Ah... CFNY.  The name CFNY should be synonomous with the word "change".
When I discovered CFNY my brother-in-law said he
had stopped listening to it because it had changed so much -- "it wasn't
the same anymore" he said.  That was over thirteen years ago.

   It started one Friday night when I was searching the dial
and I came upon a familiar voice.  It wasn't as youthful as I remembered,
but then again mine wasn't either; after all, a lot of years had gone by
since Dave Mickey hosted Channel 11 Dance Party (back in 1964).
Now he was going by
a different name: David Marsden.  The show was different than anything
else I had heard on the radio, and the music he played certainly
wasn't the stuff played by other stations.  The station was CFNY.
My wife and I continued to listen to CFNY on Friday nights.
The one night however, we turned in a bit before the Marsden show and
discovered an anouncer who was calling someone on the phone.
He was checking in at home... a female voice answered... he asked
if the wash was done... she replied "check"...
socks folded... she replied "check"... he asked about the
state of the dishes... she replied "done, check"... dusting... "check".
We had discovered Earl and Bev!

   It became a ritual to tune into the Earl and
Bev show (with alternate Earl), followed by the Marsden show.
We found we were no longer listening to our Bob Seager records, and
they went out with the Elton John records at our first garage sale.
Our record collection was being replaced by other groups:
Talk Talk, Haricut 100, Tom Robinson,
Classix Nouveaux, Depeche Mode, Tears for Fears, Generation X,
The Spoons, Visage, B-movie, Spandau Ballet, and -- probably one of
the most influential groups of all time  -- New Order.
There were also songs by groups that no other station played --
songs by small independant groups who without CFNY would have never
been given a voice --
songs like "Rubber Girl" by the Pukka Orchastra, or
"My Old Man's A Joke" by Knoby Kleg.

   I suppose we never thought that CFNY would change, but
then one night David announced that it would be his last show.
I still have a taped copy of that show, along with many other hours
of tape from shows as far back as 84.
Anyway, Marsden was replaced by a snot-nosed kid by the name of
Chris "puppy-dog" Shepherd.
Things got worse.
The programs and announcers that we had come to love on CFNY were slowly
disappearing.
Listeners choice, a Saturday afternoon show which allowed
listeners to come in and co-host a show, playing the music they liked,
disappeared -- a great idea who's time had gone.
The IMPORT show, where listeners
got a chance to hear rare and hard to acquire music.  It was on
this show that I heard "Summer with Monica" by Roger Mcgough.
Twilight Jazz, a Sunday program that started at 4 p.m. and was hosted
by Ron Burshell, offered the smoothing quality to the stations
sharp edged format.
James Scott filled in for the vacationing Ron.  Ron
did not return, and
soon after the show was canceled.
All request weekends -- "jocks off" weekends -- 52 in 82 -- all
these things made CFNY the great station it was.  They are all gone
or have been replaced with watered down versions such as
the "all request breakfast" on Saturdays and the "all request nooner".

   Finally, one Saturday night we turned on the radio expecting to hear
Earl but instead it was James Scott (the anouncer with the kiss of death).
He told the listening audience that he was filling in for the
"vacationing Earl Jive".  What the listening public didn't realize is that
every time in the past when someone was being filled-in-for-while-on-vacation,
the person never came back.  Earl and Bev were gone.
The above CNFY radio personalities had personality; they were
"The Spirit Of Radio".

  The summer of 89 became a lowest point in the history of CFNY.  If the
station sank any deeper the signal would be on the AM bandwidth.
You could count on the same song being played at the same time
every morning, but worse, it was the same music that you could
hear on AM radio.
On Nov 16, 1989 Earl filled in for Humble Howard, while Howard was
being "married alive".
It was great to hear his voice again, even if it was only a fill-in
for the two morning clowns.
With the reappearance of Earl we
realized just how bad things had become at CFNY.
On November 18, 1989 CFNY anounced an "all request Saturday";
things were looking up.
There was also vague promises of a new Earl and Bev show
on weekend mornings.  In early 1990 this came true; however, it was short lived.
On May 7, 1990 Whiner Swartz delivered a "State of the Nation" address
to the CFNY listeners. His statement was promising; things were getting
better.  But not for long...
Today, only Humble and Fred remain.

I'm not sure what's going to come of the "Edge" thing.  Nobody knows.
But the one thing you can count on is that CFNY will continue to change,
and each time people will say it is worse.  Hell, there will most likely
come a time when we look back at the CFNY of today and think of it as
good programming.  The other thing you can count on is that I will still
be listening.  After all, there isn't anything else out there on the dial.

Bri