1 of 1- RadioActive
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The One Name That Keeps Popping Up In Toronto Morning Radio
If someone were to ask you what was the most common name of morning show hosts in Toronto radio, what would you pick?
The answer is probably "Brady." Toronto has had not one or two but three morning show hosts over the decades who used that last name. Most here are certainly familiar with Greg Brady, who is currently the AM drive host on AM640. 
And then there was the late and great Jim Brady (real name Felton) who helped CFTR finally beat CHUM in the ratings. He later did mornings (below) for a brief time on CJCL.
I'm not sure how many remember #3, who was actually the first. Bill Brady got things started early in CKEY's rock days, with a cup of coffee and playing the hits. He would later become a legend in London, Ont., with his appearances on CFPL. 
It's mostly meaningless, of course, but just a really weird coincidence that will probably never happen again.
- jughead jones
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Re: The One Name That Keeps Popping Up In Toronto Morning Radio
Jim Brady's real last name was Felton.
- RadioActive
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Re: The One Name That Keeps Popping Up In Toronto Morning Radio
Yes, and he was a really wonderful and talented man. I was lucky enough to work with him at CFTR and he was as great off air as he was on.
I remember I visited him in the booth one morning and told him a joke, which he then used on air. It was one of my favourite moments in broadcasting!
He left us - and the business - much too soon, but I'm grateful I got to know him.
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Thread Starter- Binson Echorec
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Re: The One Name That Keeps Popping Up In Toronto Morning Radio
Would Richards be in second place? Jim and Mike leap to mind...bound to be others.
Of course, as noted...pseudonyms were quite popular back in the day, so simple-ish names had to be fairly common. Monita Rajpal would have been Monica Rogers in 1974.
Last edited by Binson Echorec (July 16, 2024 4:05 pm)
- RadioAaron
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Re: The One Name That Keeps Popping Up In Toronto Morning Radio
Tangibly related, two big Toronto FMs have PDs named Troy
- Storm
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Re: The One Name That Keeps Popping Up In Toronto Morning Radio
I remember Bill Brady at CKEY. I listened to him because I did not like Al Boliska. When Boliska moved to CKEY, Bill Brady did 9AM - Noon but left not too much later. I think he did a talk show on CFPL - maybe morning drive. Jim Brady was one of the best. Mornings for me were tough with Brady at CFTR and Jay Nelson at CHUM. I really liked them both but Brady was pretty cool.
- jughead jones
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Re: The One Name That Keeps Popping Up In Toronto Morning Radio
RadioActive wrote:
Yes, and he was a really wonderful and talented man. I was lucky enough to work with him at CFTR and he was as great off air as he was on.
I remember I visited him in the booth one morning and told him a joke, which he then used on air. It was one of my favourite moments in broadcasting!
He left us - and the business - much too soon, but I'm grateful I got to know him.
Jim Brady was my first radio hero. Listening to him every day on CFTR changed my life and taught me I wanted to be involved in radio for the rest of my life. Only Tom Rivers came close to Jim Brady on my hero meter.
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It's great when your heroes turn out to be just as nice in real life as you could hope for. Jim "Brady" Felton was one of those. In the end, he treated radio a lot better than radio treated him. But that's the business.
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Thread Starter- RadioActive
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Re: The One Name That Keeps Popping Up In Toronto Morning Radio
Speaking of Brady In The Morning, I kind of lost track of him after he left CJCL. I have no memory of him going to country music radio on CFGM. But this ad from January 1986 shows he turned up there for a while doing afternoons.
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Thread Starter- jughead jones
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Re: The One Name That Keeps Popping Up In Toronto Morning Radio
Thank you, RadioActive, I was about to ask about his stay at a country music station. I actually listened to him on that drive show until I could not take the music anymore.
- newsguy1
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It amuses me to think about the days when radio people were almost compelled to make their names sound bland and "waspy."
Jim Brady, Michael Morgan, etc.
I remember when I was in radio in Victoria.
We had a new woman join us, and right away the news director made her change her name.
Her real name was sort of German and not very "attractive" to anglo ears, I won't reveal it but it was akin to Donald Trump's real family name, which was Schtrumph.
Anyway we made her change her last name to Anderson.
Things were so silly back then that I remember a guy whose last name was Cox and he was made to change it, so he chose Curtis.
To make matters even sillier, a friend of mine worked part time as a DJ in two different radio stations in the Vancouver area.
One was in Vancouver itself and the other was in nearby Langley in the lower mainland.
In Vancouver he called himself by his real name, but in the other job he called himself Steve Austin, as in the Six Million Dollar Man.