CHUM RADIO – THE BEST OF CHUM

He only had one on-air gig, but it was one of the best. For 10 years – 1958 to 1968 – John Spragge was the midday announcer at Toronto’s CHUM, his calm, friendly voice entertaining millions of southern Ontarians and western New Yorkers during CHUM’s first decade as a Top 40 station.

Spragge started at CHUM in the late ’50s in news while taking Radio and Television Arts at Ryerson Polytechnical Institute. Eventually he dropped out to work full-time in the news department, a decision he would never regret. In 1958, he took over from Harvey Dobbs in the 9 a.m.-noon shift, beginning a decade-long run in middays at CHUM. During that time, listeners heard the Housewives Hit Parade (women voting for their favourite tunes each week) and also got the details of Spragge’s next movie preview. These events, hosted by Spragge himself, were held at a local theatre and gave listeners a chance to meet John, and vice-versa. Such was the personal nature of radio at the time.

n December, 1963, with the arrival of morning man Jay Nelson, Spragge’s hours changed to 10 a.m.-1 p.m. In the spring of 1968, he moved briefly to noon-4 p.m., then noon-3 p.m. by the summer. But by August, with CHUM’s switch to the Drake format, the man known as “The Hawk” was gone.

Spragge would never do a jock shift again. After CHUM, he spent a few years with the Radio Sales Bureau and Standard Broadcast Sales. He was program director at CFRB Toronto from 1972 to 1985, and also programmed Talk 640 in Toronto in the ’90s. Spragge additionally worked in Kitchener, Ontario, at CFCA, CKKW and CKCO-TV, and was also a public speaker and consultant.

Deeply involved in charities, Spragge walked in the first March of Dimes, built homes for Habitat for Humanity, and helped restore summer camps for children with special needs, along with many other charitable projects. In 2008, he became only the second person to twice win the Rotary Club’s highest honour, a Paul Harris Fellowship.

Spragge died December 16, 2008 in Toronto after a two-year battle with cancer. He was 71.

in September, 1964, evening jock Dave Johnson was nearing the end of a very successful run at CHUM. He started there in January, 1958, and left in the fall of 1965.

Bob McAdorey not only played the records, he chose them.

Doubling as afternoon jock and music director during CHUM’s glory days of the 1960s, McAdorey played a huge part in the station’s success during that memorable decade. One of the biggest plums of his job was determining the rankings of the songs on the CHUM Chart, which during his time as MD was a Top 50 ranking. The CHUM Chart was one of the most influential music charts in North America and could make-or-break the career of a musical act, especially a Canadian one.

Rock and roll was in its nascent stages when McAdorey got his start in radio in 1953 at CHVC in his hometown of Niagara Falls, Ontario. From there he worked in Dawson Creek, B.C., and the Ontario markets of London, Hamilton and Guelph. He arrived at CHUM in 1961, replacing the last of the original CHUM jocks – Pete Nordheimer, in the 1-4 shift. In 1964, he moved to the 4-7 p.m. time slot, trading places with Mike Darow who moved into Mac’s shift. McAdorey would spend the next four years in afternoon drive, before leaving as part of a major upheaval of the station in 1968.

“We kept it clean up here,” McAdorey told the Toronto Star’s Jim Bawden. “There was no payola as in the U.S. and we deliberately helped a lot of Canadians. It was personality radio. We were promoted like crazy back then. And the pressures were unbelievable. We dictated what record were going to go. And what kids would eat, drink.”

After CHUM, McAdorey moved to country-formatted CFGM in Richmond Hill, just north of Toronto. He moved to easy listening CHFI-AM in 1970 and was there for a short time after the station moved to a rock format in 1972. McAdorey returned for another stint at CFGM before moving to Global Television in 1976 where he spent 24 lively years, first doing wacky comedy bits then moving into entertainment. A man who suffered significant tragedy in his life – he was predeceased by his wife Willa, daughter Robin and son Terry – McAdorey yearned for his earlier radio days. “I’d walk into the booth in pyjama tops and jeans and talk one-on-one to people,” said McAdorey, who passed away in 2004 at age 69. “At least that’s the way I always imagined it.”