There’s no doubt radio as we know it today is vastly different from the days when the medium was in its infancy. Even with the Internet and streaming, there are thousands of stations across North America all trying to attract ears of all ages. Which is why it’s so startling to see every U.S. station then in existence fit onto one page back in 1928. And you may notice that not many of the survivors from that early era ended up in the same dial position they occupy now.
 

 
It took even less room to list all those in Canada.
 

 
This list below, from 1923, not only shows the stations that were in Toronto back then, but who owned them. In addition to CFCA, the Toronto Star’s outlet and CJSC, controlled by the Toronto Telegram, CHCB was owned by Marconi – the same company that started CFCF, the world’s first radio station in Montreal in 1919.
 
Metropolitan Motors controlled a broadcaster named CHVC and those call letters would be used again in 1947, only to morph into the long gone CJRN in Niagara Falls. (Did they even have cars in 1923?)
 
The United Farmers of Ontario planted CJCH, famous calls still in use in Halifax. Eaton’s was in charge of CJCD (and you probably don’t need to wonder who their main sponsor was.) And two other businesses lost to history owned two stations also long gone from the record books - there was a CHFC, owned by “John Millen & Sons,” whoever they were, and CJCN was in the hands of a entity named Simons Agnew & Co.
 
The forerunner of Bell was also into radio back then, with a station known as CFTC. And CKOC was on the air in Hamilton, but being run by The Wentworth Radio Supply Co., which should have come in handy for getting equipment.
 
And one more – did you notice a CHIC, assigned to Hamilton? Those calls would turn up again decades later as a notorious Brampton AM.  
 

  
By 1958, the choices were clear.
 

 
So who was the King of the Castle? Here’s the list of the top T.O. tune-ins from 1956.
 

Still not everything was easy. Especially when it came to keeping the lights – and the transmitter – on all the time. Imagine this happening today. From Nov. 1948:
 
 
 
While the history of Toronto stations is well known, it’s hard to imagine the aforementioned CKOC Hamilton has been around since 1922 – although they weren’t on 1150 back then. Still, just like in their later Top 40 days, the signal hit T.O. and that was enough to allow them to make the boast in the second paragraph below.
 

While FM wasn’t really a factor back then, by 1967 it had begun to garner some numbers – at least in Buffalo
 

FM today is the top band people listen to and in most cities – including Toronto – the dial is so crowded, there’s no more room for anyone else. Yet that doesn’t stop companies from applying for weak stations that won’t go far, just to get their foot in the airway door.
 
But if you think there’s a traffic jam on the band now, think about what might have been back in 1945, when officials debated ending the FM dial at 102 – with 20 of those going to “educational” outlets.
 

If that had happened, there still would have been room for CHFI at 98.1, one of the first full time FM-ers in Canada. And it holds one other unique position in the history of Canadian radio. While most companies had an AM and looked to get into FM , ’FI was the only one that started on the high quality band and desperately wanted an AM outlet. Needless to say, they didn’t welcome the competition.
 

 
It took until April 1962, but Ted Rogers finally got what he wanted.
 

 
By July of that year, they were pumping out a lot of watts.
 

But they weren’t happy about being at 1540. So they went to extraordinary lengths to change that.
 

 
While some AM stations are still vital, many are pale shadows of what they used to be, as listeners fled to FM. So in 1983, the band made one last attempt at stopping the flow – AM Stereo.
 

 
Here are a few other weird things about the GTHA dial you may have never known. Remember when CBC snagged the very valuable 99.1 frequency after the demise of all news network CKO? Turns out, they were resuming an old spot. From October 1946:
 

Yep, CBC used to be at 99.1 FM, only to return there decades later.
 
We’ve already seen how CFRB and CJBC swapped frequencies in the 1940s, but you may not have known it didn’t always go by the calls “CJBC.”

 

But the biggest change came in 1962.
 

 
Speaking of French (if not IN French) there was one other radio station that communicated in that language that might surprise you. Check out what 20% of their programming consisted of back in 1957. See how (or C-HOW) they ran it. 
 

And finally, a radio poem composed by a host at CKOC back in 1943. Which, if nothing else, proves that maybe not that much has changed after all.
 

 
Next week: Why the first TV station to reach the GTA wasn’t in the GTA.