It snowed last night. Not a lot, but enough to get the local media excited. 680 News, for example, opened their Storm Centre for the first time. It was about six years ago that I first wondered aloud as to what opening their Storm Centre would entail. I wonder what
I recently wrote about the Humble and Fred network cable special that aired on Rogers 10 back in 1993. Thanks to Ryan at Rogers 10, I now have in my possession the opening for "Humble and Fred's First Ever Network Cable Special". It's got some great footage of the old
I'm hearing from usually reliable sources that Rick Hodge and Kim Stockwood are no longer part of the EZ Rock morning show. It's now a two person booth with Humble Howard and Colleen Rusholme. A lot of noise was made by Astral when Rick Hodge left CHUM-FM for EZ Rock
If my memory serves me correctly, I've written about five radio stations flipping formats in the past seven years. I'm sure more stations heard in Toronto have changed their formats during this period, but I've only blogged about five. Here are those five entries and the number of comments left
As a life long fan of radio, I know how attached you get to your favourite stations. You get familiar with the personalities, the schedule and the genre of music. When your favourite radio station flips formats, it can be jarring to fans. Last Friday, Country 93.5 out of
Country 95.3, a station with the call letters CING-FM broadcasting out of Hamilton, Ontario, billed itself as "Canada's Most Listened To Country Station". I didn't know that until exactly two minutes ago when I found out they've flipped formats. Country 95.3 is now The New 95.3: Southern
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
