Last day at 1331 Yonge

[Mike Cleaver]

Today is a very sad day in Canadian Radio History.
It's the last day for CHUM Corporate, 1050 CHUM and CHUM-FM at 1331 Yonge Street in Toronto.
The brick buildings will be torn down to make way for more condoz.
So many people, some still with us, others long departed, went through those doors and made radio magic.
We affectionately called it "The Big House."
I put in 20 years over two shifts in that building and loved every second of it.
What's left of an amazing staff moves into the CTV building downtown, once known as the CHUM/CITY building.
At least the CHUM sign went with them.
CHUM was the dream of an amazing radio man, the late Mr. Alan Waters.
He hired the best people and built an empire that stretched across the country.
RIP, 1331 Yonge!

[Howaboutthat]

Today is a very sad day in Canadian Radio History.
It's the last day for CHUM Corporate, 1050 CHUM and CHUM-FM at 1331 Yonge Street in Toronto.
The brick buildings will be torn down to make way for more condoz.
So many people, some still with us, others long departed, went through those doors and made radio magic.
We affectionately called it "The Big House."
I put in 20 years over two shifts in that building and loved every second of it.
What's left of an amazing staff moves into the CTV building downtown, once known as the CHUM/CITY building.
At least the CHUM sign went with them.
CHUM was the dream of an amazing radio man, the late Mr. Alan Waters.
He hired the best people and built an empire that stretched across the country.
RIP, 1331 Yonge!

I believe the plural of condo, is correctly spelled condos, not condoz.
I'm assuming that if you were trying to be clever Cleaver, you would have spelled it condoze.
We now resume the 21st century, already in progress.

[jon]

I certainly can understand Mike's feelings about the building, and those of so many others, like Doug Thompson who I know through the Edmonton Broadcasters Club.

I was surprised myself to see my sadness over the then-current state of Downtown Vancouver's 1134 Burrard Street just walking by in January 1999, after spending a year there 1971-72. Radiofan had already warned me that it was now a Dental Lab. But I still got up very early one morning, hours before the first session of the conference I was attending, and walked a good mile each way in the Dark and Rain, among the early morning commuters and derelicts. Just to see the place again. Crummy building though it had been even back then, for CHQM AM & FM, Q Music and HQ for a mini-empire that included CKPG Prince George.

[radiofan]

This past Saturday I was down at the corner of West 4th & Cypress in Vancouver. What was once the home of C-FUN is now a Salvation Army Thrift Store.

After CFUN left it was a Blockbuster Video Store before the Sally Ann took over.

I was tempted to go inside, but decided to do that some other time.

[Anotherwpgguy]

I liked the layout of CFUN at the old location and spent many, many enjoyable hours there. My last visit to YVR, I drove past for old times sake and recalled more than a few good trips down to the parking lot in the basement ... to visit Stan Davis' Consulting Engineering office of course .. nudge, nudge, wink wink.

I'd be curious to see how the current tenants changed the internal layout.

Cheers to all ex CKVN & 14 CFUN folks!

Anotherwpgguy

[Victoriaradio]

The great giant CKDA was housed in the basement of The Hotel Douglas. Now it is the lower level of a new boutique hotel. For many years it sat empty with remnants of the station here and there amid the dust and spiders. Nobody wanted the space after CKDA left.

[Mike Cleaver]

I've been in the old CFUN building a couple of times.
All interior partitions were removed to make it open space retail.
They have a small office and warehouse in the back.
I too, loved that building in the '60's when I came down to visit Jolly John Tanner on weekends.

[cart_machine]

The brick buildings will be torn down to make way for more condoz.

Methinks you've seen too many performances of The Altar Boyz.

I think most of the buildings I originally worked in have either been torn down ('WX on Burrard, 'OR in the Grosvenor, etc.) or are something else now (eg. the original 'OV building downtown).

cArtie.

[Mike Cleaver]

"Condoz" was a word invented by an un-named architect to describe the cookie cutter buildings being put up around the world that look exactly alike and have the same floor plans.
As in "boring and uninspiring and designed in one's sleep."
I first saw it used in an article despairing of the erection of another cookie-cutter concrete, steel and glass behemoth in Toronto.
Cartie: The original CKOV building was once an onion warehouse before it became a radio station.
The original CJOC storefront building in Lethbridge still stands, still being used as a radio station.
CKXL in Calgary is long gone, of course.
CJCA in Edmonton, the building still is there, don't know if it's still being used by the current holder of those call letters.
CFRB remains where it's been for decades at Yonge and St. Clair while 680 News has moved into the Rogers Megalopolis on Bloor Street.
CFRA in Ottawa is in the new Media Market Mall after being in a concrete bunker out in an industrial area.

[Howaboutthat]

"Condoz" was a word invented by an un-named architect to describe the cookie cutter buildings

There ya go again.... no actual sources.

[EX-BOSSJOCK]

All these stations , CJCA - CJOR - CKLG - CFUN - CKNW , felt it necessary to move after I left . Maybe they were trying to hide , fearing I might come back .

[hazmat]

Jon, one of the more charming things I remember about the Q studios was the
rabbit warren layout inside. I'm told that the space was originally occupied by
maybe five different businesses, and as Q expanded, they'd knock down a wall
here or there and take over. It would explain the curious collection of little
steps and ramps between different areas of the building, and the "secret passageways" --
little disused doorways tucked in here and there that would take you instantly from,
say, the record library to the FM rack area. Kind of like being inside a game
of dungeons and dragons, or perhaps snakes and ladders.

Contrast this to the Selkirk or CFUN buildings, that were purpose-built to be
studios. The CFUN building in particular was built like a bunker. The reno's
after the station left consisted of knocking down interior walls and expanding
the windows around the outside. It must be a lot sunnier inside there now...

We had big fun at QM one weekend during a big rainfall, when the roof started leaking
overtop of the rack area, with water dripping down into the FM racks, shorting
out the McCurdy amplifier cages. Those were modified McCurdy AU300 amplifiers,
a personal favourite of Stan Davis's, and featured miniature glass firebottles
("tubes" to you). The high voltage for the tubes and the rainwater didn't mix too
well. It was quite an experience to be rebuilding carbonized tube amplifiers in
the early 1980's. Had a kind of archeological restoration feel to it.

There, that's my contribution to today's thread drift!

Haz

[jon]

I have no other source or recollection to verify this date or address by, but CCF (broadcasting-history.ca) reports that CJCA AM & FM moved to their brand new red brick building at 10230 - 108th Street, still Downtown, in 1972.

To the best of my knowledge, without taking the time to actually drive by, the famous Birks Building location of CJCA studios, that they moved out of 1972, is still there. Birks moved into Manulife, Edmonton's tallest building, when it was built in the '80s. But the famous CJCA billboard on the top of the Birks Building was still there until about 1990.

When CJCA-AM signed off into dead air for several months in the early '90s, the religious station that replaced it was run out of the red brick CIRK-FM (K-97, the ex-CJCA-FM) building, initially under a Management Agreement, until the CRTC approved the change in ownership. CIRK eventually moved into West Edmonton Mall with the other NewCap stations. CJCA-AM is now in a building next to Global Edmonton (formerly ITV) in the South end of Edmonton. The red brick building was originally sold to Canadian Blood Services, but now has new occupants. As mentioned in another thread, the towers are still where they've always been, but a move to a location South of Devon has been approved by the CRTC.

As for CHQM, the multiple previous tenants explains a lot of things. First, upon arrival in 1971, it was clear to me that the building was older than the stations. Second, there were at least four washrooms, all of widely varying designs and quality. And even temperatures, kinda like the porridge that Goldilocks found.

On a related subject, the building was built on a slope, which did have one Up Side. When the Westerly most washroom overflowed, as it was known to do fairly frequently, all you had to do was open the West-most back door. Even thought it was a long way away, water would flow down the ramp into the Record Library, past the Vivaldi section, past Jurgen Goth's desk, through a back office/storage area and out that back door that was normally used just for deliveries. Really handy. And it saved washing those lino floors....

[jon]

Turning this around, I can only think of two Edmonton radio stations that still have studios where they were in the '60s: CKUA and CFRN, both AM & FM, and CFRN has the TV there, too.

But, both were completely renovated from scratch, though there may be some back rooms at CKUA that haven't changed much.

[drmusic]

Turning this around, I can only think of two Edmonton radio stations that still have studios where they were in the '60s: CKUA and CFRN, both AM & FM, and CFRN has the TV there, too.

But, both were completely renovated from scratch, though there may be some back rooms at CKUA that haven't changed much.

In the Regina market there's a single broadcaster that's still where it was in the 60s: CKCK/CTV, in its brick building on Highway 1 East. Rawlco moved into its current home in the late 80s, Harvard moved a couple of years ago, and CBC just marked the 25th anniversary of the Regina Broadcast Centre. Global is still in the building it first opened in 1987 when it was STV, and Astral is new to the market.

As for Saskatoon, it's also a list of one: CFQC/CTV. Rawlco, CBC and the CJWW cluster all moved into new studios this decade, and Global is in its original 1987 building near the airport.

Even the oldest radio station currently operating in the province, Moose Jaw's CHAB, moved to new studios about a decade ago.