It is my understanding Jim Waters was also involved with CHOP-FM  Pickering College Radio. A true gentleman. Owner /Operator/ Managers of his calibre  and  integrity are sorely missing in today's business. Condolences to the family and may he rest in peace.

When I started at CHUM on the all night show I was surprised one evening when my regular operator was not in the studio.  It was indeed Jimmy Waters.  He was learning the business from the ground up so he operated my show for the rest of the week. Even then he was incredibly humble and considerate.....even to the lowly all night jock. 

RadioActive wrote:

The Waters family represented among the last of the truly great radio owners, who cared as much about the quality of what went on the air as the amount of money coming through the door. We will not see their like again. 

It took a few months after the Rogers takeover but the job losses came fairly quickly, as always seems to happen whenever Big Red takes over anything. And for better or worse, City TV's news was never the same after that, with the quirky content it used to carry and the original formatics that made it so unique gone forever. 

Today, that newsroom is a shadow of its former self, all of which, in my mind, can be traced back to the death of Allan Waters and the company he loved so much going to someone else who cared more about profits than presentation. 

 
I was working for Citytv when Rogers took over and started swinging their axe. It was brutal and it became fairly obvious to us that Rogers didn’t quite “get” TV, even though they had OMNI. They trashed the newsroom for sure RA, it never recovered, losing or laying off their true talent, in fact, they let Pam Seatle go and realized they were now short staffed, and hired her back, talk about amateurs. They took over a fairly positive work force and made it basically crap, I started to hate going in, like many, but it was a job in a dying industry.

Allan Waters, on the other hand, would go around the station, often with his wife, and wish all the staff a Merry Christmas/happy holidays, big difference in management styles, class vs. crass.

One thing that was always interesting about the CHUM organization was the understanding that they rarely had any debt.  Allan Waters ran a tight ship, not necessarily cheap but fiscally very well organized.

Normally they wouldn't buy a station or purchase expensive equipment, expand facilities, unless they had the money to do so.  CHUM as a company usually avoided borrowing money.  They did a few times but normally it was cash up front, and this worked well for them. 

Yes, I'm sure many of us found that out the hard way!