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August 2, 2021 4:35 pm  #1


Was This Really Canada's First Top 40 FM Station?

It's kind of like trying to answer "who played the first Beatles record in Canada?"

A lot of stations make the claim and it's almost impossible to know who it really was. And so it was that I came across this article from 1971, which says that a rather obscure FM station in Lethbridge, Alberta was the first to go full time Top 40 on that band in Canada.

Given the longtime prohibition on hits on FM that was in force way too long, it seems unlikely. But it's hard to say. Anyone know?


Update:

This site appears to confirm it was at least in the running, publishing a chart from 1970 clearly showing a Top 40 (or in this case, Top 30) chart.

Whatever happened, CHEC-FM itself is no longer what it used to be. It's now a First Nations community station at 93.7 in Saskatchewan with a power of just 47 watts. 

 

August 2, 2021 6:14 pm  #2


Re: Was This Really Canada's First Top 40 FM Station?

I wondered if the CRTC regulation limiting hits on FM might not have existed back then. So I did some searching, and found the following notice ... it states that it came into effect in 1975.
https://crtc.gc.ca/eng/archive/1997/pb97-42.htm

 

August 2, 2021 6:56 pm  #3


Re: Was This Really Canada's First Top 40 FM Station?

Here's some further info about CHEC-FM, which mentions that it was becoming a full-time top 40 station in 1970 after experimenting with this format since the previous fall. It also changed its call letters in 1979.
http://www.broadcasting-history.ca/listing_and_histories/radio/cfrv-fm 

 

August 2, 2021 8:18 pm  #4


Re: Was This Really Canada's First Top 40 FM Station?

I have never actually heard any FM station claim to be Canada's first Top 40 station. I am not sure that is something that a company would promote anyway.  I remember CKGL FM prior to being a country format would play a bit of top 40 music in the early 70's but the format also included MOR/Beautiful Music and country cross overs.  FM didn't have any cancon regs in the early 70's, and later when it did come in was initially lower than AM. 

CJOY FM went on the air with 50,000 watts in 1969 out of Guelph.  I remember them playing Frankenstein by the Edgar Winter Group in 1972 and Wild Eyes by The Stampeders, but they weren't a top 40 station.  Later in the evening they would play some rock top 40 but they were more or less an easy listening A/C station.  When they changed call letters to CKLA in 1975 they were all easy listening.

It was amazing how long it took FM to catch on with listeners.  Quite a few FM stations came on the air in the late 40's/1950's and never really had much listenership until the mid 70's.  I guess part of this was because FM radio's were not common in cars and were not standard equipment.  FM didn't really become standard equipment in a lot of autos until the early 80's. 

 

August 2, 2021 8:45 pm  #5


Re: Was This Really Canada's First Top 40 FM Station?

If a Lethbridge station could do it in 1970, you have to wonder why the major market in Canada couldn't find one station willing to try it. I suppose you could say there was a perception that FM was reserved for prog. rock and elevator music in those days, and there were fewer stations overall. It could also be said that teens who primarily listened to Top 40 weren't ready for the new band. 

But how then to explain the popularity of WBEN-FM, aka Rock 102, which became a sensation in Southern Ontario when it started playing automated chart hits? I wish someone in Toronto had tried it. It would have been fascinating to see how it might have fared. 

     Thread Starter
 

August 2, 2021 8:53 pm  #6


Re: Was This Really Canada's First Top 40 FM Station?

RadioActive wrote:

But how then to explain the popularity of WBEN-FM, aka Rock 102, which became a sensation in Southern Ontario when it started playing automated chart hits? I wish someone in Toronto had tried it. It would have been fascinating to see how it might have fared. 

Regulation would have made it impossible. In addition to the aforementioned hit/non-hit ratio, at the time the CRTC dictated talk time, foreground programming, library size, and even whether or not a radio station was allowed to use computer software to schedule music. 

 

August 2, 2021 8:57 pm  #7


Re: Was This Really Canada's First Top 40 FM Station?

If that's the case, how did CHEC-FM get away with a Top 40 format? Wouldn't they have been bound by the same rules? (I'm not suggesting anyone here should have tried automation - just played the hits on FM to see what might have happened.) 

     Thread Starter
 

August 2, 2021 9:03 pm  #8


Re: Was This Really Canada's First Top 40 FM Station?

RadioActive wrote:

If that's the case, how did CHEC-FM get away with a Top 40 format? Wouldn't they have been bound by the same rules? (I'm not suggesting anyone here should have tried automation - just played the hits on FM to see what might have happened.) 

The headline says they were full-time Top 40, but a few lines down says they were Top 40 / Progressive Rock. So, not Top 40. They probably had some  Top 40ish dayparts and formatics. 
 

 

August 2, 2021 9:15 pm  #9


Re: Was This Really Canada's First Top 40 FM Station?

CKFH did something similar in the late 60s/early 70s, with the Open Lid. Straight Top 40 all day and a period of progressive rock at night. Not FM of course, but hybrids - while unusual - did happen here. But no one in Toronto thought to even attempt that on the other band. 

I remember travelling to the U.S. many times during that era and being jealous of some of the great radio they had on both bands in cities like New York, Pittsburgh, Miami and more. While I loved CHUM and some of the others from T.O. and Hamilton, I always wondered as a kid why we couldn't have the same thing here. 

(And by the way, I have trouble picturing Terry David Mulligan as a Mountie...)

     Thread Starter
 

August 2, 2021 9:25 pm  #10


Re: Was This Really Canada's First Top 40 FM Station?

RadioAaron wrote:

RadioActive wrote:

But how then to explain the popularity of WBEN-FM, aka Rock 102, which became a sensation in Southern Ontario when it started playing automated chart hits? I wish someone in Toronto had tried it. It would have been fascinating to see how it might have fared. 

Regulation would have made it impossible. In addition to the aforementioned hit/non-hit ratio, at the time the CRTC dictated talk time, foreground programming, library size, and even whether or not a radio station was allowed to use computer software to schedule music. 

In addition to that there was  a rule limiting plays of non-Canadian songs to 18 times a week which goes right to the heart of what Top 40 radio was all about -  constant repetition of the day's hottest hits. As a result at that time no FM station in Canada could run a true hits only format. Hybrids happened which allowed for playing album cuts by big name artists or adding in non-charting rock tracks to uphold the non-hit rule.

 

August 2, 2021 9:26 pm  #11


Re: Was This Really Canada's First Top 40 FM Station?

RadioAaron wrote:

RadioActive wrote:

But how then to explain the popularity of WBEN-FM, aka Rock 102, which became a sensation in Southern Ontario when it started playing automated chart hits? I wish someone in Toronto had tried it. It would have been fascinating to see how it might have fared. 

Regulation would have made it impossible. In addition to the aforementioned hit/non-hit ratio, at the time the CRTC dictated talk time, foreground programming, library size, and even whether or not a radio station was allowed to use computer software to schedule music. 

All of the hit/non hit, foreground regulations, cancon etc were not around in 1970.  FM radio in the early 70's was not regulated that much, simply because hardly anyone was listening to it.  AM had the ratings, and made the money.   Many FM stations were still losing money or at best breaking even into the mid to late 70's.  In smaller markets even later. 

Had there been top 40 music on FM would have sped up the movement of AM's demise, which was already happening.  Calling WBEN FM a sensation in Southern Ontario is a bit of a stretch.  Judging by the ratings I saw, it wasn't really that popular, at least in 1982/83.  A lot of Rock 102's initial buzz and interest was the fact, yes they were playing top 40, had no announcers, few commercials, and it was easy to record songs off air since they had dead air between the tunes because of automation.  No pesky announcers talking over the intro of songs, so it was more like a juke box rather than radio station. 

 

August 2, 2021 10:27 pm  #12


Re: Was This Really Canada's First Top 40 FM Station?

paterson1 wrote:

Calling WBEN FM a sensation in Southern Ontario is a bit of a stretch.  Judging by the ratings I saw, it wasn't really that popular, at least in 1982/83.  A lot of Rock 102's initial buzz and interest was the fact, yes they were playing top 40, had no announcers, few commercials, and it was easy to record songs off air since they had dead air between the tunes because of automation.  No pesky announcers talking over the intro of songs, so it was more like a juke box rather than radio station. 

Well, it made enough of an impact and was considered enough of a threat that the government took notice - and so did Canadian broadcasters, as evidenced in the stories below.



     Thread Starter
 

August 2, 2021 11:05 pm  #13


Re: Was This Really Canada's First Top 40 FM Station?

Potentially WBEN FM could have created some problems.  Yes they were showing up in the ratings, but not that strong what I saw.   Buffalo was a much smaller market than Toronto, even back in 1975, and any station from the Queen City would love to crack into the richer and bigger GTA, that was just across the lake.
  
But also remember, it wasn't a one way street.  Toronto radio also boomed into Buffalo and had listeners in Western NY.  CFNY for years had listeners calling in from Buffalo, Niagara Falls NY as did CHUM FM and Q107.   The big difference was that Toronto stations didn't go out of their way to solicit advertising from Buffalo or Western NY.  Back then they had all they could handle in Toronto.   Stations like CHUM AM, or FM, Q107, CFRB, CFTR didn't even aggressively try to sell advertising in Hamilton, let alone Buffalo.  Maybe some national advertising buys, but nothing local or regional. 

However, that wasn't  the case the other way around.  Not faulting WBEN but they were in an area that was in big economic decline and Rock 102, having no announcers, and all automated 24/7 back in 1975, indicates a station that is on life support.  So naturally they would look north to a city that was booming and thriving and try to skim off some cream. Nobody can fault them for that.  However, there is also nothing wrong with Toronto stations and the CRTC making it more difficult for them and protecting home turf.  And guess what, broadcasters in Buffalo and the FCC would do the same thing if the tables had been turned. 

 

August 3, 2021 12:08 am  #14


Re: Was This Really Canada's First Top 40 FM Station?

No question, Rock 102 made a significant impact here in the 1970s. I was a regular listener for various reasons It was great not to have to hear Canadian hits overplayed, I got to hear some other songs that I wouldn't hear much if at all on Canadian stations, and the sound quality was great. And I certainly noticed a significant number of Canadian advertisers, which wouldn't have been happening if they didn't have a decent number of listeners here. Here's an article that I found about the situation. 

 

August 3, 2021 6:23 am  #15


Re: Was This Really Canada's First Top 40 FM Station?

paterson1 wrote:

     CJOY FM went on the air with 50,000 watts in 1969 out of Guelph   

CJOY has been on the air in Guelph since 1948.    Guelph is a bedroom community to Puslinch.
 

 

August 3, 2021 9:52 am  #16


Re: Was This Really Canada's First Top 40 FM Station?

I am sure whatever success WBEN FM had with Canadian advertisers was helped by the stations low rates and the fact that customers could write off the expense.  True, there was a new Canadian audience that was tuning in, although not as large as many thought.  And again, in the mid 70's into the 80's Buffalo and Western NY were in economic and population decline, while Toronto was growing and booming.  Of course a station like WBEN would try to take dollars out of Southern Ontario.  

Note that the advertising dried up for WBEN when the advertiser could no longer write off the expense of advertising on an American station.  If the advertising was working so well for clients and with low rates, many if not most would still do at least some advertising with the station.  That didn't happen.

I understand the CRTC giving preference to Canadian channels both radio and television on cable.  More FM and television stations were coming on and the local and regional stations should be given the better positions and preference in their own country.  American cable has always done this with their media.  Rock 102 was carried on cable in areas like Owen Sound, Barrie, Collingwood, and likely many others.  Most of these cities would not have received the station off air clearly and thus greatly increased Rock 102's coverage.  In the Toronto area the station could be tuned in clearly off air, so not being on cable was not really that big an big issue.  



 

 

August 3, 2021 10:10 am  #17


Re: Was This Really Canada's First Top 40 FM Station?

RadioAaron wrote:

RadioActive wrote:

But how then to explain the popularity of WBEN-FM, aka Rock 102, which became a sensation in Southern Ontario when it started playing automated chart hits? I wish someone in Toronto had tried it. It would have been fascinating to see how it might have fared. 

Regulation would have made it impossible. In addition to the aforementioned hit/non-hit ratio, at the time the CRTC dictated talk time, foreground programming, library size, and even whether or not a radio station was allowed to use computer software to schedule music. 

>> Regulation would have made it impossible. In addition to the aforementioned hit/non-hit ratio, at the time the CRTC dictated talk time, foreground programming, library size, and even whether or not a radio station was allowed to use computer software to schedule music. 
I'm willing to bet North Korea has fewer regulations.
 


"Life without echo is really no life at all." - Dan Ingram
 

August 3, 2021 10:30 am  #18


Re: Was This Really Canada's First Top 40 FM Station?

geo wrote:

paterson1 wrote:

. . . helped by the stations low rates and the fact that customers could write off the expense   

Section 19 of the Income Tax Act stipulates that amounts paid to advertise in non-Canadian print or broadcast are NOT tax-deductible


 

Prior to the law being changed it was tax deductible.  When Rock 102 was running the Canadian ads, advertisers could write off the expense.  The government later changed the law so it wasn't tax deductible for any non-Canadian print or broadcast advertising .  This was my point, if the advertising had been effective or crucial  reaching the Canadian audience on Rock 102, many of the advertisers would have continued with some advertising on the station.  But this didn't appear to happen. 

 

August 3, 2021 10:56 am  #19


Re: Was This Really Canada's First Top 40 FM Station?

paterson1 wrote:

    Prior to the law being changed it was tax deductible.

Time and Newsweek magazines both created Canadian editions in the early 70s because of the tax code change