CHOO Radio Recollections: April 2015

Thanks so much for putting CHOO Radio Recollections up. It's part of my roots, in a roundabout way.

I was part of the gospel music programming at CHOO from 1984 to 1988 when I shifted into syndication - picking up stations in Peterboro, Lindsay, Barrie, Orillia, Orangeville, Mississauga, Welland, Wingham and beyond.

How I started at CHOO was fun. I'd been doing Sundays 9pm-midnight at CKAN in Newmarket from October 1982. Yep, a Contemporary Christian show. In 1983 CKAN flipped to country but left us alone as our ratings won the weekend. But by 1984 they insisted on a new format for me... Country... which, for gospel music, was poorly developed at the time.

A listener, about 15-16 years old, named Mike lived in Richmond Hill and listened to both CHOO and CKAN. He called me during my shift at CKAN and told me he'd called Joe (Conrad) Frechette and told him he should take my Contemporary show.

Joe was very gracious, and I was on the air fairly quickly. Coming in with my own jingles, and an extensive collection of vinyl, we hit the air and gained a vocal audience. During my shift (Sundays 4-7pm) I did the news, the weather, and holiday traffic with Bob McIntosh. Of course, there was no staff on duty, and more than once something big happened (like a small plane making an emergency landing on a street) when I was able to record the police officer and submit a report to Newsradio. I was able to hear it on CKO on the way up to CKAN to do my second 3-hour show of the day.

The only employees with whom I had much contact were the part timers before and after me, Joe Frechette and Len Skelton. I'd love to get in touch with them again.

During a once a month request program, we could have all three hours all requests, and every caller went live to air to introduce their request. It was a hoot, and nothing hardly ever went wrong.

I do remember the reception pattern changing. We'd lose Scarborough, where some of my sponsors were (I recall Moller Insurance Agency and RG Mitchell Books and Fersina Windows), and pick up more to the north.

Pattern change was manual at CKAN, and I had to do it in the summer. We'd lose Toronto but found out we could be heard in Scandanavia. People would head up to the arctic circle and listen in sleeping bags at night and fill out dx cards. What a hobby.

I know what happened to the old CHOO 1390 transmitter. A friend of mine owns WTWZ in Clinton/Jackson MS where he ran my syndicated show for years . He needed something more modern and he bought the CHOO transmitter. I can only imagine what he was using before! The fact that the CHOO transmitter ended up in Clinton Mississippi and my show was going out on it, just like during the old days at CHOO, was just too weird a coincidence.

[Rob contacted Terry Wood at WTWZ for further details. Terry recalled that he had indeed bought the old CHOO 1390 transmitter from a company called Transcom. It worked well for as long as he had it but its transformers would blow out every six months. It became cost prohibitive to run and so after several years he sold it back to Transcom. Back to Rob:]

I moved to the USA in 89, and time has flown by. I now publish Christian Music Weekly, a billboard type publication for 9 formats of Christian Music. I now live just outside of Indianapolis. Still do my weekly syndicated show. Markets have included Poland, Norway, Africa, New Zealand, Iceland, and of course, the USA and Canada. Current affiliates include Paraguay, Australia, and Philippines.

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Thank you Rob Green for sharing your memories of your days at CHOO 1390 with us!

Readers are invited to share their memories with us via the comments feature of this blog or the main site's email address. The best will be edited and featured.

Hello CHOO Peeps:

Moving you through your morning... this is Sarah Michener for CHOO Radio.

My very first job out of college was working at CHOO radio.

I still have my first business card with the CHOO train on it.

Gord was my News Director. Brian Belfry was the morning guy. John Nugent was
the mid-morning guy and I was the girl who just plain loved radio.

I have the fondest memories of CHOO and would love to hear from any and all
that I worked with at the best little radio station in Ajax (heehee).

Man, I loved my time at CHOO and loved all the wonderful people that taught
me and mentored me while I was there.

Thanks CHOO.

Sarah

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Thank you, Sarah, for sharing your recollections of CHOO. Sarah wrote to our main site's email address ages ago so I am delighted to make her letter the first to be posted on our brand new blog!

CHOO Radio Recollections

Friday, 3 April 2015

ROB GREEN: MY TIME AT CHOO 1390

A LETTER FROM SARAH MICHENER

Welcome to the CHOO Radio Recollections blog