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By the time 1959 rolled round, onlyspanking.video CHUM’s fortunes have been most definitely on the rise - scores have been method up and an increasing number of advertisers were booking commercials on this new Toronto radio upstart. Program Director Allan Slaight continued to make adjustments to CHUM’s on-air workers. Harvey Dobbs, who was no one’s concept of a Top 50 DJ, came off the air and went into the CHUM gross sales division full time, where he did extraordinarily well with such lengthy-time period clients as Herman Furs and Mann & Martell actual estate.

Harvey Dobbs had been at CHUM for years previous to May of 1957 and had strongly opposed the swap to rock and roll. But Mr. Waters had been adamant that he was undoubtedly changing the sound of the station and those that wished to, might keep.

Harvey stayed.

Dobb’s on-air model was out of place on the ‘new CHUM’ as he didn't like current in style music at all. He was far more snug with large band swing and the crooner ballads of an earlier period. He continued to play some of that music on his mid morning program. You possibly can hear Harvey Dobbs as he sounded on CHUM in 1957 and ‘58 within the CHUM DJ Hall of Fame archives right here at chumtribute.com. Check out May 11, 2020 or September 23, 2019.

The primary CHUM chart of 1959, dated January 5, showed the caricatures of all 7 CHUM DJ’s on the air at the moment.

Not lengthy after Harvey Dobbs transitioned into sales, original ‘57 DJ Phil Stone additionally retired from the airwaves, changing into CHUM’s first Public Service Director, a position he held till he left to form his own public relations agency in 1966.

CHUM was Phil’s first client.

That left solely Pete Nordheimer because the final unique May 1957 CHUM DJ. Pete had additionally been at CHUM previous to the May ’57 switch and had tailored properly to the brand new format, despite the fact that he often sounded ‘a little formal’ in comparison with the zaniness of Al Boliska and the remainder of the younger CHUM DJ’s. But Pete gamely went along with all of the promotional stunts that concerned the CHUM DJ’s (and there were many)

Photo under is Pete Nordheimer at the annual Sportsmen’s Show log rolling (Pete’s on the left).

On February 3rd, 1959 tragedy struck the music trade when Buddy Holly, Ritchie Valens and J.P. Richardson aka ‘The Big Bopper’, died when their Beechcraft Bonanza aircraft, piloted by Roger Peterson, crashed while flying from Clear Lake, Iowa to their next gig in Moorhead, Minnesota. CHUM paid tribute to the fallen stars on the air and on the again of the February 16th CHUM chart. Ritchie Valens double-sided hit, "Donna" b/w "La Bamba" had been primary on the CHUM chart that yr from the week of February 2nd till the week of February 23rd.

At CHUM in 1959, there were three Allan’s, really two Allan’s and one Allen. Allan Waters (at all times referred to by the employees as Mr. Waters), PD Allan Slaight and Promotion Director Allen Farrell. Both had arrived at CHUM in 1958 - Slaight in the Spring and Farrell in the Fall. Slaight and Farrell (who, on the time, had been both called Al), had beforehand labored in Edmonton, though at different radio stations - Slaight at CJCA and CHED and Farrell at CFRN, the place he’d labored with a DJ and singer named Mike Darow. Farrell advised to Slaight that Darow would made an excellent addition to the CHUM DJ workers.

Slaight agreed and in early ‘59, Mike Darow became the most recent CHUM DJ.

Once Darow was in place, the CHUM DJ line remained the identical for the following two years.

Midnight to 6AM - Bob Laine

6 to 9AM - Al Boliska

9AM to Noon - John Spragge

Noon to 1PM - Al Boliska once more (a shift he completely hated doing)

1 to 4PM - Pete Nordheimer

four to 7PM - Mike Darow

7 to Midnight - Dave Johnson

Mike Darow quickly match into the sound of CHUM 1050. The truth that he was also a superb singer was an incredible bonus. Within a couple of months of Mike’s on-air debut, CHUM creative author Garry Ferrier had Mike document an unique tune Garry wrote, that was impressed by Johnny Horton’s hit "The Battle of new Orleans" a number one on the CHUM chart for 7 weeks from June 1st until July 13th. Garry’s song was referred to as "The Battle of Queenston Heights" and was launched as a 45rpm single on the Apex label. The song entered the CHUM chart at # 33 for the week of July 6, 1959 and moved as much as # 21 the next week. Two weeks later, it climbed to # 11, it’s highest position on the CHUM chart. "The Battle of Queenston Heights" was on the CHUM chart for a complete of 9 weeks, earlier than finally dropping off the primary week in September.

In 1974, CHUM jock Terry Steele ‘wrestled’ professional wrestler Sweet Daddy Siki for charity. It was an incredible publicity stunt, nevertheless it was not CHUM’s first time in the ring. Morning Mayor Al Boliska did it first in May 1959 when he wrestled Whipper Billy Watson (a charity match for Easter Seals) and just like in ‘74, CHUM made an enormous promotion out of this.

Weeks before the occasion at Maple Leaf Gardens, Boliska boasted how he was going to ‘wallop’ Watson and ‘make mince meat’ out of him. Promos airing on the time called it ‘the battle of the century…just not THIS century’. Maple Leaf Gardens was packed with wrestling followers alongside CHUM listeners. As anticipated, Watson whipped Boliska, but it surely made for an ideal present. Boliska and Watson each hammed it up and Easter Seals was the beneficiary. It was one other zany stunt from the furtive mind of CHUM’s Promotion Director Allen Farrell.

In fact, CHUM couldn’t just let Al Boliska’s loss within the ring end there. Al had just a few days of vacation coming, so Allen Farrell sat at his typewriter and came up with a brand new twist - Al Boliska was so distraught at dropping to Whipper Billy Watson that he wouldn’t be back on the air until he bought professional counselling.

Farrell’s promo copy went like this: "C-H-U-M is searching for an expert hypnotist. CHUM’s Al Boliska needs help. Boliska, the man who lost the CHUM Championship. Boliska, the man who was defeated by Whipper Billy Watson, is now a subdued and self acutely aware shell. This man needs Help! His confidence have to be restored. Hypnosis is the answer. Hypnotists are to contact Program Director, C-H-U-M, Toronto."

CHUM listeners ate it up and mailed in a whole lot upon lots of of letters encouraging Al to get higher. The ‘Happy Hungarian’ joyfully returned to the CHUM morning show refreshed, renewed and rewarded.

In simply a few years, CHUM shortly turned THE radio station for teens and younger adults…nonetheless, there was ONE small problem and it was owner Jack Kent Cooke’s CKEY, which had famous CHUM’s success and had also began enjoying rock and roll. Gone had been the air personalities of CKEY’s MOR format like Mickey Lester, Gerry Myers and Martin Silburt (who later grew to become a CHUM salesman). In their place, Cooke introduced in younger ‘up and comers’ who knew and preferred this new common music. DJ’s corresponding to Brian Skinner from CKY Winnipeg; John Dolan and Larry Theissen together with Danny Roman and Duff Roman, who had been at CHED in Edmonton beforehand.

Through secretive methods that will make the CIA jealous, CHUM management discovered that CKEY was having a portable broadcast trailer constructed and that the producer was based mostly in Peterborough. CHUM’s Promotion Director Allen Farrell recalled that super secret caper in his ebook: "The CHUM Story: From the Charts To Your Hearts".

"Dropping everything, we scurried up there [to Peterborough] and noticed the ‘EY design and early renovation. Hey! We might improve on that. After Allan Waters and George Jones appeared it over and accepted a sale, CHUM went into full promotional gear. We known as it CHUM’s Satellite Station, requested listeners to look ahead to it and instructed them to look for its space-age design and brilliant pink and white colours. ‘EY, who wouldn’t be taking supply of the trailer for at least two months, didn’t say a thing. We assumed they thought, like everybody else, that CHUM had beaten them to the punch once more and that our Satellite Station was whizzing about town, getting cash on business remotes and customarily promoting our station. In reality, work on it hadn’t begun."

Score one for the CHUM spies.

The brand spanking new CHUM Satellite Station made its debut on the Canadian National Exhibition in August of 1959.

The again of the CHUM chart for many of 1959 was taken up with varied promotions for the Hi-Fi Club, which was sponsored on main Top 40 radio stations across North America by Coca-Cola. It was a superb advertising marketing campaign on Coke’s part to achieve the youth market. Only one Top 40 radio station per metropolis had the Hi-Fi Club and you had to hitch and obtain a membership card, however there have been all kinds of perks - contests, weekly dances, free cases of Coke, together with albums and 45rpm giveaways, brand new cameras or typewriters. Selected Winning Hi-Fi Club members bought to satisfy a few of the largest pop stars of the day, like Annette Funicello, Fabian and Connie Francis. The Hi-Fi Club was a half hour section on Dave Johnson’s weeknight present from eight to 8:30 PM as Dave was formally CHUM’s ‘teen DJ’.

Over and above the Hi-Fi Club contests, CHUM’s airwaves had been by no means removed from a zany contest. There have been dozens of them in ’59. Quite a few of them could be quite comfortable in a corn area. There was ‘Bucks for Yuks’, the place listeners submitted jokes and if read on the air, acquired a greenback; then there was the derivative ‘Bucks For Clucks’, the place listeners phoned in, clucked like a chicken and acquired a buck.

One contest that didn’t go exactly as deliberate was CHUM’s Walking Man. As Allen Farrell wrote in "The CHUM Story"…

"I consider we copied CHUM’s Walking Man contest from an American radio station. No less than I hope so, after residing with its results. The idea was simple. CHUM hired a one who would travel round Toronto. We tagged him ‘the strolling man’. We invited listeners to ask everyone they met if he was the CHUM walking man. When somebody nabbed him, they’d win a thousand dollars. In reality, the concept was kinda feeble. Dumb even. And far too limp.

So, we narrowed the main focus, saying "Ask everyone you meet in elevators today" or "Ask everyone on subways" or "at the entrance doorways of stores", and so on. As we made it simpler and simpler to win, we dropped the prize cash accordingly. No takers. We knew we had a lemon on our palms and decided to blow it off."

As the competition lingered on with no winner, the station dropped the prize cash from $one thousand right down to $500 after which finally, to $200. Slaight and Farrell had promos created that introduced that the CHUM Walking Man can be at the corner of Yonge and Queen in downtown Toronto at exactly 12:30 on a specific day, sporting black Bermuda shorts and a black bowler hat. Allen Farrell recounts what happened next.

"We estimated fifty folks would turn up - tops. Slaight, who always had a plan, determined to jazz up this moderately weak ending to our promotion. He directed our announcers to get into their bowlers [hats] and Bermudas [shorts] and jump into 4 CHUM cruisers. Garry Ferrier was to drive into the intersection from the east at exactly 12:28. The small crowd would transfer in direction of him. After discovering he was NOT the Walking Man, they’d spot Pete Nordheimer developing from the south at 12:28:30, then see Mike Darow’s cruiser getting into the intersection from the west at 12:29 then Al Boliska three seconds later. Then the real Walking Man would come out of the Stock Exchange Building, transfer to the designated spot and be recognized, and we’d award $200 to the fortunate winner.

And a good time can be had by all.

Nope. Naw. Didn’t happen. At noon, 30 minutes before the promoted climax, no one could turn left off University Avenue onto Queen Street as a result of it was jammed with cars going nowhere. And there was a very good motive. The whole intersection, curb to curb and spilling up onto the sidewalks was chock-a-block with potential contest winners. This crowd filled the streets, up and down Yonge, and east and west on Queen.

Estimated number - 10,000."

Finally, the Walking Man contest had been won. The $200 prize had been awarded, however there was still the piper to pay. While at the station, a lot of the CHUM management and employees had been leaping for joy that the huge crowd had shown up for a contest that they had thought was a dud, but publicly, they'd to appear humble and contrite because of the traffic mess CHUM had precipitated to downtown Toronto at noontime.

The station even broadcast this apology...a number of occasions that day.

"From time to time, C-H-U-M in editorial type, has criticized numerous civic events or people. This time, CHUM’s editorial assault is directed at our personal operation. This station sincerely regrets any inconvenience or hardship which was triggered pedestrians

and motorists throughout the finale of our Walking Man promotion at the intersection of Queen and Yonge Streets. C-H-U-M at no time visualized the impacts of this promotion. In particular, our apologies to the Toronto Police Department, and a sincere ‘thank you’ for the very good efficiency of the traffic officers in rapidly clearing what has been reported as ‘one of the largest traffic jams within the history of Toronto’. For sure, if C-H-U-M had foreseen the results of our Walking Man finale, it wouldn't have been staged at Yonge and Queen."

But the most important change involving CHUM in 1959 was NOT a contest or sales promotion and most listeners wouldn’t have even seen had the DJ’s not mentioned it on the air, however CHUM was ‘movin’ on up’…from the cramped house at 250 Adelaide Street to brand new spacious digs at 1331 Yonge Street, just two and a half blocks south of St. Clair. Previously, the building has been a ebook storage warehouse, but now was the proud house to the lovable CHUM DJ’s, a growing information employees, gross sales executives, administration, engineers and dozens of behind-the-scenes individuals corresponding to writers, producers and office staff.

The station remained, expanded and flourished at 1331 Yonge Street for 50 years. That site is now residence to million greenback condos.