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Saturday, November 14, 2009

1050 CHUM CELEBRATES 50 YEARS OF ROCK AND ROLL - HISTORICAL ARTICLE

1050 CHUM CELEBRATES 50 YEARS OF ROCK AND ROLL - HISTORICAL ARTICLE

YouTube LINK: YouTube - 1050 CHUM-AM 50th Anniversary 0:15 sec



1050 CHUM Celebrates 50 Years Of Rock

When this happened, the subway only ran along Yonge St. downtown, the 78 was still selling alongside 45 rpm records, and Ford was on the verge of introducing its biggest blunder ever, the Edsel. It was May 27, 1957 and Allan Waters was in a bind. His radio station with the terrific call letters CHUM wasn't doing so well. Times were tight, advertisers were few and bill collectors were calling with the kind of requests you couldn't put on the air.

It was on that date that Waters, the founder and owner of what would become broadcasting giant CHUM Ltd., decided to make his station the first to play nothing but rock and roll in Canada. It was a milestone act, and it came complete with people he knew calling him crazy and phoning him at all hours of the day and night pleading with him to 'take that noise off the air'. He refused and the rest, as they say is history.

And now that history is officially 50 years old. This weekend marked half a century since Waters took that bold step. Since then, many have followed in those footsteps. But few have met the success he pioneered with 1050 CHUM. The station has been celebrating itself all week, something it's taken far too long to do. ..

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AN EXCELLENT BLOG ON 1050 CHUM HISTORY

CHUM’s 50th Anniversary of Rock and Roll

LINK: Baby-Boomer « Holiday, everyday!

CLIP FROM THE SITE: 'GREG QUILL
ENTERTAINMENT COLUMNIST

Nostalgia ain’t what it used to be.

As Toronto’s once-formidable hit-making powerhouse, now the classic “oldies” Top 40 station, 1050 CHUM, gears up for its 50th anniversary bash today, a big question hangs over this key event and, indeed, over the station’s year-long celebration of its humble beginnings...' Read more: http://guesswhoaho.hyperboards.com/index.php?action=view_topic&topic_id=2086

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