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EULOGY

Born: October 28, 1945, Toronto, Ontario, Canada

After a few reincarnations 1050 CHUM quietly passed away on March 26, 2009

1050 CHUM was a legendary Top 40 powerhouse from the late 1950s through to the early 1980s.

The station had a formula no other station has been able to duplicate.

Through the formative ‘50s, the unforgettable ‘60s and the interesting ‘70s, 1050 CHUM played a major role in shaping the radio landscape in Toronto. Recording acts from Elvis Presley, The Beach Boys, The Beatles, The Guess Who, Elton John, The Eagles, The Doobie Brothers and Bob Seger not only graced the airwaves but walked the halls of 1050 CHUM.

The radio station was famous for the CHUM Chart. From 1957 to 1986, 1,512 consecutive weekly charts were published, making it the longest-running chart of its kind in the world.

Also, 1050 CHUM was noteworthy for hosting many famous rock concerts including, among others, visits to Maple Leaf Gardens by Elvis Presley (1957) and The Beatles (1964, '65, and '66).

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RECENT POSTS

Tuesday, November 2, 2010

Tom Rivers

Tom Rivers, (born Thomas Neil Loughridge) died November 20, 2004 of cancer, was a true Top 40 icon. He spent four decades in Top 40 radio, with stops at KFRC San Francisco, WIBG Philadelphia, CKLW Windsor, CFTR Toronto and several other top stations. But he is perhaps best remembered for his many years at CHUM Toronto, where he came and went several times between 1970 and 2004.


HEAR TOM RIVERS AIRCHECKS @ http://rockradioscrapbook.ca/tom-nov04.html

Tom Rivers, 57: Disc jockey personified AM radio

S0URCE/READ COMPLETE ARTICLE @ http://www.thestar.com/obituary/ntos/article/107956

Everything about Tom Rivers was big: His size (6-foot-8 "in round figures," as he'd say), his genuine talent for mayhem and his impact on Toronto.

His death yesterday, aged 57, after a battle against cancer, comes with a big reminder attached. The biker-like deejay was also one of the last great AM radio rock jocks here or in any rock 'n' roll town.

His greatest blast of publicity came in true rebel Rivers fashion in 1984 when the Canadian Labour Board ruled that CHUM unjustly fired him from his $65,000-a-year job in September 1982.

He wasn't entirely exonerated, though.

In her decision, adjudicator Jane Devlin took note of the rock deejay's unruly behaviour and apparent wilful inability to follow rules that led to his highly publicized dismissal — on his 35th birthday, yet — from the local Top 40 station.

So what if Rivers thought rock and unruliness went together like Mick Jagger and Keith Richards? He'd been warned.

Unruly behaviour such as eating food on air was simply too much. At least that was the warning from CHUM general manager J. Robert Wood.

In response, Rivers did what any self-respecting rock jock would do under the circumstances. Ordering the biggest, multi-course meal from the nearest restaurant, he proceeded to chow down live on air with gusto.

If Rivers had a goal in life, besides playing music he loved, it was getting under management's skin. In fact, he did it with such flair that even Wood was left breathless in admiration for Rivers and "his great talent."

Indeed, Rivers and Wood had a legendary love-hate relationship. Rivers loved doing all the goofy stuff that made it on air. Wood, a straitlaced but very savvy rock programmer, wanted the goofiness confined to the music, with only a minimum slopping over the edge into live broadcast. ....

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http://www.broadcasting-history.ca/index3.php?url=http%3A//www.broadcasting-history.ca/personalities/personalities.php%3Fid%3D384
Pioneer - Member of CAB Hall of Fame
Rivers, Tom (1947-2004)
Although he was born in the United States, Tom Rivers’ highly successful career in radio made him one of the most admired on-air personalities in Canada and North America, and a highly successful Top 40 dj.
 Born Thomas Neil Loughridge, Tom Rivers grew up in Newberry, Michigan, and his first radio job was for local station WNBY in 1966, when he was 18. The following year he moved to station WIDG in St. Ignace, Michigan, which was followed by two years at WKNR Detroit. It was in 1971 that Tom crossed the border to work in Canada, when he was hired for what was to be only the first of four separate stints with CHUM 1050 Toronto. 
The mercurial personality that made Tom so successful on-air was sometimes the bane of his employers, and this, in part, was why he worked for many different radio stations over the ensuing years. Stories about Tom are legion on rock ‘n’ roll websites, with many tributes from Canadian co-workers.
 After only a year with CHUM, Tom moved to CKLW Windsor, a station heard strongly in the Detroit market; from there, he went back to the States in 1972, where he first did two years at WIBG Philadelphia before returning to CHUM in 1973.  In 1994 he moved to KIQQ Los Angeles, where he stayed through 1976.  That was the year later he packed his bags again and headed north, first to San Francisco for two years at KFRC followed by a year at KYA in the same city, and then to Anchorage, Alaska, for a year with KFQD – where he was also program director.
He returned to Toronto, and CHUM, in 1980, but after only two years he was on the move again, but this time only down the street to CFTR, where he began on January 8th 1983 and actually stayed for ten years, for over seven of which he did the morning drive show.  In 1992 he moved briefly to CKFM Toronto, and then equally briefly to CJEZ Toronto, before heading west again in 1993, this time to CKRA Edmonton.  After two years there, he moved across town to CHED, where he stayed for another two years. Then it was south to Calgary, for a year at CHQR – where he did talk radio for a year
In 1998 he returned to Toronto, where he did another talk show, this time on CHOG, which had forsaken its top forty format to become all news/talk. A year later Tom returned yet again to CHUM, where he stayed for three years before moving to CJAQ – “Jack” radio – in 2004.
In the late 1980s, Tom created what was to become a highly popular syndicated radio show, The Unfriendly Giant, a parody of the CBC’s Friendly Giant children’s television series. In Tom’s version, Friendly was always beating up on Jerome the Giraffe, and eyeing Rusty the chicken as a possible source of dinner.
Tom Rivers died of cancer in 2004. On hearing of his death, former CHUM news director Brian Thomas told Broadcaster Magazine: “He was probably one of the greatest rock ‘n’ roll jocks of that (70s and 80s) era.  That hugely larger-than-life delivery, that wonderful voice he had, and his ability to excite you, made him sound almost untouchable.”
In 2005, the CAB recognized Tom Rivers’ exceptional contributions to Canadian radio by naming him to the CAB Hall of Fame.


SOURCE: http://www.broadcasting-history.ca/index.html

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CHUM HISTORY

"1050 CHUM" was a legendary Top 40 powerhouse during the late 1950s, 1960s, 1970s, and early 1980s.

Early history and Top 40 format

CHUM AM was launched as a dawn-to-dusk radio station on October 28, 1945 by Jack Q'Part, an entrepreneur in the business of patent medicines. The station, then operating from studios in the Mutual Street Arena, was taken over in December 1954 by Allan Waters, a salesman from Q'Parts' patent medicine business. Waters' first major move was to secure a license for 24-hour-a-day broadcasting for CHUM, along with a power increase to 5,000 watts. Less than three years after Waters acquired the station, and soon after bringing the new fulltime transmitter online, a major programming change was made. On May 27 1957, Waters switched to a "Top 50" format that had proven itself popular in some U.S. cities; Elvis Presley's "All Shook Up" was the first song played. "1050 CHUM" pioneered rock and roll radio in Toronto, and was noteworthy for hosting many noteworthy rock concerts including, among others, visits to Maple Leaf Gardens by Elvis Presley (1957) and The Beatles (1964, '65, and '66). While the station was rising to the top of the popularity ratings in Toronto in the early 1960s, it also built yet another new transmitter in Mississauga, Ontario (a few miles west of the current Toronto city line) along the Lake Ontario shoreline, and raised its power once again to its current 50,000 watts around the clock.

CHUM DJs of the 1960s were zany morning man Al Boliska, who quit in late 1963 to go 'across the street' to CKEY.He was replaced by WKBW, Buffalo radio & TV personality Jay Nelson, popularly known as "Jungle Jay" from his role as host of a children's show on Buffalo's Channel 7 which was also popular among Toronto youngsters. He would be followed by housewives' jock John Spragge; singer/DJ Mike Darow; Pete Nordheimer, replaced in 1961 by witty Bob McAdorey; teen DJ Dave Johnson; and all night maven Bob Laine. Later additions to the CHUM DJ lineup included Duff Roman and Brian Skinner, both of whom came over from CKEY (then owned by Jack Kent Cooke). In the late 1960s, early 1970s, CHUM DJ's included Duke Roberts (also known as Gary Duke for a time), Johnny Mitchell (better known today as Sonny Fox), J. Michael Wilson, Tom Rivers, Scott Carpenter, Jim Van Horne, John Rode, Don Reagan, Terry Steele and Roger Ashby. Among their later mighttime hosts was John D. Roberts, who joined CHUM in 1977 and would eventually become known across North America as White House correspondent for CBS-TV and host of CNN's morning program "American Morning."

CHUM was also well known for its contests, like the 1970s' "I Listen to CHUM" promotion, in which DJs would dial phone numbers at random and award $1,000 to anyone who answered the phone with that phrase.

From gold-based to oldies

By the mid-1980s, CHUM had lost ground in the Toronto ratings to competitor Top 40 station CFTR and FM-based music stations. On June 6, 1986, CHUM dropped its Top 40 format for a heavily gold-based adult contemporary format ("Favourites of Yesterday and Today"). By 1989, CHUM adopted an oldies format, drawing heavily on its previous Top 40 reputation to cater to the fans of that era's music.

Chart #1 - Monday, May 27, 1957 - TOP 50

CHART NUMBER 1

Monday, May 27, 1957

Chart Number: 1
This
Week
Last
Week
ArtistTrackTotal
Weeks
10Presley, ElvisAll Shook Up0
20Boone, PatLove Letters In The Sand0
30Williams, AndyI Like Your Kind Of Love0
40Everly Brothers, TheBye Bye Love0
50Mineo, SalStart Movin' (In My Direction)0
60Storm, GaleDark Moon0
70Robbins, MartyA White Sport Coat (And A Pink Carnation)0
80Gracie, CharlieFabulous0
90Como, PerryGirl With The Golden Braids, The0
100Ray, JohnnieYes Tonight, Josephine0
110Diamonds, TheLittle Darlin'0
120Dell-Vikings, TheCome Go With Me0
130Boone, PatWhy Baby Why0
140Husky, FerlinGone0
150Como, PerryRound And Round0
160Berry, ChuckSchool Day0
170Knox, BuddyParty Doll0
170Lawrence, SteveParty Doll0
180Dorsey Orchestra, JimmySo Rare0
190Domino, FatsI'm Walkin'0
190Nelson, RickyI'm Walkin'0
200Gracie, CharlieButterfly0
200Williams, AndyButterfly0
210Belafonte, HarryMama Look At Bubu0
220Lowe, JimFour Walls0
220Reeves, JimFour Walls0
230Dee, JohnnySittin' In The Balcony0
230Cornell, DonSittin' In The Balcony0
230Cochran, EddieSittin' In The Balcony0
240Mathis, JohnnyWonderful! Wonderful!0
250Mello-Tones, TheRosie Lee0
250Tune Drops, TheRosie Lee0
260Coasters, TheYoung Blood0
270Domino, FatsValley Of Tears0
280Draper, RustyFreight Train0
290Gilkyson, Terry & The Easy RidersMarianne0
290Hilltoppers, TheMarianne0
300Bowen, JimmyI'm Stickin' With You0
310Laine, FrankieLove Is A Golden Ring0
320Platters, TheI'm Sorry0
330Hunter, Ivory JoeEmpty Arms0
330Brewer, TeresaEmpty Arms0
340Sands, TommyTeen-Age Crush0
350Little RichardLucille0
360Sands, TommyMy Love Song0
370Starr, KayJamie Boy0
380Starr, RandyAfter School0
390Johnson, BettyLittle White Lies0
400Bennett, TonyOne For My Baby (And One More For The Road)0
410Knox, BuddyRock Your Little Baby To Sleep0
420Clooney, RosemaryMangos0
430Cornell, DonMama Guitar0
440Belloc, DanFlip Top0
450Baker, LavernJim Dandy Got Married0
460Boone, PatBernardine0
470Copeland, KenPledge Of Love0
470Torok, MitchellPledge Of Love0
480Four Lads, TheI Just Don't Know0
490Armenian Jazz SextetHarem Dance0
500Williams, BillyI'm Gonna Sit Right Down And Write Myself A Letter0

John Gilbert "No Charge"

Mike Cooper's April Fools Joke





80's PROMO





Bob Sam Robbie - 1050 CHUM Morning Show - 1992




Tom Rivers 1982


John Majhor CHUM 1050 Morning show 1986





1050 CHUM Card 1983