Martin Streek took his own life in July. The last time I saw Martin, he was chumming around with his pal George Stroumboulopoulos at the Casby Awards. Here's a clip of them that night. The first Sunday following Martin Streek's death, I tuned in 102.1 the Edge to hear
Now that we have Portable People Meter (PPM) technology, we have a better grasp of true Toronto radio ratings. Mondoville just tipped me off that David Bray has published the latest Toronto PPM figures for September 2009. Toronto % Share of Hours Tuned (Mon.-Sun, 5a-1a)StationA12+W25-54M25-54 PPM Oct ‘09PPM
Open letter to Bob McCown: Nobody is comparing Phil Kessel to Alexander Ovechkin or Sidney Crosby. This morning I heard a promo for Bob McCown's Prime Time Sports on The Fan 590 in which he belittled Leafs fans for comparing Kessel to Ovechkin and Crosby. I chat up several Leaf
I like this vintage CFNY Spirit of Radio clip because it opens with a great deal of Chalk Circle love. Chalk Circle, celebrated in this clip for winning a CASBY in 1985, was the first band I ever saw live. This Nick Charles clip closes with a promo for Streets
Is it me, or did they used to air more tunes with swear words on the radio than they do now? I'm not talking about late night live-to-airs, I'm talking about middle of the day F bombs. From memory, here are songs with swears I heard completely uncensored on CFNY
I finally mustered up the courage to check out CFNY / 102.1 The Edge's "Top 200 Songs of All Time". This is the list they played last weekend. I immediately noticed the complete absence of new rock pioneer bands like The Clash, The Ramones, The Talking Heads, Depeche Mode, The
In March, CTVglobemedia pulled the plug on 1050 CHUM and introduced CP24 Radio 1050, a simulcast of CP24 television. It sounded like an awful idea then, and now that we have Portable People Meter (PPM) technology, we know nobody's listening. Over on the SOWNY forum, there's a glance at Toronto
The Strombo Show is now on CBC Radio 2. George Stroumboulopoulos will get four hours every Sunday night starting November 8th. Bear with me as I pat myself on the back for calling this back on July 12. I've got CFNY on the radio, trying to listen to Strombo to
Remember Labour Day weekend when 102.1 the Edge counted down the Top 200 songs of the 90's? In this neck of the woods, we had plenty of issues with how they came up with those 200 songs. I ended up posting the list I thought CFNY / 102.1 the
While we're on the subject of Toronto radio station call letters that meant something, I just learnt CFRB stands for Canada's First Rogers Batteryless. Those call letters date back to 1927, but all that history doesn't mean much in 2009. Astral Media will now promote the station as Newstalk 1010,
The Fan 590 has sports updates every twenty minutes. They've had this for as long as there's been a Fan 590. As a Toronto sports fan, I know I can count on these twenty/twenty sports updates. All week, the twenty/twenty sports updates have sounded different. The intro music,
Toronto radio is about to get a reality check. We're about to get a clearer, more accurate look at who's listening to what stations and how often. 9000 people across Canada are, as of today, wearing PPM devices. Here's what these PPM devices do, according to the BBM Canada press
I don't listen to CFRB 1010. I recently visited CFRB and sat in on Jim Richards' show, a guy I actually find to be quite funny, but I can't say I ever listen to the Astral station. Today, Astral let go 12 people at CFRB. Among those let go are
I first heard of Fearless Fred when I broke the firing from CFNY / Edge 102 of Martin Streek and Barry Taylor. I was informed by my trustworthy tipster that Fearless Fred had been hired from Edmonton and would debut sometime in August. About ten days ago, I wrote that Fearless
In the Globe's Ballad of Martin Streek, Program Director Ross Winters claimed CFNY's limit for song repetition was now 7 times in 24 hours. I actually believe that limit to be much higher. In January, during one 12-hour random spot check, a song had already been played 6 times. CFNY
Last night, I wrote about George Stroumboulopoulos' "new, independent FM". Earlier today, I had a direct message from Strombo on Twitter. He wanted a phone number he could reach me at. I gave him my Blackberry number and went about my afternoon, which primarily consisted of picking up my son
David Haydu a.k.a. Geets Romo and Pete Griffin were the Pete and Geets morning show on CFNY from 1982-1987. I must confess, I was a little young for Pete and Geets, preferring to listen to Tom Rivers and the Rivers Air Force on CFTR, but I've heard great
Strombo has dropped a clue as to the future of his radio show now that he's parting ways with Corus. He just posted a teaser on his blog. George Stroumboulopoulos is talking about "a new, independent FM". That's the change coming this fall, referenced in his Facebook message on The
Back in May, when CFNY / Edge 102 showed Martin Streek and Barry Taylor the door, I reported that Fearless Fred from The Bear in Edmonton had been hired as a replacement. The Twittersphere has exploded the past 24 hours with news Fearless Fred has aired his last show on The
Steve Macaulay was nice enough to send me a Spirit Reunion 2003 souvenir CD. This thing is awesome. It's 46 stellar clips from CFNY 102.1 that aired between 1977 and 1989. I promise to share some very soon. In the words of Don Berns: The audio tracks on this
Following his death, Martin Streek's official site, MartinStreek.com, was chillingly frozen in time. It alluded to his current DJ gig of 25 years, a gig he lost two months before his death. It was a painful visit. MartinStreek.com has finally been updated and is actually hosting the 3-hour
As seen on Canadian Thinker, former Humble and Fred producer and all around good guy Dan Duran is returning to Toronto radio as a swing announcer starting later this month. Dan Duran will be heard Wednesday, Thursday and Friday evenings from seven till midnight, then again from noon till six
I swear this isn't meant to be a CFNY / Edge 102 blog or Corus blog, it's just a collection of things I'm personally interested in, and this past month that seems to be dominated by a certain local alt rock station. A few Sundays ago, I wrote about the absence
On the heels of The Ballad of Martin Streek comes another super revealing look into the culture change at CFNY / Edge 102.1 under the direction of Program Director Ross Winters. Glove tap to Shane Fame Alexander for this find. Barry Taylor, fired Edge DJ, reveals all on his MySpace
Over the past week or so, I've been communicating with Bert Archer who's been writing an article for the Globe and Mail on CFNY / Edge 102. Bert and I had a nice phone conversation and exchanged several emails and Gtalk messages. He was interested in where CFNY was going following
