There is a film documentary on one of the more iconic and influential radio stations in all of Canada and around the world. CFNY broadcast out of Brampton, Ont., first, from a two-storey house in the late 1960s, and then from an office above a strip mall in the ’70s and early ’80s.
The music that was played on CFNY at the time was not necessarily popular, nor was it considered commercially successful. Instead, the station played records from artists and bands that were deemed outside the mainstream or an “alternative” to the mainstream. Five decades later, CFNY, now known as 102.
1 The Edge, continues to play alternative music, this time from a state-of-the-art broadcast facility in downtown Toronto. But it was during a 14-year period (1978 to 1992) that the radio station found its identity. That period is being highlighted in a new documentary, CFNY: The Spirit of Radio .
Story continues below advertisement “A bunch of us had been complaining about other radio stations getting documentaries and had gotten credit for some of the things they did,” said Alan Cross, former CFNY afternoon drive announcer and current host of Corus Radio’s The Ongoing History of New Music, on the motivation behind doing the documentary. “CFNY, especially during the Spirit of Radio years, did not, and we thought that was a huge oversight. We were also concerned that people were getting on in age and we had to do it sooner than later.
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