Thanks for the real reason you departed - it took 47 years, but we finally know!

I have an article on the website that I saved from The Globe shortly after DM left CHUM FM and I have copied below. The article was written by Robert Marin and I think he exaggerates a bit when he says that CHUM FM was becoming very similar to CHUM AM. No doubt that things had gone downhill but not exactly Top 40 either.

In fact I have an air check from this time and I think it has an ad produced by DM's company. Listen at 5:35 on the the first clip below and you will hear the commercial. Also listen just before that to Pete Griffin describe the set he just played not exactly top 40.

Also on the second link below at 10:50 you will here the Rockin Rebels ( recently discussed in the other DM thread) as used for the outro of the Sock Hop program by John Donabie on CHUM FM in 1973.



CHUM FM May 1975

Sock Hop CHUM FM 1973

Hip David Marsden Leaving CHUM-FMBy Robert Martin

David Marsden, CHUM FM’s 6 to 10 PM disc jockey and one of Toronto’s more original radio personalities, has left the station to devote time to his production business.Marsden runs Lip Service Studio Productions Ltd, a company that makes radio commercials. He is also developing a syndicated radio show which he hopes to market coast to coast.His on-air personality was that of the weird but hip music freak who talked in an intimate hush as though he was whispering in the listener’s ear. The music he played matched that personality – weird, hip and usually on the avant-garde fringes of rock.That style has made him the odd man out lately at CHUM FM, where progressive music has all but been eliminated from the station’s programming. In the past few months the station has replaced obscure and experimental music chosen by the disk jockeys with a comparatively tight play list heavily loaded with current hits and golden oldies. CHUM FM now  sounds like it’s sister station CHUM AM, except it has fewer commercials.Marsden said he didn’t leave the station because  his creative freedom had been limited. He described it as a very amicable separation.  I can’t have negative thoughts ( about CHUM FM) because they’re attempting to muster a larger portion of the . audience. It’ll probably work but I don’t agree with it.The departure was not spur of the moment. He had been thinking about it for three or four months. The new Canadian Radio-Television Commission’s regulations were a factor. The new regulations permit FM stations to use up to 25 % of their programming in syndicated formats.

 

Last edited by Fitz (January 20, 2023 7:29 pm)