Today marks the 50th anniversary of what at the time was a somewhat controversial format change for CFTR.  A change that saw a shift from a MOR format to a Top 40 format.   

 In 1971 I had started as an intern at CHFI/CFTR training as an operator for CHFI.  Typically, I would come in three nights a week on a voluntary basis to learn and gain experience working with Don Parrish voice tracks producing Candlelight and Wine, a dinnertime show that was meant to be a background of fine easy listening music.  

 At the time the studios were located at 13 Adelaide St. E and occupied the second and third floors above retail shops on the street level.  One of those shops was the Town Coffee Shop, our local greasy spoon.  The main floor of the station consisted of the newsroom to the left at the top of the stairs.  Continuing down the hall, (which was a bit of a labyrinth) was the AM announce booth, the record Library, FM control, then an announce booth that was shared by both FM control and the FM production studio.  Last was AM control to the left of the entrance to the FM production studio which was at the end of the hall.  The second floor consisted of sales, traffic and programming offices and the AM production studio and Announce booth.  

Financially at that time CFTR was not doing well.  About 70% of the  commercials were contra, paying for vehicles, drapes and such.  I can still hear R.O. Horning Jr’s voice on the National Drapery spots.  Rumours had started that CFTR was going to go top40.  For us operators it was exciting news (all of us being rock and rollers) but for others, not so much.  Announcers like Earl Mann, John Woodbridge and R.O. Horning Jr. were in complete disagreement and all left a week or so later.  

I was eventually hired full time working overnights on CHFI operating the Classic Till Dawn show, voice tracked by Ronn Grimster.  Some months later an opening was created on the day shift which I moved into.  The drawback was that it was a split shift.  I would start at 5am operating  for Ken Kirkley until 9am then back in at 2pm until 6pm operating the afternoon drive show.  For me, a terrible shift as at the time I was living in North York and felt that it wasn’t worth driving back and forth during the five hours in between.  Most days I ended up hanging around the station during the downtime.  This provided an opportunity for me to get some time on the board in AM.  A couple times a week I would operate the last hour of the Bob McAdorey show, which ended at10am.  This allowed my friend Chris who was Bob’s operator, to pick carts (commercials) for the rest of the day.    

Sometime prior to March 14/72 (I don’t remember the exact date) George Johns was hired as Programme Director and Station Manager, along with Keith Elshaw, to be George’s assistant.  Keith was familiar to me from his days at CKFH.  With those hires the anticipated rumours were suddenly becoming reality.  American radio consultant Buzz Bennett was brought in to oversee the transition.     

One afternoon while working the afternoon drive show in FM control, I heard a commotion and the jangle of what sounded like spurs from the hallway behind me.  I turned around to see a man with dark shoulder length hair, in full denim wearing a cowboy hat and cowboy boots with spurs!  That person was Buzz Bennett.  He was being followed by our chief engineer Ron Turnpenny and his assistant Les Henwood.  Both of them were dead set against the format change and were treating Buzz as an intruder.  Ron was saying to Buzz that he wasn’t welcome and had to leave.  As they turned the corner outside my door, Ron managed to manoeuvre his way past Buzz to try and impede his progress saying, “you can’t come in here.”  When they got to the entrance of AM control, Ron stood there, arms outstretched with his hands on the doorframe.  Standing there face to face Ron said again, “you can’t come in here!”  Buzz responded by saying, “Ya see these spurs?”  “I haven’t used these spurs on a dude in a long time!”  I thought for a moment it would come to blows but Ron relented and let him by.   

On March 14th, I finished the morning part of my split shift and walked down the hall to AM control, to op the last hour of Bob’s show.  Just before ten o’clock I cued up what would be the last record of the MOR format.  During the playing of that record, Keith walked into the control room with two stacks of 45’s.  One stack was 30 of the current songs of the day, the other was a much larger stack of “oldies”.  Keith said to me, “I want you to play one current, one oldie, one current, one oldie, etc.”  He said not to deviate from that and warned about changing the order of the music.  

With the end of the newscast I started the first record, Isaac Hayes, Theme From Shaft.  Chris took over on the board and I walked into the studio to console R.O. Horning Jr. who was not happy at all about the format change.  While sitting beside him, I noticed a copy of a memo in the waste basket, that had been sent to all the jocks from George.  It was Bob’s copy.  Thinking it would make a nice memento, I picked it up and still have it to this day and which I share with all of you.  


  

Last edited by Citypulse News 15 (March 14, 2022 4:00 pm)