Happy 40th Birthday CFMI

[radiofan]

Today it's Rock 101. On March 22nd 1970 it was known as FM One (hence the call letters C FM I). CKNW's automated sister station hit the air as an uptempo Country station that was based in Gastown ... even though the blue IGM automation unit known as "Fat Albert" was in a former Safeway store at 8th & McBride in New Westminster. The country format didn't last too long and in 1971 the station decided to go after easy listening CHQM-FM with an adult appealing format that was about 70% instrumentals ...

Here's some 40 year old Pepper & Tanner CFMI Country jingles ...

CFMI 101 in The West

[skyvalleyradio]

Count me as one who actually LIKED the original automated country-rock format on "FM One". It was great hearing the Byrds, Grateful Dead, Creedence, Buffalo Springfield, Flying Burrito Bros etc mixed in with Merle Haggard, George Jones, Charlie Pride et all. The little historical vignettes about Gastown and Vancouver's early days were a nice touch too. I flipped my radio back & forth between LG-FM and "FM One". On Sundays 'FM One' had an "International" format consisting of a heavily European-based sound. Somehow the 'oom-papa' Octoberfest music didn't exactly gel with the country-rock heard the rest of the week and - for me- was a real tune-out. All the 'Robsonstrasse' shops just west of Burrard always had CFMI blaring in-house on Sundays when I headed down there to pick up weekly copies of "New Music Express" and "Echo" from England. When CJVB 1470 debuted shortly thereafter, a much broader approach to international music was programmed into their "Cosmopolitan" sound than had been heard on CFMI. Radiofan or Pluto: did CFMI continue with the Sunday international music after switching to easy-listening in '72??

[Glen Livingstone]

Radiofan or Pluto: did CFMI continue with the Sunday international music after switching to easy-listening in '72??

Sky, I'm fairly certain that the international music was dumped when the format changed to easy listening. Perhaps Radiofan would like to weigh in on this - his memory is much better than mine.

When you think about it, the original "big city" country-rock format that CFMI aired back then was pretty progressive for the time. The eclectic mix of music that you mentioned sounded great in '72 and forty years it still sounds great because the songs are timeless.

CFMI was a great place to work in the seventies even after the format changed to easy listening but was still semi-automated. I remember one of my duties was loading up the two music and three commercial carousels for Barry Gaudin's morning show.

He was in Master Control at one end of the building and the cranky Fat Albert - the automation unit with the bad attitude - was at the other. For the most part things ran well, but occasionally there would be problems.

I have found memories of walking around behind the unit and pounding a wooden ruler into the back of one of the carousels to remove a jammed cart.

Not exactly high tech, but it worked and was a great way to reduce stress as well.

Of course the engineering staff were the true heroes of CFMI for keeping that metal monstrosity running for as long as it did.

[skyvalleyradio]

thanks Pluto - I was just curious about the International format. To my ears, it sounded like a perfect fit with the easy-listening instrumental format of 1972 and beyond. Damn rights the original country-rock was progressive! NW had been pitching the proposal for an FM country station for a number of years before actually being granted the license for CFMI. I seem to recall the BBG turned them down the first time they applied. There had been talk around Vancouver since the mid-60's that 'CKNW-FM' was coming with a country format. Once the BBG has been disbanded and the CRTC formed, NW seemed to win over the new commission with their proposal

[jon]

the BBG turned them down

There was a real feeling by the BBG (and the early years of the CRTC) that FM should be reserved for "Quality Music" as they like to call orchestral music of the time, whether it be classical or elevator music. In my opinion, neither CKLG-FM or CHUM-FM would have been approved as new licenses with the Underground format they debuted in 1968. Format changes did not require BBG approval.

I don't know one way or the other, but I'd be interested in seeing the CRTC proposal by CKNW that won them the CFMI license. I have to wonder specifically what they said about their musical format. Vague generalities may well have won the day.

This was still an issue with the early CRTC. Best evidence I'm aware of is all the hassle CKLW got when they tried to move The Big 8 to FM.

Another issue is that FM did not get CanCon regulations when AM did.

[radiofan]

When Pluto and I started working at CKNW/CFMI in August of 1972, the International programming on Sundays was gone.

The only deviation from the easy listening format was a hosted two hour Classical music show ("Music Of The Masters" with Jonathon Hartley) that ran from 11PM til 1AM,
followed by Classical music (on carts) that played in Fat Albert. (Any selections longer than 7 or 8 minutes would be recorded on a series of carts that were supposed to play
in sequence...sometimes they were loaded into Albert incorrectly, or a movement might be interrupted by a recorded weather or newscast.)

I once almost lost a thumb thanks to a berserk carousel. Setting the red and white pins into the pegboard was always a lot of fun too!

[Glen Livingstone]

Back then Jack Kyle used to do a live jazz show on CFMI Sunday nights if I recall correctly, from 10pm to midnight.

After spinning his last disc, he would get up and walk down the hall to NW to host his all night show which aired from midnight to 5am.