So I just watched the whole thing and I found it very entertaining. I especially liked the part about how David Marsden wound up as the somewhat reluctant P.D. 

I know this was the cut down version of what had been an original 90 min. film. I can only wonder what they left out. Hope that maybe we get to see that one someday. 

I'm surprised you could see it. Those final credits went by at super speed. But congratulations for being part of it!

Thanks for the list. I'd love to see that version someday. 

I actually saw it online first but did record it.

A good job over-all but I would have liked to see more on Pete and Geets, Also The Live Earl Jive  was sadly missing.I think they were more central to the station then Chris Sheppard.

Sounded like some of the audio was "recreated" such as the segments where the listeners were complaining about them playing Madonna and George Michaels. Not sure if it actually was but somehow it sounded fake.

Very sad when they spoke about David Marsden saying goodbye.

I was a listener to the station from before the power increase ( on cable FM) until the second Reiner S era in 1991. 

My very favorite era for the station was when David Pritchard was there because he brought back the "spirit" of the free form CHUM FM and I would have liked them to explain the roots and spend some time on that era, However  I understand why the format narrowed from the total free form approach at the very beginning due to commercial viability and it was bc of this that the station became a legend.

Also not many people would have been aware of this but there were stations in the area WBUF at the beginning and later WZIR and WUWU. that were doing something similar and even beyond what CFNY was doing. You can check out the air checks on my site from all of these.

Finally CFNY in all of it''s incarnations was more than just punk and new wave but when it comes to new wave there was actually another pioneering station in North America and that was KROQ in Los Angeles, Just google Rodney on the Q,

Last edited by Fitz (January 7, 2026 9:10 am)

It probably wouldn't fit, but I would have loved a bit more on the Allen Bros. They were among the cheapest and most penurious owners of any radio stations I've ever heard of. They were convicted of fraud if I recall correctly and ultimately lost control of their mini-radio empire: CHIC-AM and CHIC-FM, later CFNY. 

The stories I've heard about these two are legendary and somewhat notorious. There was a brief mention of them in the doc, but that story has a lot more to it. 

A word about mainstream versus what CFNY offered. I still identify a lot more with the best rather than the worst on those CFNY charts bc at the time the mainstream had become very homogenized or some of those artists listed in the worst were simply over-exposed. In the 60's the mainstream as heard on top 40 could be anything from the Monkees to Paul Mauriat to Bubble Puppy.

In the doc they spoke about indie music and indie 45's. I dug up a few of the 45's I bought during that era and to me it was like going back to the late 60's when 45's were interesting. The doc spoke about indie labels and many of the singles below are on indie labels. Simple Minds is from 1979 on a label called Zoom . The Todd Rundgren record is actually a picture disc. I think I bought most of these bc I heard them on NY.

One other thing in the doc some point out that a man named Jim Fonger was the villain in the mainstreaming of the station in the late 80' but to be fair the producers give Jim a chance to present himself. I went through my tapes and I found clips from 1982ish where he is referenced or speaks. He was with the station for a while before the changes. You can hear that:

Jim Fonger

Last edited by Fitz (January 8, 2026 2:31 pm)

Fitz wrote:

A word about mainstream versus what CFNY offered. I still identify a lot more with the best rather than the worst on those CFNY charts bc at the time the mainstream had become very homogenized or some of those artists listed in the worst were simply over-exposed. In the 60's the mainstream as heard on top 40 could be anything from the Monkees to Paul Mauriat to Bubble Puppy.

In the doc they spoke about indie music and indie 45's. I dug up a few of the 45's I bought during that era and to me it was like going back to the late 60's when 45's were interesting. The doc spoke about indie labels and many of the singles below are on indie labels. Simple Minds is from 1979 on a label called Zoom . The Todd Rundgren record is actually a picture disc. I think I bought most of these bc I heard them on NY.

One other thing in the doc some point out that a man named Jim Fonger was the villain in the mainstreaming of the station in the late 80' but to be fair the producers give Jim a chance to present himself. I went through my tapes and I found clips from 1982ish where he is referenced or speaks. He was with the station for a while before the changes. You can hear that:

Jim Fonger

Been a while since I have played some of these and I had to dig out the Split Enz single from the sleeve and the A side was something called I See Red. A song that I had totally forgotten about. and thus the Doc has inspired a trip down memory lane for me. The single is on an indie label and was an import.


 

Last edited by Fitz (January 8, 2026 2:50 pm)

RadioActive wrote:

The documentary tells the story about a guy named Larry Bates, who was so upset about the format change to a more mainstream music mix that he took a petition to the CRTC. In 1989, RPM Magazine did a story about his quest to not lose his favourite radio station. 

There's a long essay about the listener uprising at spiritofradio.ca . A site that predates mine and has a tons of audio  but most of their pre-1985 content is just short snippets. The post 1986 material is more meaty.

Anyway. The essay has this about Reiner S post the mainstream sellout when a slight renaissance was underway :

​One evening in May 1990, Reiner Schwarz, who became director of programming and operations in fall 1989, went on the air to take listener comments on CFNY. In defense of his music policy, he said: "We're trying to create contrasts; we don't want to give you just one sound, there's too much music. . . "

in the bibliography to the essay is this item highlighted below I actually remember that broadcast. I was waiting for a family member in the car in a parking lot at Kingston Rd and Eglinton listening I would love to hear that back and it seems that audio exits  but it's not available anywhere on line that I'm aware of

Schwarz, Reiner. Live broadcast on CFNY-FM, recorded by Wes Reimer, May 1990.
 

Last edited by Fitz (January 8, 2026 8:42 pm)

RadioActive wrote:

Billboard has also picked up this story. 

‘CFNY: The Spirit of Radio’ Documentary Captures the Essence of Influential Ontario Rock Station

This article once again focuses only on th Punk New Wave angle for CFNY but look at that Chart that I posted from 1980 - a good quarter of the tracks were outside the new wave. Also the picture sleeve 45's I posted as being influenced by my listening to the station had Todd Rundgren and Split Enz both of whom predated the new wave and were NY faves.. Yes punk/new wave was an important component but not the only thing that made the station unique. In fact I would say that when 102.1 became the Edge they lost their diversity and uniqueness as they only played Modern Rock.  

You can call this cherry picking on my part but once again I went back to my tapes and put together a composite of CFNY from 1979, 1985 and 1990 with Brad McNally, David Marsden and Skot Turner where they are not playing punk. McNally mentions the Status Quo single as being from 1967 but it was 1968 and his section reminded me about when Steve Diggle of the Buzzcicks was talking about prog rock groups and mushrooms in the sky. in the doc.

CFNY  1979  1985  1990





 

Last edited by Fitz (January 9, 2026 11:55 am)

Fitz wrote:

Fitz wrote:

A word about mainstream versus what CFNY offered. I still identify a lot more with the best rather than the worst on those CFNY charts bc at the time the mainstream had become very homogenized or some of those artists listed in the worst were simply over-exposed. In the 60's the mainstream as heard on top 40 could be anything from the Monkees to Paul Mauriat to Bubble Puppy.

In the doc they spoke about indie music and indie 45's. I dug up a few of the 45's I bought during that era and to me it was like going back to the late 60's when 45's were interesting. The doc spoke about indie labels and many of the singles below are on indie labels. Simple Minds is from 1979 on a label called Zoom . The Todd Rundgren record is actually a picture disc. I think I bought most of these bc I heard them on NY.

One other thing in the doc some point out that a man named Jim Fonger was the villain in the mainstreaming of the station in the late 80' but to be fair the producers give Jim a chance to present himself. I went through my tapes and I found clips from 1982ish where he is referenced or speaks. He was with the station for a while before the changes. You can hear that:

Jim Fonger

Been a while since I have played some of these and I had to dig out the Split Enz single from the sleeve and the A side was something called I See Red. A song that I had totally forgotten about. and thus the Doc has inspired a trip down memory lane for me. The single is on an indie label and was an import.


 

My Split Enz story - saw them at the Concert Hall in 79 or 80. I don't think I See Red was a single in NA. They were more known for I Got You but I See Red is smokin' tune. 
Flash forward to 2007 and Crowded House has reformed and playing at the Danforth Music Hall. I had heard they would take requests on occasion. Before the encore I dispatched a paper airplane onto the stage. Neil Finn picks it up and reads it to the crowd - I thanked them for the years of great music and asked if they could play I Got You. He finished by saying "We'd be delighted to" and off they went. It was glorious.

Last edited by bbqguy1962 (January 9, 2026 3:35 pm)

bbqguy your Split Enz story is great. One for the books!

Fitz wrote:

ERP, Reiner S was with NY for a very brief period in 1977 pre-Thriller. Literally a flash in the pan.. MJ's last album at the time was released in 1975 and did not see much chart action and the name he made for himself at that time  was mainly with the Jacksons. RS did work at CKFM, a station that might have played Jackson as the album with the white suit was in fact Thriller. RS's second stint with NY was post Thriller. You might be mixing up your memory here. His big breakthrough came with Off The Wall.

Yes, I think you caught me there, it wasn't Reiner, it was D Prtichard. I remembered it, first, because David P was not usually on the air on Saturday mornings, and second, he introduced the track so well. He had the guts to play MJ on NY, and I noticed.

ERP 0W wrote:

Fitz wrote:

I was waiting for a family member in the car in a parking lot at Kingston Rd and Eglinton listening  

Interesting!

I was out driving alone early on a weekend morning on Lawrence, E of Kingston Rd, which ain't too far away, when I heard CFNY die. Not the signal, the station.

It was 1987 i'm pretty sure, and "Modern Rock" was the new slogan. I was so upset I pulled over to the shoulder, just over the Highland Creek bridge. Had to stop and breathe deep, because I knew it was over.

Will never forget that day.
 

You are correct they adopted the Modern Rock slogan before the Edge and 88-89 was a rough patch but there was definitely a renaissance between late 89 to 91ish, Truth be told even in the early Edge era it was the station I listened to most in Toronto till about 2006/7. I think the preset is still there on my 2011 Rav4 but I don't listen to any local radio.

Also ERP I don't want to beat a dead horse but I really can't imagine David Pritchard  playing Michael Jackson in 1977, MJ was not making a name for himself south of the border at that time. He had not released anything  since 1975, When he did make a name for himself with Off The Wall, he did so both north and south of the border in 1979 and Pritchard was long gone.

Pritchard was only at CFNY for a few months in 1977. I did hear Mr Pritchard play pop rock like Rick Nelson, the Hollies ,The Beach Boys, The Byrds, Jude Collins, The Manhattan Transfer  and of course the Beatles and Motown but I have my doubts about MJ. Luckily I saved a fair bit of his air checks and had others given to me and I realize that's a drop in the bucket compared to his total output but I can't see MJ in 77 and the line "making a name for himself south of the border" does not make sense for 1977 or anytime really since he made a name for himself both north and south of the boder at the same time with the Jacksons first and then after Off The Wall.
 

Last edited by Fitz (January 10, 2026 10:26 pm)

Please forgive the indulgence but here's few more messy Pritchard playlists. The reason I'm quite sure they were the Pritchard program is bc of artists like Eno, the Prog band Carmen, Ars Nova and Dan Hicks. Diana Ross, Dan Hill and Eric Carmen and a few others.I believe were management dictated, There's a analogue to the CFNY sell out except initially it was not as bad and they did get rid of the clunkers and I remember Rick Ringer being able to play Howlin Wolf well after this. However by 1978 it was pure AOR conformity.

Nice that they were still able to play the Beach Boys Feel Flows, Kraftwerk, Kooper Stills Supersessions and others in the prog/alt vein though.

Edit: I just noticed that I had marked the last playlist as RR which I think means Rick Ringer amd one DS ( Don Shaffer) but I still think the unmarked ones are Pritchard.
 

Last edited by Fitz (January 11, 2026 8:52 am)

here's

RadioActive wrote:

TV critic Bill Brioux adds his voice to those praising the CFNY documentary. And while he's fairly complimentary, there are a few things he didn't like about the film. 

"While many key voices are assembled, there is a relentless parade of them. Clips are too short and come one after another, with not even enough time to read the captions off the screen (although I did like the few “Pop Up Video” bubbles.)

Getting back to Humble & Fred, it was great to see Freddy sharing one or two smart insights, but glimpsed next to him, unheard, was one of the great storytellers in radio, “Humble” Howard Glassman. How do you leave him out?

Fewer voices, allowed to tell an actual story or two instead of brief soundbites, would have added some pace to this documentary, which at times seems as if all the interviews were thrown into a blender."

He also notes the documentary seemed rushed (no pun intended) at times, but perhaps isn't aware it was originally 90 mins. TVO demanded it be cut to just an hour, which could account for why it moves along at such a rapid clip with some key moments and people left out. 

CFNY: The Spirit of Radio is alive, if choppy, on TVO Docs

Yes I wondered about the Humble omission with him on the screen briefly. Perhaps a victim of the cutting room. Once again another person who sees the station only thru new wave glasses but as ERP and I have pointed out it was when the station went Modern Rock that it lost it's charm.

Yes there was a time that the station was 85 % new wave but that 15 % difference made it more unpredictable. Early on it was even more than 15 %. There's a fairly lengthy air check on the spirit.ca site where Liz Janeck plays Deaf School, George Thorogood, Free and Sniff n' the Tears all within an hour. Sniff n.The Tears sound like a new wave name but they were more like pub rock and the Deaf School track she played was from 1974.

There's also this line in the article which is false [color=rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.74)] "When he arrived at ‘NY, he was already a renowned DJ after stints in the ’60s and ’70s in Toronto and Montreal under the handle “Dave Mickie.” [/color]

He was not Dave Mickie at CHOM FM and CHUM FM.

I dug up another clip from my tapes where Pete and Geets play two conseq. tracks that were not new wave and they have an announcement for a CFNY presents for Utopia and Marillion neither of which were new, wave. Reception is a bit wonky and perhaps I did not use the reciver with the outdoor antenna for this one.I promise not to respond to the next article like this as I think I have made my point

Pete and Geets 1983




 

Last edited by Fitz (January 11, 2026 12:33 pm)