Forty years is a mighty long time to go to work in the same radio building without anyone on the outside looking for a sign that you may not be there tomorrow. Roger Ashby, who did his first overnight on-air shift at 1331 Yonge St. in August 1969, nearly reached that milestone. That is, until this summer, when Ashby’s morning show sidekick of 23 years, Rick Hodge, announced his departure from CHUM-FM — whose studios were concurrently being sold by new owner CTVglobemedia to a high-end condominium developer.
Roger, Rick and Marilyn, the threesome synonymous with mornings on 104.5 FM since 1986 — after Marilyn Denis joined what had become a more female-friendly frequency — was left Rick-less. Hodge, who started doing sportscasts on CHUM-FM in 1974, is due to join Astral Media-owned Newstalk 1010 CFRB.
Meanwhile, two other CHUM-FM jocks were recently lured away by Astral’s 99.9 MIX-FM as part of an effort to lure away their listeners, too. The neighbouring stations are now basically doing variations on the same thing: a format designed to appeal to fans of both 15-year-old Miley Cyrus and 50-year-old Madonna, a pan-generational approach defined by American Idol, affirmed by the latest era of rhythm-and-emo bubblegum concoctions.
Currently topping the CHUM-FM 30 chart: “Dangerous” by Kardinal Offishall featuring Akon, a tune that can withstand high-rotation overkill. Nonetheless, the idea of a local rapper hitting No. 1 on the most mainstream of contemporary radio stations would’ve once seemed to require a volcanic cultural evolution.
“We always used to say a trend takes a while before it reaches Scarborough,” says Ashby. Now, it appears these things just as readily flow in the opposite direction.
None of this has diminished Ashby’s enthusiasm for talking around, and about, the hits — even if he turns 59 next week. Sunday mornings on 1050 CHUM he still hosts an in-depth oldies show that started in November 1980; already, he was representing the voices of a bygone era, leading one to wonder how old is too old to be a Top 40 radio jock.
“I started my career around plenty of people who were 20 years older,” says Ashby. “I watched them get old and literally talk themselves out of their jobs.
“From that point, I realized — I didn’t want to get old.”
But, with his mild-mannered delivery, Ashby spent much of his first decade at 1050 CHUM working behind the scenes tailoring playlists for louder mouths than his own, between doing on-air swing shifts. When they gave up on trying to breed the next high-schtick morning DJ in 1982, he was called on to transcend those trends — and, somehow, that unassuming banter became a formula for success.
So what happens when the co-host across the table announces that he’s through?
“We all went on vacation in June,” says Ashby. “The three of us had never been away before at the same time, and it was during that break I learned that Rick had been hired by another radio station. We might have worked together all these years, but we still have our own individual lives, and this was a personal decision. And the fact that we weren’t doing the show that week had nothing to do with what happened.”
Which meant coming back in July as the truncated duo, Roger and Marilyn. Reminding listeners of that every three-and-a-half minutes was bound to raise suspicion.
“Just explaining that Rick was no longer here and had chosen another career path was precedent-setting,” says Ashby, who has seen hundreds of colleagues and competitors disappear from the airwaves without notice, sometimes never to be employed again. “The audience was expecting more detail, though, so the following day I made it clear that he was offered a new radio job, and took it.”
Ashby, on the other hand, did nothing of the sort — even though CHUM-FM is now facing competition in a way not heard since 1050 CHUM and Ted Rogers-owned 680 CFTR battled for youthful AM supremacy throughout the ‘70s. CHUM ended up losing that showdown, but had already shuffled Ashby over to the FM side in 1985 to become the voice of a transition from a hippie-hangover rock format (see commercial here) to the pacifying soundtrack of aspirational yuppiedom (see below).
Somehow, without ever losing significant ratings ground, it transformed into a station currently signified by Katy Perry’s annoyingsexual “I Kissed a Girl” and Chris Brown’s Doublemint gum product-placement-payola “Forever,” with an ongoing dosage of flashback fare, and retro-rap that's proven non-polarizing.
Since the crowd dubious of commercial music radio have generally moved on to other outlets, rather than complaining about what the FM hype factories don’t spin, it’s not much of a secret that the playlists are rarely determined on a whim.
“But you can have all the focus groups and research tools in the world,” says Ashby, “and it doesn’t make a difference unless you also know your craft. It doesn’t help to just blindly use that information, we also have to make sense of it.”
This paradigm shift finds CHUM returning to the business they abandoned on the AM dial in 1986 in favour of “Favourites of Yesterday and Today,” dropping the “Today” part in 1989, then foregoing music for sports talk in 2001 — an unmitigated ratings disaster that necessitated a hasty retreat back to oldies the following year.
Remaining in place throughout was the blinking red “CHUM DIAL 1050” sign. The 100-foot steel tower was toppled over into the middle of Yonge Street by vandals in August 1986 — not protesting the AM station’s format flip, it was determined — but then-owner Allan Waters promptly ordered a perfectly rebuilt replica.
“He was really superstitious and sentimental kind of guy,” says Ashby. “That sign had been there since 1954. It was a baby of his, and he wasn’t going to let it go.”
Furthermore, the neon helped advertise the mythology being created beneath. While the area south of St. Clair continues to be the sleepiest stretch of Yonge — perfect for luxury condos marketed to retirees — the racket transmitted via both CHUMs in their youthful heydays made it sound like a place packed with action.
“Well, at least now there’s more than one place to eat around here,” quips Ashby.
Yet the sign, and the radio stations, will relocate this winter — spitting distance from the 299 Queen St. W. television temple that CTV bought from CHUM — into the 250 Richmond St. W. building formerly home to the Whiskey Saigon nightclub. Rick Hodge’s role as Roger and Marilyn’s third-wheel — an essential service, evidently — will be filled by CHUM-FM’s erstwhile afternoon drive guy Darren B. Lamb.
Whether or not the oldies side of the operation survives the move, or if another change to a talk-oriented format is the key to AM radio survival, remains a bit of a mystery. For how many more decades can the same nostalgic time frame be on repeat?
“Oldies to me have always meant ‘50s and ‘60s,” insists Ashby. “Does someone who still likes Buddy Holly want to hear some Meat Loaf, or the Human League?” While some of the dreariest ‘80s singles do turn up these days on 1050, it remains focused on pre-disco records designed with AM in mind.
Carrying the torch, then, is Roger’s 24-year-old son, Regan Ashby, who currently voices overnight and Saturday shifts on 1050 CHUM. He broke into the family business on his own while at university in Halifax.
Meanwhile, the reunion of New Kids on the Block is considered a big deal on CHUM-FM. Their comeback tour kickoff at the Air Canada Centre in September provides the ideal radio content for the 25-to-44 females whose devotion remains lucrative, even in these fragmented times. What better way to bait them than with semi-ironic fervor for an aging boy band?
“They’re trying to recapture their youth,” says Ashby. “I understand it, completely.”
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