From the very beginning of its rock and roll years, CKFH called itself “#2 Radio – We must be, because everyone else is #1.” They even had a jingle with that slogan.
 
It was not only funny, but it was prophetic – CKFH tried to compete with arch-rival CHUM, but in the end, #2 was the best they could do.
 
But FH – which were the initials for original owner, NHL broadcasting great Foster Hewitt – had actually been around since 1950, starting life as a one lung signal that only reached part of Toronto at 1400 AM. It wasn’t until it moved to 1430 in 1959 that it started to become more influential.
 

 
But it wasn’t easy because it appeared CKFH never really knew what it wanted to be. It played Big Band music, and ironically tried to focus itself as a kind of an anti-CHUM.
 
From Jan. 1960:
 

 
But they also aired jazz and broadcast the Leafs – the main source of its income in those early days.
 



 
And sometimes those sports created a conflict, causing ‘FH to cry foul over baseball.
 

 
It was a bitter dispute and it actually led to the rules in Canada being changed.
 

 
Still, sometimes it was hard to be all things to all people. Not that they didn’t try, as this 1956 article shows.
 

 But while the station was relatively successful, it didn’t really become a force to be reckoned with until it switched format to Top 40 in 1967 and went straight after CHUM. We’ll look at that era next week.