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I was at my dentist last week and I think that CHUM-FM was on in the background. It was pretty low and the equipment made a lot of noise, so it was hard to tell. Usually 104.5 or CHFI seem to be the two go-to audio sources for medical waiting rooms, dollar stores, office places or any other spot where they try to fill the silence. (If there's a TV, it's always on CP24.)
Normally, I don't think about it too much. But then I came across this story from a UK newspaper, where the author had a whole bunch of appointments and either found the choice of stations irritating or inappropriate. As strange as some of the songs she heard were, readers commenting on her story were even better.
These two are my favourites:
"My husband had a similar experience while waiting to pick up a prescription at a hospital about five years ago. The canned music was playing I Wanna Be Sedated by the Ramones."
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"If you think listening to Carly Rae Jepsen in a hospital waiting room is bad, try being wheeled in for an abortion to the sound of – I kid you not – Barry White. A moment so surreal that I often think I must have imagined it."
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My Oakville dentist always had their radio set to 102.9 from Hamilton. Now they have CHFI on. I guess the format change to Bounce was too radical.
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My local car repair garage in Stratford has CJCS 107.1 and sometimes 107.7 2Day FM on.
Other busniesses I been in London like Forest of Flowers has 103.1 Fresh Radio on. My friend who works at a sporting goods store has 95.9 CFPL-FM FM96 on or 103.1 Fresh Radio on sometimes. Also I was getting a bite to eat at a McDonald's in London and they had 98.1 CHFI not the local Classic Rock 98.1. I know they were streeming it but it kept cutting out many times. But then a few weeks later I went to that same McDonald's in London and they had 104.5 Fresh Radio from Cornwall on. Another McDonald's in London had 95.5 Hits FM from Bellville on. I don't understand why the 2 London McDonald's I been to had 2 non local radio stations playing at those locations.
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I remember being in a sports bar with some friends about 15 years ago near downtown Toronto. For whatever reason they had Magic 106 Guelph blasting out on a Saturday afternoon inside the bar and out on the patio. I was surprised the station was coming in so clear on Eglinton West on a summer afternoon.
Talked once to a teller at a TD bank. She told me that they sometimes had radio wars among the staff. The bank manager eventually decided they would rotate the station every other day between the local adult contemporary and country stations. This was to tone down the friction among the employees who couldn't agree which station to have on during the day.
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When I was in university in Vancouver I had a summer job one year at Ayerst Laboratories which was a drug warehouse.
They had a strict radio routine that went CKNW talk radio in the morning, then starting at about 1pm they would switch over to CKWX which is now News 1130, the all news station, but back then was solid country music.
I actually liked CKNW in the morning because they had news and talk programming, but the rest of the day... COUNTRY.
Aaaargh.
Anyway I reluctantly learned every top country song by heart that summer.
I also learned how to package up shipments of teet dip for cows for veterinarians and tubes of vaginal cream for doctors offices.