The Matchcover Storyteller

Driving up Yonge Street in downtown Toronto at any time in the last half of the 20th century, there was iconic signage everywhere. A couple for the venerable Eaton’s Department Store at Dundas Street and again at College Street. Just north of Gould Street the huge nearby side-by-side nationally known signs for Sam the Record Man and A&A Records flashed day and night. A bit further north, at 1331 Yonge Street, was the sign that heralded great radiofor a generation – 1050 CHUM.

Among the greatest radio battles in North America for

rock ‘n roll dominance in the 1950’s in Toronto was the one between 1050 CHUM and 590 CKEY. But in the overall Toront market, CHUM was consistently #2 in the ratings for decades as #1 belonged to perennial powerhouse 1010 CFRB! In 1944, York Broadcasters Limited, owned and operated by Jack Q’Part, was licensed to launch an AM station in Toronto – CHUM 1050. So, at 7 am on October 8th, 1945 the station signed on air fronted by popular broadcaster Al Leary. The station was taken over in 1954 by Alan Waters who boosted the power and changed it to a 24 hour-a-day format. In May of 1957 CHUM switched to playing Top 50 music with the first song being “All Shook Up’ by Elvis Presley.

CHUM launched the CHUM Chart in May 1957 and it became THE go-to list of the weekly top 50 songs and not just in Toronto, but across the entire country. In 1968, the CHUM Chart was reduced to the top 30 songs, but remained the Canadian rock bible until its demise in 1986. It was the longest running chart in the world that was produced by a single radio station until its longevity was surpassed by Hamilton’s CKOC. Zoomer Radio 740 AM still uses the CHUM Chart as its source for its “Top Ten at Ten” and “Next at Eleven” morning features.

CHUM launched a FM sister station, 104.5, in 1963 that featured classical music. Eventually, in 1969, the format was changed to progressive. By the 1980’s CHUM was losing much of its audience to 680 CFTR. This resulted in a number of changes, first to AC Gold in 1986, then to Oldies in 1989, on to Sports in 2000 and back to Oldies again in 2002.

CHUM moved from its Yonge Street location to 250 Richmond Street West in 2009 and has been TSN Radio since 2011 under Bell Media ownership. The iconic CHUM 1050 neon sign was moved to the new location.

CHUM had a number of quite memorable promotions including “the Walking Man” in which listeners had to find a man walking the streets of Toronto using on air clues.

Another promotion had six of their announcers,including Al Boliska, John Sprague and Phil Stone, compete in events like fish skinning, log rolling, baitcasting judo and bowling at the Toronto Sportsmen’s Show in 1959. Listeners voted by mail for their favourite contender and the winner drew a nameof one of his voters and awarded the listener a boat and motor.

The same year four on air personalities challenged Gordon Scott, star of the Tarzan movies, to a swimming race. Boliska won the race with the help of a number of lifeguards who ran alongside the pool and pulled him by rope to victory.

1050 CHUM was Canada’s first dawn-to-dusk and Canada’s first post-war station when it signed on in 1945.It grew to become THE station that defined rock ‘n roll in our country for a generation of baby boomers. We can say yes, its still on the air, but if I say “I really miss 1050 CHUM”, I hope that you know what I mean.