Review: CFNY: The Spirit of Radio

The first thing that separates CFNY: The Spirit of Radio from documentaries on other legendary rock stations is that, unlike WLIR Long Island, N.Y., or KLOL Houston, CFNY (The Edge) Toronto is still there to promote it, and still an Alternative station. That’s why last week afternoon host Drex was talking excitedly about having seen a screening the night before and brought it up several times during the course of the hour.

It also helps that Alan Cross, one of the documentary’s executive producers, is still with CFNY after 40 years. Cross, one of Alternative’s great historians, says the film took shape a decade ago after a discussion with former MD Ivar Hamilton and announcer Scot Turner about why nobody had recounted the station story yet. More than three years ago, director Matt Schichter came on board, with interviews taking place across Canada and the UK. 

CFNY: The Spirit of Radio, which takes its name from an early station slogan, premiered January 6 on TV Ontario. That channel, like the CFNY stream itself, is officially geofenced outside Canada, but there has been American interest from PBS, beginning with Buffalo’s WNED-TV.  In addition, distributor Highball.TV is planning to release an expanded version of the documentary on DVD (the TVO version is 60 minutes).

When radio’s new-rock revolution began in the late ’80s/early ‘90s, CFNY was a decade old and had already posted the sort of topline ratings not being seen by most of its U.S. counterparts. The station’s influence was such that UK artists like OMD’s Andy McCluskey recall being able to play major venues in Toronto, then going to the U.S. and touring small clubs. CFNY’s influence also meant that new wave crossed over to Canadian Album Rock and Top 40 radio, several years before MTV helped make it mainstream in America.

Other artist testimonials include Simple Minds’ Jim Kerr, New Order’s Peter Hook, and Rush’s Geddy Lee. Rush’s “The Spirit of Radio,” like the documentary, takes its name from an early station slogan; the song was apparently prompted when Neal Peart heard CFNY’s Liz Janik play Genesis’s “Watcher of the Sky.” Janik, later an influential Alternative and Modern AC consultant, for her part remembers needing to rig a clothesline to hear the station in its early days before a signal upgrade.

One of the recurring themes of CFNY: The Spirit of Radio is the lengths that listeners went to on the station’s behalf. When an early owner’s license was revoked, PD David Marsden asked listeners to petition Canada’s broadcast regulators to keep the station on the air and “every high school in the city had a table in the hallway” for petitions. Later, listener pressure quickly ended another owner’s short-lived attempt to turn the station into an Alternative/CHR hybrid.

As seen in the documentary, CFNY’s impact went well beyond music. Under Marsden, the station was the only radio station willing to team with a local theater to promote an AIDS-themed play. When GM Pat Hurley wrote a hard-hitting editorial in 1981 denouncing a Toronto police raid on a gay bathhouse, Marsden says it was the impetus for him to come out publicly. 

Besides Marsden’s influence, CFNY: The Spirit of Radio also acknowledges Chris Sheppard, discovered by Marsden at a station remote, who went from station mixer to one of dance music’s first superstar DJ/producers.  CFNY’s Martin Streek, is remembered as well, both for the crowds that his Friday Night Roadshows drew and for an encounter where he could remember a stranger’s song request months later.

The TVO edit of CFNY: The Spirit of Radio ends when listener pressure ends the station’s attempts to play George Michael and other pop crossovers, leading to Marsden’s resignation. Over the years, CFNY would follow the Alternative format to the cusp of Active Rock. When rival CIND (Indie 88) signed on in 2013, part of its appeal was recalling an earlier era of CFNY; ironically, Indie has evolved to Modern AC and has posted its highest ratings by combining Benson Boone and Alex Warren with more format-typical artists.

At this writing, CFNY and Indie are running neck-and-neck in the Toronto ratings. CFNY has leaned more into its heritage, and there was extra excitement to hearing Drex right after seeing the documentary. CFNY isn’t imaged as gold-based Alternative, unlike Corus-owned sister CFGQ (The Edge) Calgary, Alberta, but these days, there’s still a thin line between the formats. 

Here’s CFNY just before 3 p.m., on January 7. The Smiths and Shamen titles are part of the daily 4 p.m. “High Tea” double play of UK songs. (Tuesday’s double play was “Born Slippy” by Underworld and “Love is the Drug” by Roxy Music.)

• Florence + the Machine, “Dog Days Are Over”
• Len, “Steal My Sunshine” (Canadian)
• Muse, “Madness”
• Soft Cell, “Tainted Love”
• City & Colour, “Save Your Scissors” (Canadian)
• Nirvana, “Come as You Are”
• Vance Joy, “Riptide”
• 54-40, “Ocean Pearl” (Canadian)
• Nine Inch Nails, “As Alive as You Need Me to Be”
• Sam Roberts Band, “Bridge to Nowhere” (Canadian)
• Oasis, “Champagne Supernova”
• Finger Eleven, “Paralyzer” (Canadian)
• Kate Bush, “Running Up That Hill”—Days after the Stranger Things finale, Drex declares “I could play that and ‘Purple Rain’ on a loop and never get tired of it”
• Smiths, “There Is a Light That Never Goes Out”  
• Shamen, “Ebeneezer Goode”