Bob McAdorey helped usher in radio's rock `n' roll era and set the musical agenda for a generation of Toronto teens.
Few today realize the power that DJs like McAdorey exerted over Toronto popular culture 40 years ago, when radio ruled. It was a cozy time for music — and then CHUM entered the fray, blew the cobwebs away and ushered in the crazy days of rock broadcasting.
McAdorey's radio career started in 1953 when the Niagara Falls native first signed on with CHVC near the Falls, introducing listeners to his unique style of easy-going patter.
After additional stops in London, Guelph, Hamilton and Dawson Creek, McAdorey wound up at Toronto's CHUM, coaxed to climb aboard by resident star DJ Al Boliska.
Starting in 1960, McAdorey began a stint that many people consider rock programming at its finest: brash, spontaneous and pretty wild. And the DJs were the stars.
CHUM became the rock station to listen to and McAdorey was the man who told you if a song was going places. The guy who hung out with The Beatles and The Stones when they were in town (and introduced them from the stage) was known simply as ``Mac.''
For years, he hosted the all-important 4 to 7 p.m. slot. CHUM's chart of the week's top records was posted everywhere: in record stores and high school lockers. Eaton's and Simpson's would only stock those 45s that were on the CHUM list. When a new record called "The Unicorn" came in, McAdorey liked it so much he immediately put it on the air and it sold 140,000 copies in Canada in two weeks and made The Irish Rovers.
Broadcaster Bob McAdorey died Feb. 5 in Toronto after a long illness. He was 69.
Born and raised in Niagara Falls, ON, McAdorey began his 20-year career in radio at local station CHVC. At age 24, he arrived at 1050 CHUM in Toronto as top DJ, earning an extravagant $7,200 yearly salary.
Serving in the vanguard during the golden age of ’60s rock ‘n’ roll radio, McAdorey routinely schmoozed with top acts including the Beatles, Buddy Holly and the Rolling Stones. Eaton’s and Simpsons would stock only the records that appeared on McAdorey’s weekly chart – a sign of his immense influence. In the era before Cancon regs, McAdorey made a point of supporting local talent, Gordon Lightfoot being one well-known example.
McAdorey was not an easy man to manage, and after disagreements at CHUM he left for television in 1973. For 14 years he bantered with John Dawe and Mike Anscombe on Global’s News at Noon, and later hosted Entertainment Desk. Still no darling of management, McAdorey was fired in 1983 over a satirical piece about how little work got done when the boss was away from the office. Fans launched a hailstorm of complaints and he was quickly rehired.
When McAdorey left for good in 2000, he went out in trademark style, railing against the Global policy that forced him to retire at 65. But his many outside interests more than kept him busy – he played ragtime piano, owned standardbred racing horses, and was a James Joyce buff. -
http://playbackonline.ca/2005/02/28/obit-20050228/
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TORONTO -- Bob McAdorey, a pioneering Toronto rock 'n' roll disc jockey
before he became a popular noon-hour news anchor for Global Television,
died Saturday after a long illness, friends said yesterday. He was 69.
Irreverent, smart and broadly appealing, Mr. McAdorey first achieved
success as a young man in the early 1960s on CHUM, a station that
revolutionized radio in Canada.
Torontonians of a certain age will remember Mr. McAdorey introducing
such pop luminaries as the Beatles and the Rolling Stones at their
engagements here in the 1960s, while his entertainment journalism
brought him into contact with Hollywood stars stretching back to its
golden period -- John Wayne and Jerry Lewis -- to the present day.
In the mid-1970s, he appeared on Global, where he produced humour
segments.
It was in 1980 when, with Mike Anscombe and John Dawe, he became one of
the "three nice guys," hosting a groundbreaking noon-hour news and
current affairs show on Global.
Funny in circumstances where humour was sometimes frowned upon, Mr.
McAdorey, the show's entertainment anchor, was once fired after
producing a mid-summer news item lampooning hot, lazy days at work.
When news of his dismissal hit the streets of Toronto, telephone calls
and letters inundated Global, which was soon forced to reverse its
decision and reinstate its popular anchor.
It later emerged that women of Irish extraction in the Toronto Star's
classified ads department had mounted a telephone blitz against Global
with the aim of getting their hero's job back.
"He was a remarkable individual and he was much loved and he had
phenomenal respect in the industry for his integrity and
professionalism," said Mr. Dawe, his co-host at Global.
Mr. McAdorey grew up in Niagara Falls, Ont., and got his start there on
radio, working for CHVC.
He later became the top morning radio personality in Toronto on CHUM
during the 1960s before going on to Global in the mid-1970s.
Elaine Loring, who worked as an entertainment reporter with Mr.
McAdorey for 18 years, last saw him at his retirement party in 2000 --
and last heard from him two years ago, when she received a Valentine's
Day card.
She described him as "funny, irreverent, totally honest -- to the point
of maybe too much."
Ms. Loring remembered movie reviews so brutal that Mr. McAdorey almost
went "over the top" -- until his sense of humour kicked in, a tendency
that also marked his dealings with life more generally.
"He had a lot of sadness in his life and probably used the humour a lot
to get through it all," she said. "He always allowed the humour to come
back in his life." -
http://slick.org/deathwatch/mailarchive/msg01633.html
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