RadioActive wrote:

Just one quick correction - the CHUM Tribute Site is administered by the great Doug Thompson, producer extraordinaire who once worked at the nifty 1050. He does a great job on the site and has access to a ton of official material no one else does.

So while Dale is no slouch with his Rock Radio Scrapbook and his Oh Wow! projects, (not to mention creating the original SOWNY a very long time ago) just thought someone should set the record straight. 

Both deserve praise for preserving radio history so well, which as many here know, is something I care deeply about - and sadly, too few stations do. 

(Worth noting that Ashby also makes use of the CHUM Chart listings when he does his Top 5 countdowns on his weekly oldies show.) 

Glad you set that straight on Doug Thompson's site for Radio One, CHUM. But I did create the #2 Radio site ... and we'e still #2!


 

Last edited by Dale Patterson (April 28, 2022 11:54 am)

Zoomer Radio resembles 1050 CHUM in their second incarnation as an oldies station (2002-2009) with their broad playlist covering several decades and going deep into the charts. Even though Zoomer doesn't position themselves as a rock 'n' roll station exclusively, they've done a really great job in keeping the spirit of The Rock of Toronto alive.

It's probably no coincidence that their "Top Ten at Ten/Next Eleven at Eleven" charts posted on Facebook bear a striking resemblance to the CHUM Charts of the 70s, too.



PJ

paterson1 wrote:

I had AM 740 on this morning at 10am and caught most of their top ten songs from this date in 1967.  Robbie Lane was hosting.  The music was really good with The Spencer Davis Group, MOJO Men, The Supremes, The Who.  

What caught my attention was a song in the top ten, from Dino, Desi and Billy with If Your Thinking What I'm Thinking which was number 7 on this date 1967.  I remember hearing that this single was big in the Toronto area on CHUM and Southern Ontario  but not so much elsewhere.  In fact it didn't make the top 40 at all in the US and one chart I looked at had the song peaking at #127. 

Then at number 4 was a long forgotten hit by Vancouver band The Collectors and Looking For a Baby.  This band eventually became Chilliwack. So I went on line to our own Doug Thompson's excellent CHUM Tribute site to check out the CHUM chart for this week in April 1967.  And there it was, the same top ten that Zoomer was counting down.  And after 11am they continue with the number 11 song this week and go through the chart until 12 noon.

Nice to see that they use the CHUM Charts which I always thought was the best, with more variety and more rock oriented than Billboard.  And the CHUM Chart certainly reflected what was popular in Toronto since any retailer selling singles used this chart in store.  

Now if AM 740 would only carry Roger Ashby's show all would be good!! 

I am sorry I did not catch the show. 1967 was an exceptional  year for music. My favorite for Top  40 music. Would have loved to hear the Mojo Men's cover of the The Buffalo Springfield tune Sit Down I think I love You on the radio at this late date.

Regarding the Dino, Desi and Billy tune, I only found out much later perhaps in the late 80's that the song was not a big North American hit. I think their big US hit was "I'm a Fool" and to a lesser extant "Not The Lovin Kind." Two songs that I did not hear until much after they were hits.

Anyway I looked through my 45 collection and I still have a copy of "If You're Thinking." Appropriately for Hollywood kids the record was on Frank Sinatra's Reprise label:

I really liked the music of 1967 as well. Re If You're Thinkin', it was from the Dean Martin film Murderers' Row, and it was written by Tommy Boyce & Bobby Hart. Dino, Desi & Billy's followup Two In The Afternoon also did much better here than on Billboard -- #5 vs. #99.
And I also think that it's good that 740 and Ashby use the CHUM Charts rather than Billboard because of differences like these, along with the fact that this can be helpful in meeting Canadian content requirements -- the Collectors song (which I really like) being a good example of this. 

RadioActive wrote:

One more thing about the CHUM Tribute site, in case you've never taken the time to visit. 

Doug Thompson managed to get his hands on almost all the CHUM memorabilia the station itself collected over the years - including pictures, promotional items, airchecks, jock info etc. But perhaps the real jewel of the place is the CHUM Chart collection. Every single chart from #1 in May 1957 until they stopped publishing them decades later in the mid 80s is there, and not just a retyped list - ALL of them.

They are high quality scans of the charts themselves, including the front and back covers. There are a lot of radio tribute sites out there for old Top 40 stations in the U.S. and Canada, but I'm honestly trying to think of one that has such a historically available database this extensive. 

It truly is impressive and a valuable history of not only music but pop culture. And perhaps the best part - it's all free. Really incredible. 

CHUM's legacy is in excellent hands with Doug Thompson. The flame burns brightly every day.

What amazes me is the pictures. Few stations had the foresight to document their past through the lens of a camera as CHUM. Not to mention the charts, the memorabilia and everything else. And it''s all at...

http://chumtribute.com
 

Thanks all for the kind words, but I have a lot of help with the site.  First and foremost from Dale Patterson.  Secondly, with regards to the actual CHUM charts, they were cleaned up and scanned by Mr. CHUM chart book himself, Ron Hall.  He's thanked on the chumtribute.com site but I wanted to mention it again.  Regarding the CHUM DJ Hall of Fame, we have created almost 300 of them since the site launched in May 2017 and a new one is added every single week, 52 weeks a year..  Longer CHUM airchecks are on Dale Patterson's fabulous site rockradioscrapbook.ca.  I also want to thank Charlie Ritenburg, who I work with when unscoping airchecks (adding the songs back in that were scoped out).  No one is better at unscoping than Charlie.

My one deep regret is back in 1969 (I started at CHUM on February st, 1965), CHUM was renovating the back area of 1331 Yonge Street (which had been a book storage warehouse prior to CHUM moving in in 1959).  They were turning the loading dock area into offices.  There was a small room in the loading dock that had so many CHUM photos and early memorabilia as well as airchecks and they were tossing it all into the dumpster.  I was only able to save a few things (including the original tape of the Beatles 1966 Toronto press conference from CHUM news) and a couple of photos.   Should have saved so much more.

Last edited by Doug Thompson (April 29, 2022 1:14 pm)

I first discovered CHUM in 1959 at the age of 13 living in Oakville.  I faithfully went to the CNE and Sportsmen's Shows every year just to hang around the CHUM Satellite Station until 1961 when my family moved to Edmonton.  One year at the CNE, I told John Spragge that I was going to work at CHUM one day and 5 years later.....I did.  

Doug Thompson wrote:

I first discovered CHUM in 1959 at the age of 13 living in Oakville.  I faithfully went to the CNE and Sportsmen's Shows every year just to hang around the CHUM Satellite Station until 1961 when my family moved to Edmonton.  One year at the CNE, I told John Spragge that I was going to work at CHUM one day and 5 years later.....I did.  

For my 6th birthday, my mother took me for a tour of CHUM. I still remember the turntables in the control room and Bob McAdorey making a pretend gun sign with his hand and "shooting" it at me. Stuff like that stays with you for a very long time. 

A long time later, as a teenager, I won a contest at CFTR and went down to the station to get the prize. I never dreamed that one day I would work there, but a few years later, I did. What a great place it was in that Top 40 era, although I was terrified when I started that they'd eventually discover I was totally unqualified for the job. Somehow, they never did!

Best radio gig I ever had and just working with those pros made me better at my job. 

I considered it a privilege to have worked at such a great station, and as noted, when you work with the best, they make you better. When I think back at all the board feed airchecks I could have made, I could almost weep! But as I always say we were too busy making radio to preserve a lot of it. I have a ton of stuff in my archives, though, and I was able to save what I worked on and produced for others, so there's that. 

When you're working for a station that's at or near the top, there's a different feeling when you go in there. I don't think I will ever feel that way about any other place again. Even if it was Rogers - although they weren't quite as evil then as they are now!