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I noticed that August is the anniversary of a major milestone for veteran announcer Roger Ashby. It was in this month back in 1969 that he left CKOC to come to CHUM, starting the beginning of a Toronto radio dynasty that lasted five incredible decades, and continues with his syndicated Oldies Show.
I happened to come across a very brief article about the transfer that was published 55 years ago and it reveals an apparent early nickname for the superstar jock. It would seem he didn't bring it with him, because I've never heard of this before. Not to mention the spelling. (Could this be because CKOC once ID'd itself as the "Busy Bee?")
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The article says he was the youngest on air personality, but then doesn.t say how old he was.
Unless that bit is chopped off.
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No, that's the full thing.
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Nice to see there was shoddy reporting back then too.
They couldn't blame that on massive staff cuts. (or could they?)
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newsguy1 wrote:
The article says he was the youngest on air personality, but then doesn.t say how old he was.
Unless that bit is chopped off.
I seem to remember Ashby being interviewed somewhere and he mentioned that he started at CHUM several days or maybe a week before his 20th birthday.
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Ashby’s first CHUM Chart cover, Sept. 6, 1969. He almost looks like a teenager.
What a thrill that must have been for him. I wonder how many copies he still has of it!
Courtesy CHUM Tribute Site
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Roger and crib mate, my wife, share their birthday and birthplace: the Brantford General.
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That's the magic of radio -- making kids seem like gods on the airwaves.
When I worked for pop rocker CKDA in Victoria most of us, mainly the jocks, were quite young.
But the radio station had heavy compression on the mics so everyone sounded like they were about 6 foot five and 200 pounds.
I remember meeting people in person who would say things like, "but you're so young/small."
By contrast everyone over on our FM counterpart, CFMS were all old guys in their 40, 50s who simply had huge pipes.
The music format was "Candle light and Wine."
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