before contracting hepatitis. Daly returned to Hamilton in 1962 at CHML but moved to CKFM Toronto in 1967 for a two-year stint in the morning show. He left CKFM in 1975 to concentrate on his free-lance voice career. He later retired to Florida.

Gary Summers (noon-1 p.m.) - Summer did a mid-morning music show at CKOC until 1964, before giving it up to concentrate on sports. Summers spent more than three decades at CKOC, missing only one day of work when he came down with laryngitis. In addition to being CKOC's long-time sports director, he was also sports director at the station's FM outlet, CKLH.

Tommy Hunter (1-1:45 p.m.) - CBC programming.

George Dawes (1:45-3 p.m.) - Dawes was a carryover from the mixed bag era and was gone by 1961.

Randy Ferris (3-6 p.m.) - Ferris left the station by 1962.

Ron Smith (6-7 p.m.) - Smith later moved to afternoons before leaving around 1967.

Echoes of Italy (7-8 p.m.) - Foreign-language programming.

Hi Fi Club (8-8:30 p.m.) - 8 p.m.-8:30 p.m. - No host indicated.

Bill Bright - 8:30-10 p.m. - Bright also worked for CHUM, CFRB, CKFM and CJEZ. He died in 2013 at age 87.

Bill Holland - 10-10:30 p.m. - Started in broadcasting at CFRA Ottawa after graduating from the Lorne Green School of Broadcasting in 1953. Began at CKOC as a news announcer in 1958.

Moonglow (10:30 p.m.) - No host indicated.

By 1973, all of the originals were gone except for Summers who was now sports director. But CKOC continued to play the hits of the day until 1992 when it changed format to oldies and call letters to CKMO (More Oldies). CKOC bowed to listener pressure the next year and reverted to its heritage call letters which had been in use beginning with the station's founding in 1922. The oldies format continued until September 7, 2015, when CKOC flipped to a sports format as TSN 1150 after Ted Yates, Dave Smith, Rockin' Ray Michaels and Mike Nabuurs counted down the Big 500 one last time.

Enjoy Ray McDermid and Keith O'Brien on CKOC from September 15, 1973 here.

(The Bob Seed Collection via Don Shuttleworth)

More 1973 airchecks here!