Sorry you don't seem to be getting an answer. It's possible no one on the board is familiar with him. I know plenty of people who worked at CKO and may be able to ask them - if I can get hold of them! Many of them are scattered to the winds, working or living in other places. 

As for CKO itself, I'm aware from those same folks that it was not a very well-run place, but I also think it was simply too early for its time. I can't help but wonder if they tried it later (before CityNews 680) if it would have had a better shot in Canada. I guess we'll never know.

Keithscribe wrote:

A number of years ago now while working at Toronto's then CKO All's-News Radio, I had the privilege of working with then News Director Garfield Chesson.  Prior to CKO, Garfield worked in news at Brantford's CKPC Radio, and prior to that, at the Hamilton Spectator.  He spent a brief amount of time as Station Manager at CKO's Edmonton station, thereafter joining the staff of The Ontario Editorial Bureau in Toronto, where he recruited me to rejoin him.  Unexpectedly he left the OEB and I never heard from him again.  Wondering if anyone had heard where he had resurfaced.

Because I've done a lot of research work, I did some searching to see if I could find out anything about him. The most recent item I was able to find at first was a letter to The Record from 2014, where he gave his location as Kitchener. So then I tried searching on Chesson and Kitchener, and found subsequent letters to The Record from Gar Chesson of Kitchener; the most recent one was from December 2022. Maybe you could try contacting The Record, and if they have either an email address or a physical address for him, you could ask if they would foward a message from you to him. 

I can't recall the name of the older gentleman who did the evening talk show. I believe he broadcast from the west coast, Vancouver maybe? It was him that got me listening to talk radio back then and still to this day. I'm thinking it was late 80's - early 90's ? 

Broodcaster wrote:

You are thinking of Pat Burns.  A refugee from Montreal.

In a voice that sounded like he regularly gargled with razor blades, his signature line whenever he took a call was a very gruff, "Burns on the line - Go Ahead!" He used to drive women crazy by calling every one of them who phoned in "doll." Definitely a creature from another time. 

Yes, Pat Burns, I was driving a truck then doing night deliveries to auto parts stores. Burns led me to scanning the dial and finding Phil Hendrie, Jaz McKay , Steve and Gary, and all night, Art Bell/ George Noory. These guys kept me awake during those long lonely nights and I thank them for it.