To a certain age group, CFRB was like a pair of old slippers - something you put on for comfort. It was so bland and so predictable that it appealed to its demo like few others. As a kid, I couldn't stand the elevator music it played, but I still knew the names of Jack Dennett, Gordon Sinclair, Bob Hesketh, Wally Crouter and the rest. 

It also had one other big advantage in my mind. It was the heritage station most older adults at the time had grown up with. I remember going to my grandparents' home every weekend on Parliament St., and if their radio was on, it was always tuned to 1010. In all the years I went there, I don't remember them ever listening to anything else. My dad also had it on in the car when he was driving, despite his kids constant requests to "put on CHUM!"

So it almost had its own generational legacy. That's not the case today, of course, and the choices of FM, podcasts and streaming have completely changed the landscape. I don't think a CFRB could exist today and if it did, it would be more like a WEBR Buffalo - end of the dial with middling to no ratings, appealing to a few. But of course, there's no way to know.

I will always believe that the reason Crouter retired when he did was that he wasn't comfortable with the talk format that was instituted at the station in his final years there. The article notes that he liked to walk around the halls during his show and schmooze with his co-workers. That obviously went out the window when the music stopped and outside of news or spot breaks, he was on the air non-stop for the full three or four hours. And you can't really get away with no prep on a talk show. You have to know where it's going and what's coming up next.

That takes a different kind of mindset and while I have no proof, I just got the impression that, after all those years of doing it one way, it just wasn't his thing

But I can say with some certainty that no other Toronto radio station had the loyalty of its listeners quite like that one did. Given all the alternatives out there now, it almost certainly can never happen again.  

mojo55 wrote:

In the 1940s and early 1950s, the Saturday night hockey broadcasts and the Wayne & Shuster radio show were
broadcast on the nationwide CBC Trans Canada network including Toronto's clear channel CBL AM-740. Since
CFRB had such huge ratings, both the NHL and Wayne & Shuster insisted that CFRB be added to the network
carrying these broadcasts. In fact when CKFH came on the scene in 1951, Foster Hewitt's station carried Saturday night Leaf hockey in addition to CBL ....and CFRB continued to carry these games for a few years.

Also, the General Motors Hockey Broadcast (which eventually became HNIC) was on CFRB beginning in 1932 and was the flagship station for the broadcast - before the CBC or even the CRBC existed - so CFRB may have had some sort of contractual legacy rights even if they didn't have exclusivity (since CBL would also carry the show) - or McLaren Advertising which owned the broadcast, decided to keep the show on CFRB when CRBC and then CBC picked it up nationally. 
 

It is kind of hard to know what CFRB would have been like today if they hadn't gone all talk.  Actually looking back, it was surprising that they continued to play music as long as they did.  According to wiki CBC radio 1 started beating RB in 2003 in the morning ratings.  I am sure today that Moore in the Morning is likely in the top 5  in Toronto.  I remember reading on another site that his show did very well about two years ago .  Last few books don't really mean quite as much, or likely that accurate because of COVID.

People forget that CFRB when they were playing music actually did play current songs as well.  They certainly weren't all nostalgia or even all MOR music. Their music director would regularly contribute to RPM magazine and send through their current playlisted songs. They did play many current A/C and a few top 40 hits of the day.
 
I remember Wally and other daytime hosts would play some current hits, although nothing too rocky or with guitar solos.  But in the morning CFRB would play current music from Bread, Elton John, Gary and Dave, The Eagles or Linda Ronstadt.  Even Beth by KISS got airplay on the big 1010 when it was a hit!  Mind you, to hear songs like these, you also had to sit through selections by Ray Conniff, Keith Barrie, Lawrence Welk, Steve and Edie and of course The Laurie Bower Singers!! 

But even though we love to mock CFRB's music, they were the first in North America to play the Beatles, Not bad for a station that was never really music oriented at all.   I always thought of CFRB as a news and information station, with opinion and comment, and some very well known personalities. When they did play music, regardless of it being good, bad or awful, it never hurt them at all with their audience and they just continued to sail through the years as the most listened to radio station in Toronto and Canada.

kevjo wrote:

My recollection is that in his last three or four years his role gradually reduced to being the "throw guy". As they added more features and reports (not to mention increasingly lengthy commercial breaks) the hours became quite crowded and Wally mostly had only a minute or two at a time for himself before having to throw it to something else. That was likely done as a way to ween listeners off Wally as he had probably begun to make it known he wasn't as happy with the format. Not that it mattered because by then his reputation had already been permanently cast in stone.

I think you're probably right. And I also believe it's what led to the sudden exit of Gord Martineau from City TV so abruptly a few years ago. He saw the writing on the wall, as they moved to a semi-anchorless newscast.

Towards the end, he had less and less to do and was on camera for shorter periods of time every night. I suspect he left because a) his contract was up and b) he was sure they wouldn't renew it and he wanted it to be his decision - not Rogers. 

Hansa wrote:

I'm wondering what would have happened had CFRB promised the morning show to Andy Barrie and he had taken over from Crouter in 1996 of Ted Woloshyn? Barrie, of course, jumped to CBC and Metro Morning in 1995 and Metro Morning eventually overtook RB in the morning ratings. 

I think Bill Carroll was probably the nail in the coffin though. Like it or not, Toronto is a liberal city and while RB has never exactly been a left-of-centre station - its newscasters such as Jack Dennett and Taylor Parnaby let their conservative views come through a lot of the time, but the hosts such as Crouter, Betty Kennedy, Valerie Pringle etc were more middle of the road) I think the move to American-style (if lite) right wing talk radio drove away a lot of listeners who never came back, even after RB tried to add a few more moderate voices to its airwaves a few years later. 

Good comments Hansa, it would have been interesting to see what would have happened if Andy Barrie had inherited the morning show first.  Although Ted did ok ratings wise when he took over from Wally Crouter.  Ted was nothing like Wally and CFRB continued their top position for a time while the station was going through many changes in other dayparts with their evolution to a talk/news format. And initially Bill Carroll actually had a good increase in the morning for CFRB.  But the number one in the market days were gone.

I am not sure it is a liberal town thing though.  Toronto was and still is in many ways both liberal and conservative at the same time.  And I am not necessarily talking about politics, but rather habits and attitude.

CFTO (CTV Toronto) has been by far the most popular local television news for over 50 years with the same middle of the road and safe conservative approach.  They really haven't changed in their style in years.

The Toronto Star is still the biggest circulation local  paper/website in Toronto and has been the most popular by far for decades and decades. And the Star as we all know is left of centre.  Don't know if is still true but for a long time the circulation of the Sun, Globe and Post combined did not equal the daily circulation of the Star. The Globe to their credit right now is likely profitable and the most successful of the papers, however it's national but much of it's circulation is from the GTA.

CBC Radio overall is the number one station in Toronto and has been for a fairly long time.  Radio One is considered by many to be left of centre.  Like all public broadcasters their programming covers more topics in greater detail than commercial radio has time for.  CBC radio does program overall to a more educated higher income demographic, or at least that's who tunes in.    But CBC TV in Toronto and their news which also is considered by many to be left of centre is dead on arrival in Toronto and going nowhere. 

I have never heard of a radio station make big format and imaging changes in Toronto and zoom to the number one or two or three position in the market within a few months or years. The only exception might be when a host leaves or gets fired from one station and moves to another.  Similar to when Erin Davis was let go from CHFI and resurfaced on EZ Rock.  But this is not a format change or change in music.  Toronto radio seems hesitant to change format at all.  In other major markets especially in Western Canada big image changes, formats, music, and talent flips happen quite often.

However you could argue that Toronto listeners/viewers/readers are loyal to their media of choice, and it may be harder to get them to change their habits or actually move to a newer or rebranded station or program.  And that is not necessarily a bad thing.