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The Day Dick Smyth Shot Behind The Scenes Video At 1050 CHUM
I came across this on YouTube as I often do - purely by accident. As far as I can tell, Dick Smyth got what was then one of those new-fangled VHS cameras for Christmas and decided to take it into the CHUM newsroom in 1983 to shoot some video.
The result is this 15 minute slightly grainy peek behind the scenes at what the place looked like back then. It's incredible to see how much has changed. The video shows 10" reel-to-reel tape machines, carts, constantly noisy teletypes and of course, typewriters. Somebody heading into the place today would never recognize half of the equipment. As far as I could tell, there's not a computer in sight.
If you ever worked at CHUM, this is a definite blast from the past. If you didn't, but ever wondered what the place looked like inside, it works on that count, too. Smyth is long gone and so is 1331 Yonge St. But it lives on in this remarkable grainy glimpse at a moment in time 40 years ago.
- AspectRatio
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Re: The Day Dick Smyth Shot Behind The Scenes Video At 1050 CHUM
A nice find! I didn't notice this particular one before and it was fascinating.
Also on Dick's Youtube channel was another one I had seen before, "680 News Early Days" - "Shot June 16, 1993, just a few days after the station's launch". Well worth seeing as well!
- RadioActive
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Re: The Day Dick Smyth Shot Behind The Scenes Video At 1050 CHUM
Was this shot while they were still at Adelaide St. and before they moved to the new complex? The view outside the window looks familiar but the internal set-up doesn't. I was there in the early 80s and things had changed a lot by the time this was shot.
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Thread Starter- AspectRatio
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Re: The Day Dick Smyth Shot Behind The Scenes Video At 1050 CHUM
RadioActive wrote:
Was this shot while they were still at Adelaide St. and before they moved to the new complex? The view outside the window looks familiar but the internal set-up doesn't. I was there in the early 80s and things had changed a lot by the time this was shot.
The full Youtube video description reads:
This is old home video shot on June 16, 1993, just a few days after the station's launch. This was the old CFTR studio on the eleventh floor on Victoria Street,.It eventually moved downstairs to a state of the art newsroom on the third floor. Then it moved to the Rogers building near Yonge and Bloor.(This was a second generation video tape originally so the quality is not the best.)
- RadioActive
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Re: The Day Dick Smyth Shot Behind The Scenes Video At 1050 CHUM
The official address of the old CFTR was 25 Adelaide St. E. near Victoria, so I'm assuming that's the building. Thanks for the info.
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Thread Starter- RadioActive
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Re: The Day Dick Smyth Shot Behind The Scenes Video At 1050 CHUM
It's fascinating to see how many people are no longer there, which is to be expected with the passing of the years.
Dick Smyth is sadly no longer with us, Mary Anne Summers is a lost name from years ago and Evelyn Macko is or was teaching at Humber College. Peter Gross has long since left. And was that Larry Silver talking about his head exploding? It sure looked like him, but I could be wrong.
The only survivor in that video from those days appears to be Mike Eppel, who has been at 680 since Marconi invented the wireless. Talk about hanging in there!
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Thread Starter- mic'em
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Re: The Day Dick Smyth Shot Behind The Scenes Video At 1050 CHUM
Evelyn Mako posted on Twitter last week she will be teaching radio at Seneca College for the winter semester. She was affiliated with 97.7 MAX FM in Collingwood up until recently. I am unaware if that is still in effect or not.
- Doug Thompson
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Re: The Day Dick Smyth Shot Behind The Scenes Video At 1050 CHUM
One thing I'll always remember about the CHUM building at 1331 Yonge Street is that the hallways were always so damn narrow and at least in the 60s, the painted cinder block walls. Until 1971 when we got our first multi track AMPEX tape recorder in production, the antiquated equipment we had to work with was horrendous. But we made amazing radio from that crap equipment. This was what I was working with from 1967 'til 1970. McCurdy consoles, 3 turntables and two AMPEX reel to reels in racks. 
Last edited by Doug Thompson (January 8, 2023 5:18 pm)
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- RadioActive
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Re: The Day Dick Smyth Shot Behind The Scenes Video At 1050 CHUM
What a great pic!
The production studio at CFTR when I was there consisted of a two track Studer reel-to-reel, an Ampex 2 track reel machine, two turntables, a few cart machines and a small board. It wasn't much, either, but we did incredible stuff in there. I can only imagine how much easier it would be on computers today, but there was a certain art form and satisfaction from turning out incredible material from such limited equipment.
We didn't know any better, so we just did it.
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Thread Starter- Radiowiz
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Re: The Day Dick Smyth Shot Behind The Scenes Video At 1050 CHUM
The official address of the old CFTR was 25 Adelaide St. E. near Victoria, so I'm assuming that's the building. Thanks for the info.
I believe 36 Victoria street is where 680 went all News.
RadioWiz & RadioQuiz are NOT the same person.
RadioWiz & THE Wiz are NOT the same person.
- Hansa
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Re: The Day Dick Smyth Shot Behind The Scenes Video At 1050 CHUM
Aren't 25 Adelaide and 36 Victoria different entrances to the same building?
- Rune
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Re: The Day Dick Smyth Shot Behind The Scenes Video At 1050 CHUM
It was 25 Adelaide St E. and it was definitely there that CFTR went all news.