What Radio Means to Me

Recently, a radio station, CHML 900 in Hamilton, that had been on the air for almost 97 years turned off their signal. You can read the story here, https://www.thespec.com/business/hamilton-region/900-chml-closes-ending-nearly-a-century-of-local-radio-in-hamilton/article_1afb959e-7cb6-5be3-96fc-1b9bfa92dc68.html

This news caused me to reflect on my time on radio, which I may have done in one of my previous 421 posts on Red Heart Blue Sign, where I was on the air in Stratford Ontario on 1240 CJCS.  Like CHML in Hamilton, CJCS was one of a handful of radio stations in Canada that were broadcasting in the second decade of the 20th century.

CJCS celebrates its centenary of broadcasting this year.  100 years ago, CJCS operated under the call sign of amateur radio 10AK, it started using the now familiar and historical call letters of CJCS in 1935 after being purchased by Roy H. Thomson, the newspaper Baron who was purchasing newspapers in the same years he purchased the then known 10AK. At the time of the purchase, Thomson hired Jack Kent Cooke to run the Stratford radio station.  Cooke later joined up Thomson to form a company that was active in media in Canada.  Cooke may be better known as the owner of many sports teams, including major franchises in Washington and Los Angeles.  

But I digress, my main object of this post is to talk about how radio, and specifically my years from 1984-1990 and how I see radio as being important to how we live today. 

Radio has been a part of my life from as long as I can remember.  Me and my twin, Rick, shared a bedroom and that also meant we shared a radio, a transistor radio, with the knobs for tuning and volume.  It might have been an AM only radio as I have no memory of myself or Rick listening to FM.  As mentioned, we shared weeks of what station we would listen to and on my week, it was 680 CFTR Hit Radio!  On the weeks Rick controlled the dial it was CFRB, that played a middle of the road music format.  We were at opposite ends of the listening spectrum.  

Radio also played a part in my high school years, as I was part of group of 8-10 people that revived the Erindale Secondary School in Mississauga radio station, Raider Radio.  Raider radio broadcast in the cafeteria in the mornings and during the lunch hour.  We brough our own records in and played to the students ‘enjoying the food of the cafeteria’.  From High School it was onto Humber College for Radio Broadcasting.  Those lunch hours in a 5’ x 8’ room of “Raider Radio” made quite an impact on me.

It was radio where my love and appreciation of music thrived. Following Humber College I worked at CHFI-FM in Toronto as the overnight operator working with a (spoiler alert) voice track of the all-night announcer and the 5-6am hour of the morning show hosted by the legendary Sandy Hoyt.  I learned about music cataloguing, developing playlists etc. from Music Director Karen Doan and Music Librarian Hazel James.  I fell in love with walls of vinyl, albums and singles – a love I carry with me today.  I fell in love with how the music made and the stories from the artists and songwriters about the songs we enjoyed.

In 1984 I joined CJCS in Stratford Ontario, the salary was low, the hours were many, but the joy was immeasurable.  It was 1984 when CJCS celebrated 60 years of being on the air and it was celebrated by riding in an open car with CJCS Alumni Lloyd Robertson and my afternoon news man Jim MacDonald.  In 1984 we had no idea that radio was going to be in such trouble only a couple of decades later.  That is why we need to celebrate when radio stations like CJCS celebrate 100 years on air and mourn when others, such as CMHL shut down after 97 years of broadcasting.

Years after a move to Ottawa I was able to get back to radio at 1310 News, later renamed CityNews Ottawa, were I worked on weekends putting together Saturday and Sunday morning newscasts – it was a job that had me up at 3am weekend mornings.  These mornings were more complicated as I was also DJing and there was the odd weekend were a Friday night party would connect with a Saturday morning followed by a Saturday night gig and then back to the studio for the Sunday morning news run.  It would be an exhaustive weekend, but there would be no regrets.  CityNews Ottawa would shutter their on-air operations in October 2023, 101 years after it first went live, another radio legacy lost.

My years in radio are memorable, from Humber College’s in house CHBR to interning then working at CHFI in Toronto, onto Stratford and for a short time in 2014 in Ottawa, I will not forget a single moment.  I remember clearly my first words spoken on-air break in Stratford, my “welcome to the city this is who I am”.

My love for radio never wanes, but my hear sinks when I hear of the closures and the loss of that organic connection that a radio station has with its listeners and communities.  

As I recall celebrating 60 years at CJCS in 1984, I celebrate with the current and past employees of the station on its 100th year on the air, may radio never die, it will adapt, and meet the needs of the listeners.  Even as the internet become the ‘airwaves’ and traditional over the air radio now becomes tagged as “terrestrial” (it sounds so prehistoric) I bet the interpersonal connection between the listener requesting a song, hearing a birthday greeting from the radio announcer or imagining the actions of players while listening to the play by play of a baseball or hockey game will keep radio close to our hearts.  It will be in mine.