680 CFTR Toronto | August 1988 (2:19) Scoped
Nov 18, 2004 
2 Comments
ou only need the two minutes spanning this sample of Toronto’s CFTR. It’s high-energy, late 80′s CHR at it’s finest… and in true Canadian style, on AM!
Couple of quick trivia items. First, the CTRC, Canada’s version of USA’s FCC, licenses stations for FORMAT, unlike in America, where the company and marketplace dictate what format a station will air. So it was that up until the late 90s, the CTRC kept music alive on most of the country’s AM stations – many of which were in glorious, rich-sounding AM Stereo. Canada has since changed it’s policy on music formats in favor of largely abandoning the AM band, allowing most stations to shift their format over to FM, and in many cases shutting down their AM counterpart. But lookee here how this AM station sounded in ’88!
Second, for those of you who wondered what ever happened to John “Records” Landecker from WLS – after his PM drive gig ended in 1981, this is the station he went to. A true CHR jock who was perfectly suited to CFTR’s format!
And, no, Landecker is NOT featured on this short aircheck.
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Loved listening to CFTR here in Erie, PA when the conditions were right…high-energy, great jingles, news, weather, traffic, Jesse & Gene, Tom Rivers, Kris James, Bob Calihan…all the elements that make radio great BETWEEN the songs. Missed you the day the music died–June 1, 1993.
That was Gary Bell doing the announcing on that aircheck. Years later he was the Space man on AM 640 (just down the dial) durring the beat of Toronto days, and he even moved on to have his own talk show when AM 640 went all talk in 1995.