According to wiki, the CHUM Starsign promotion was in 1976. You would wear your CHUM Starsign button or sticker and if a CHUM Starsign Spotter saw someone wearing their starsign they would win money, concert tickets or a variety of prizes. The CHUM spotters could be anywhere, and I believe  the CHUM jocks would let people know that the Starsign spotter would be out on Yonge St. this afternoon or at Yorkdale Mall etc. The Starsign spotters would always record the moment of winning and this would be included in promos for the contest. I wouldn't say it was as big as the  world famous "I listen to CHUM" phone promo from the early 70's but the CHUM Starsign was pretty big and likely lasted about a year altogether. And yes when you went to Toronto, especially downtown you would see some people wearing their CHUM Starsign. So your dad was in good company!

Last edited by paterson1 (January 4, 2020 12:01 am)

$18.00 Canadian you say.  Wahoo.  That means I've got $216.00 as I have all 12.  Not selling them however.

CFTR had the $30,000 button and you are right this contest was run at the same time as the CHUM Starsigns. On eBay the CFTR button is asking $9.99 Canadian. CHUM's buttons are more stylish, full colour and come in all the signs of the zodiac where TR's was a one style white button with red lettering.

There is an aircheck around of a CFTR announcer  phoning a listener live for a CFTR contest and the listener answering the phone live on air with "I listen to CHUM"... really funny and the jock on TR handled the embarrassing situation pretty well. 

The  "I listen to CHUM" contest was likely the stations most popular and was copied by many other stations over the years.  Not that CHUM was the first to do this (they may have been) but they executed it better than any other station. People who answered their phone with I listen to CHUM would win $1,000.  And everyone of a certain age remembers the line from the promos...

'When your phone rings, don't say hello...say I listen to CHUM." 

Mike Myers in his book from a few years ago writes about growing up in Toronto and listening to CHUM and CHUM FM, and he made a joke that even today when his phone rings he still says, I listen to CHUM.

Last edited by paterson1 (January 5, 2020 4:09 pm)

Not sure of the year for this one, but at some point, if you stuck this on your car bumper and listened at the right time, you'd be able to find the location of a gas station where you could get free fuel. 

Below that is both sides of the CFTR Super Ticket, which I assume was used to win prizes, although I have no memory of this contest at all. 

Hahaha, haven't heard that clip in years RA! That's why Ashby was so good, never made the listener look bad regardless how challenging they were, and he never gets rattled.  I sort of think this did get to air. I do remember hearing it before and one of the great things about the contest were all the funny calls when the listener didn't answer with the phrase that pays. Some of these were hilarious and as you said, they were spiced up a bit with some production, and CHUM would play these promos on air almost as much as the winning $1,000 calls.
 

Here are a few more instances of what happens when live radio contests go wrong. Poor Keith Elshaw (aka Steve Young) seems to have borne the brunt of these screw-ups. It happened primarily because at the time this took place - 1972 - CFTR had just turned Top 40 and had almost no listeners. So no one really knew who they were yet. 

As mentioned, I still don't get why they did this live - and more importantly, can you imagine anyone giving out someone's name and home address on the radio now? Privacy advocates would go crazy and rightly so.

When Live Contests Go Wrong - CFTR Toronto, 1972