On January 6, 2026, Canadians will be able to consume the CFNY: The Spirit of Radio documentary on TVO. A 90 minute version of this documentary was completed by the director Matt Schichter in early 2024 in the hopes it would premiere at TIFF that year. When TIFF said no, a decision was made not to premiere the film at other interested festivals.
Fast forward to early 2025, and TVO showed interest in distributing the film in Canada, but TVO wanted a 60 minute version. The completed film was a little under 90 minutes, so significant edits were required. Director Matt Schichter delivered a 60 minute edit of the CFNY documentary to Highball.TV, owners of the film. I have seen this edit and it's a wonderful love letter to David Marsden and CFNY in the 1980s.
There's Geddy Lee discussing the Rush song Spirit of Radio, inspired by CFNY, there's early legal trouble with Leslie Allen and Harry Allen Jr., the promotion of David Marsden to Program Director, the sale of the station to Selkirk, and then several years where the DJs knew and loved music and, within certain parameters, were empowered to play what they wanted. We hear from the three CFNYers who are listed as executive producers, Alan Cross, Ivar Hamilton and Scot Turner, several other colleagues, and there's a light shone upon Chris Sheppard and Martin Streek, one of whom couldn't be found for the doc, and one of whom sadly took his own life in 2009. Then there's the decision to add George Michael and the like to the playlist, a listener revolt, and a sale to Maclean-Hunter with a pledge to return to "alternative".
Any listener of Toronto Mike'd knows how much I love this story and archiving the history of this station. But it took me almost four hours to tell the story in episode 1021, so I know how impossible a task it is to tell that story in 60 minutes.
I am interested to see the differences between the TVO version of the film and the version edited by the director in early 2025. Also, it's interesting to me that the director of the film, Matt Schichter, was not invited to Toronto to attend the premiere of this film at Corus Quay on January 5, 2026. I attend the premieres of many "nostalgia docs" of this nature, particularly ones about a Canadian phenomena, and the absence of the director is highly unusual.
Here's Matt Schichter and I chatting about this unfortunate circumstance.
