50th Anniversary of Rogers CHFI purchase

[jon]

Maclean's magazine beat me to it: marking the 50th anniversary of Ted Rogers' purchase of his first radio station: CHFI-FM Toronto on September 30, 1960. I never had a date before, but I've added it to Today in History, so I don't miss it next year.

CHFI-FM was a very rare bird indeed in those days: a stand-alone FM station. The station first signed on in 1957 as a combination radio station and background music service. Tones inserted in the on-air signal activated the specialized background service receivers to mute the commercials and everything else but the music itself.

By October 1961, CHFI had become the first FM stereo station in Canada. Previous stereo broadcasts had involved two stations broadcasting in mono, one Left Channel and one Right.

On August 8, 1962, CHFI-AM signed on, simulcasting CHFI-FM on 1540 KHz. 50,000 watts daytime-only. The AM would eventually move to 680 KHz and become CFTR, first a legendary Top 40 station, then its current All News format.

Ted died on December 2, 2008.

[Howaboutthat]

Its really sad to see what the radio division of the company has become since his passing.