1 of 1- RadioActive
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The T.O. Radio Station That Always Gets A Free Pass
A previous thread here noted the demise of the bikini contest at this year’s annual CHIN International Picnic. There’s a story about that in Friday’s Toronto Star, but what intrigued me most about the article were the paragraphs surrounding the first days of the station itself.
"During the 50,000-watt station’s historic first broadcast, the chief “CHINwagger” was Al Boliska, formerly of CKEY.
“Hello. You found us, eh?” came his “syrupy voice,” according to a reporter. “Caught you napping, didn’t we? I’ll bet you’re surprised!”
Launched on a shoestring, the fledging operation wasn’t music to everyone’s ears. When a new tower was erected in 1967, CHIN unwittingly intruded into non-listeners’ lives, first when signal interference caused Greek music to be piped into a TV broadcast of a Stanley Cup playoff game. Then churchgoers in North York were treated to ethnic music over the loudspeaker system.
Three years later, the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission threatened to cancel CHIN’s licence over poor service and management but reconsidered after Lombardi promised to clean up his act. Today, the station broadcasts a mix of international music, talk and news in more than 30 languages."
More here
Al Boliska on CHIN? Who knew?
All of which brings up one of my pet peeves about CHIN – it seems to be invulnerable to one of the industry’s greatest unwritten laws: never mention the competition. Yet, it’s the only radio station in Canada that always seems to get a free pass from rival broadcasters.
You would never hear CHFI refer to a concert promotion being sponsored by CHUM-FM. Nor would you expect AM640 to plug something that CFRB was doing. (Although I’ve heard Stafford hilariously and subtly refer to the guys down the dial, once saying “we don’t have a panel! How can we possibly cover this?” a snide reference to Jerry Agar’s first hour. He also had a really bad noon segment once and made me laugh by admitting, “Yeah, we gave this hour to Bullard.” But other than that, the competition doesn’t exist.)
I remember when City TV, then owned by CHUM, used to spend huge bucks on the MuchMusic Video Awards, but you’d hear only passing mentions of it on CTV or Global - if at all. (How ironic that now that Bell owns both CTV and Much, the roles have completely reversed.)
Yet CHIN and its picnic get tons of publicity on nearly every radio and TV station in the city, seemingly without any notice that the outlet is actually on against them. I suppose ethnic radio isn’t seen as competing with the big English speaking, music playing guys, but they get still get far more on air notice than any other competitor would ever receive. I’ve always found that interesting, if not somewhat odd.
One of my old PDs told me anything that steals even one listener away from you is something that should never be promoted on your airwaves. How is it that CHIN has always managed to avoid that prohibition?
- Kilgore
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Re: The T.O. Radio Station That Always Gets A Free Pass
RadioActive wrote:
a story about that in Friday’s Toronto Star
Which Friday & which section please
K.
- ig
- Iain Grant
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Re: The T.O. Radio Station That Always Gets A Free Pass
a story about that in Friday’s Toronto Star
Which Friday & which section please
Online it's yesterday's news..
Madness takes its toll. Please have exact change.
- RadioActive
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Re: The T.O. Radio Station That Always Gets A Free Pass
a story about that in Friday’s Toronto Star
Which Friday & which section please
K.
Actually, it was in the link that says "More here." I probably could have made that more clear. But thanks to IG for clarifying.
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Thread Starter- Doug Thompson
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Re: The T.O. Radio Station That Always Gets A Free Pass
A friend of mine, Vic Phillips (former crime reporter for CFTO) was working at CHIN and was given the unenviable task of firing Al Boliska..
Boliska was at CKEY for less than 2 years. Before that, he started at CHUM in the fall of 1957 and left for CKEY in the fall of 1963..
He died in Montreal on April 7th, 1972, on the eve of his 40nd birthday.
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- RadioActive
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Re: The T.O. Radio Station That Always Gets A Free Pass
A lot of well known or almost well known people have passed through CHIN over the years, most starting their careers there and getting out as soon as possible.
A guy named Mark Burns was briefly their morning man on the AM side, back when they had an all-English AM drive show. He eventually landed at CFTR News back when 680 was a rock station. He wasn't there long, and I think he wound up in Montreal. I'm not sure what happened to him after that.
Randy Maxwell morphed into Randall Stevens, and also ended up at the Top 40 TR in the late 70s and 80s in the newsroom. He eventually retired from the business to take over his father's company.
But perhaps the best known for the purposes of this board is someone who didn't start his career there, but ended it. The great Fred Snyder was CHIN's longtime production director, tasked with producing spots and other shows at the station. If you don't know him by that name, you may recall the pseudonym he used at CHUM in the 60s: Moose Latreck.
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Thread Starter- ig
- Iain Grant
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Re: The T.O. Radio Station That Always Gets A Free Pass
I know, but links are free 
a story about that in Friday’s Toronto Star
Which Friday & which section please
K.
Actually, it was in the link that says "More here." I probably could have made that more clear. But thanks to IG for clarifying.
Madness takes its toll. Please have exact change.
- Kilgore
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Re: The T.O. Radio Station That Always Gets A Free Pass
links are free
So is the Toronto Star, at damn near every coffee shop
- RadioActive
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Re: The T.O. Radio Station That Always Gets A Free Pass
Back to the original thread for a moment, I noted that CHIN gets a free pass from just about anyone, and stated that I couldn't think of anyone else that does.
Turns out, there may be another one.
It's the CBC.
To my surprise on Friday, Global led (!) their noon newscast with the fact that the CBC would be broadcasting the final Tragically Hip concert without commercials on August 20th. And while I can understand why this may be considered a story, I can't imagine a rival network coming on and essentially telling its viewers, "during this time period, we don't expect you to watch us. Instead, here's what the competition will have that you might like better!"
And the fact they lead with it only adds insult to injury in my possibly less-than-informed opinion.
CBC will broadcast The Tragically Hip’s final concert
And by the way, links are free - unless they're made of bacon.
Last edited by RadioActive (June 17, 2016 3:21 pm)
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Thread Starter- Hansa
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Re: The T.O. Radio Station That Always Gets A Free Pass
Bruno Gerussi was CHIN's morning man in the mid-60s, replacing Al Boliska, but moved on to host a national morning show on CBC Radio.
Last edited by Hansa (June 17, 2016 4:01 pm)
- unclefester
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Re: The T.O. Radio Station That Always Gets A Free Pass
A lot of well known or almost well known people have passed through CHIN over the years, most starting their careers there and getting out as soon as possible.
A guy named Mark Burns was briefly their morning man on the AM side, back when they had an all-English AM drive show. He eventually landed at CFTR News back when 680 was a rock station. He wasn't there long, and I think he wound up in Montreal. I'm not sure what happened to him after that.
Randy Maxwell morphed into Randall Stevens, and also ended up at the Top 40 TR in the late 70s and 80s in the newsroom. He eventually retired from the business to take over his father's company.
Interesting....I worked with both gentlemen oh-so-many years ago and had no clue they were CHIN alum...
Burns was American by birth and I believe he ended up in Canada because things got a little "drafty" in his native United States...Last I heard he was in Vancouver ??
Randall the Handle was a pretty intense guy...he would say goodbye -- good night and leave and then 5 minutes later he'd come right back...leave again and reappear yet again !!!....rinse and repeat...He was once featured as a Toronto Sun Sunshine Boy or whatever the hell it was called...
Last edited by unclefester (June 17, 2016 6:24 pm)