page_title: CHUM (AM)
section_title: The Top 40 era: 1957-1986
hierarchical_section_title: CHUM (AM) / Station history / The Top 40 era: 1957-1986
caption_attribution_description: English: w:1331 Yonge Street, former CHUM building
context_page_description: CHUM, broadcasting at 1050 kHz, is a Canadian radio station licensed to Toronto, Ontario. The station is owned and operated by Bell Media. CHUM's studios are co-located with TSN at 9 Channel Nine Court in the Agincourt neighbourhood of Scarborough, with its transmitter array located in the Clarkson neighbourhood of Mississauga. TSN 1050 is simulcast on Bell Satellite TV satellite channel 989.
  Long known as 1050 CHUM, from the late 1950s to the mid-1980s, the station played current Top 40 hits. In 1986, the station switched to an adult contemporary format.
  For two decades beginning in 1989, CHUM began playing oldies, featuring music mainly from the 1950s and 1960s, except for a brief stint as a sports radio station, The Team 1050, from 2001-2002.
  In March 2009, CHUM switched to a news format known as CP24 Radio 1050, which operated primarily as an audio simulcast of CP24 before reverting to a sports format as TSN Radio 1050 in April 2011.
context_section_description: Less than three years after Waters acquired the station, and soon after bringing the new full-time transmitter online, a major programming change was made. On May 27, 1957, at 6 AM, Waters switched the station to a "Top 50" format that had proven itself popular in some U.S. cities; Elvis Presley's "All Shook Up" was the first song played. "1050 CHUM" pioneered rock and roll radio in Toronto, and was noteworthy for hosting many noteworthy rock concerts including, among others, visits to Maple Leaf Gardens by Elvis Presley (1957) and the Beatles (1964, 1965, and 1966).
  The station rose in popularity in Toronto in the late 1950s and early 1960s; though it never supplanted perennial Toronto ratings champ CFRB at the top of the ratings chart, it was still a major broadcasting powerhouse with a particular appeal to the teen market. As the station became more successful, it also built yet another new transmitter in Mississauga, Ontario (a few miles west of the current Toronto city line) along the Lake Ontario shoreline, and raised its power once again to its current 50,000 watts around the clock.
  In the late 1950s, CHUM was calling itself "Radio One", as its ratings continued to increase.  An important part of CHUM's success was the station's unpredictable morning man Al Boliska, who joined CHUM in October 1957, after working at station CKLC in Kingston, Ontario.  By 1959, Boliska had made a name for himself as a disc jockey who got listeners talking.  He also made them laugh, and became known for telling what he called the "World's Worst Jokes".  Boliska also did a number of stunts, such as taking part in a professional wrestling match with Whipper Billy Watson.  When he lost, that led to another stunt, where Boliska stayed away from his show for several days, saying he was now too discouraged by the loss to do his show.  A hypnotist was called in, and Boliska's self-esteem was restored.  Boliska left CHUM in late 1963 to go 'across the street' to CKEY. He was replaced by WKBW Buffalo radio & TV personality Jay Nelson, popularly known as "Jungle Jay" from his role as host of a children's show on Buffalo's Channel 7 which was also popular among Toronto youngsters. He would be followed by housewives' jock John Spragge; singer/DJ Mike Darow; Pete Nordheimer, replaced in 1961 by Bob McAdorey, teen DJ Dave Johnson, and all night DJ Bob Laine.  Later additions to the CHUM DJ lineup included Duff Roman and Brian Skinner, both of whom came from rival Toronto rocker CKEY (then owned by Jack Kent Cooke).
  In the late 1960s and early 1970s, CHUM DJs included Duke Roberts (also known as Gary Duke for a time), Johnny Mitchell (better known today as Sonny Fox), J. Michael Wilson, Tom Rivers, Scott Carpenter, Jim Van Horne, John Rode, Don Reagan, John Majhor, Mike Cooper, Daryl B, Terry Steele, Mike Holland and morning man Roger Ashby. Among their later night-time hosts was J. D. Roberts, who joined CHUM for a time in 1977, eventually becoming known across North America as White House correspondent for CBS News, then was co-anchor of CNN's morning program American Morning and is currently White House correspondent again now with Fox News. Rick Moranis, later famous for his work on SCTV and Ghostbusters, was briefly a late-night CHUM DJ in the mid-seventies under the name "Rick Allan".
  CHUM began to have zany contests. In the 1950s and 1960s, it was contests such as 'The Walking Man', where listeners had to spot CHUM's mystery walking man using only clues given out on the air. The 1970s' "I Listen to CHUM" promotion had DJs dialing phone numbers at random and awarding $1,000 to anyone who answered the phone with that phrase. In 1976, there was the CHUM Starsign promotion. Listeners wore a button featuring their astrological sign. If CHUM's 'Starsign spotter' saw a person wearing his or her Starsign, that person won prizes such as money or concert tickets to major events.
  The CHUM Chart was, for many years, the most influential weekly Top 40 chart in Canada and has been hailed as the longest-running continuously published radio station record s
caption: The Chum Radio Building at 1331 Yonge Street was the home of 1050 CHUM from 1959 until 2009
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