CHOO Radio Recollections

An on line scrapbook of images & text for former staff and listeners alike

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We Get EVEN More E Mails!

Hi John.... Just discovered the site...what a stroll down memory late! I worked at CHOO twice, once briefly in 1984 as a part-time jock and from 1989 to 1992 in the news department. On air I was Greg MacNeil. In my first stint I primarily did a Saturday and Sunday night shift from 10pm to 2am. The Saturday shift included a request show and the Sunday shift was mostly watching reel-to-reel tape go round & round.

When I returned in '89 I did the afternoon news run. When Gord Taschuck left in '91, I took over as news director and the AM news run. In between I was at the cross-town rival CKAR/CKQT in Oshawa (ironically all three stations are now under common ownership under one roof).

I left in late 92 to take the job I still have... as manager of CJLX-FM in Belleville. It's the station at Loyalist College (my old alma matter). I took the job just before the station signed on and have been here since, now also teaching in the radio broadcasting program here.

Anyway, I really enjoyed the photos on your site. My one big regret is that I have very few, if any, photos of the station's I've worked at! The shot of you in the control room is great! It looked much the same until 1990 when the station moved to Westney Rd S. OMG that shag carpet (!) it was there 'til the end too! I was there for the big move to the new station. What a night and day difference. We went from that modified "box" inside a warehouse on McMaster to a band new, bright office building with (mainly) new equipment. It was a huge morale booster for the CHOO-crew at the time. We even had large windows in the newsroom!

The old CHOO control board, I believe was shipped to CJSN in Shaunavon, Saskatchewan (another of Golden West's stations). Gosh knows what that station was using before they inherited that old CHOO relic! Wonder if it's still in service? As I recall much of the stuff we used was pretty old, but it all seemed to work pretty well and repairs were done quickly when things broke. Remember Len the engineer? Tall bearded guy. I think he was married to Joan Downey. Both were gone by the time I returned in 1989.

BTW, the mic flash you have on the site, I believe, would have originated in the mid-to-late 80's, as those were the ones we used on our news mics and is identical to the logo on the magnet. When I first started there in 1984, the station had just changed the way it identified itself on air... from "Choo-Country Radio 14" to "1390 C-H-O-O". They officially retired the train logo shortly thereafter. In 1991 the on air ID was somewhat restored to "Choo-Country 1390", although when we did news it was still "C-H-O-O News",

One quick story: My very first jock shift on the station was back in 1984 during the Saturday night request show. I was a little anxious as I didn't know much about country music other than the cross-over artists like Eddie Rabbit and Kenny Rogers. I figured this wouldn't be a big issue as I would just follow the format and all should be fine. I didn't realize that I was now working for what was basically a "free form" country station. As I recall, the only stipulation was to play two or three current songs that were in some type of loose rotation, but the rest of the music was up to the announcer (also maintain CanCon of course). I was getting requests for very some common country classics, but unless the caller also said the name of the artist, I wouldn't know where to look on that big wall of LP's or all those 45's! I remember someone asking for "Rose Colored Glasses" and I had to say something like "Ah, which version would you like?" After a pause the caller would say "John Conley of course!". But at least then I knew! Most of the requests were for old relics that rarely clocked more than 2:30. I had come from an FM rock station out west, where most songs were 4 minutes and longer. I don't know how many times the song was starting to fade as I was still cueing up the next request. Ah...the gold ole days... no computer to cover your, er, rear.

I never understood why the changed the call letters to CJKX and reimaged themselves as KX96 after the flip to FM in '94. From my recollection the CHOO name was very well regarded in the community. Perhaps the new owners though it was too hokey(?). Too bad, there was some good heritage there they could have built upon.

I'm attaching a couple of photos here. One is of the fridge magnet, [SEE ABOVE] a little smudged from years of being on my fridge appropriately enough! The other shot isn't likely of much interest to anyone except to those who spent time in that old control room. It's the old 45 stand that was on casters and generally sat behind the announcer, to the left of the turntables. [SEE BELOW] The bottom part held some gospel albums used fill between all those tapes on Sundays! When the station made it's move, I grabbed it from a pile of stuff being junked. It stored a portion of my own fairly large collection of 45's for several years. Now-a-days, it's tucked in a corner of the basement by my workbench and serves to hold power tools and 'stuff'. You can still see the wooden separators in the top part for therecords and some dried up masking tape that used to hold a sign instructing the announcers about something (didn't we use to have to write the date a song way played on the green 45 cover?)

Anyway, that's for putting up the site! I'll check back often... and I'll send off some photos soon.

Regards, Greg Schatzmann (the former "Greg MacNeil")

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(ABOVE) PHOTO COURTESY "GREG MACNEIL" of a CHOO Radio kitchen fridge magnet.

(LEFT) PHOTO COURTESY "GREG MACNEIL" of the old CHOO master control 45 stand as it is today - "tucked in a corner of the basement... [holding] power tools and stuff." A piece of CHOO Radio history from its old McMaster Avenue days that only a former CHOO DJ could appreciate or love... Many thanks, Greg!