CFUN



The CFUN fleet of Ford Mustangs.
In the early Fall of 1959 at Vancouver radio station CFUN, a young disc-jockey named Dave McCormick, introduced and hosted a weekday afternoon program of popular tunes called the "House of Hits".

Additionally Dave hosted the Vancouver chapter of the nightly "Hi-Fi Club" sponsored by Coca-Cola. Dave also began producing his own weekly surveys, reportedly using the one-finger method on his home typewriter. The survey was called the "HI-FI FORTY".

For the first few weeks the surveys were not publicly distributed, but soon a limited number were printed out on a Ditto copier, typos and all, and with Dave's hand-drawn C-FUN logo at the top. They were then issued to a limited number of Vancouver record stores.

Soundathon was C-FUN's twice annual extravaganza of hits from the past. Listeners voted for their favourite "flashbacks" and these were tallied and played in countdown order near the year's end or in mid-summer. The first Soundathon was in late December 1960 and featured only 60 ranking songs, all from that year.

Soundathon #2 was a Top 100 and took place during the summer of 1961, covering the period back to July 1960. Soundathon came of age with Number 3 in late December 1961.

This time 300 ranking songs were included, tallied from over 101,000 votes. And this time it included the Rock and Roll years back to 1955.

Beginning with Soundathon #4 in the summer of 1962, the Summer Soundathons featured only hits of the past summers. Hits were listed in groups by year and there were no rankings. Soundathons #4 and #6 were likely never printed but later summer Soundathons were.

The winter Soundathons continued the ranking of 300, as did the last Soundathon #14 in July 1967. Soundathon was a favourite and much-anticipated event on "Funland" radio C-FUN.

Here is a portion of Part 1 of Soundathon #14 on July 22-23, 1967 with Lee Gaboury and Terry David Mulligan. [ LISTEN ] (15:43)
By the the summer of 1960 CFUN had morphed into a 24-hour Pop/Rock 'N' Roll station. The first "official" C-FUN survey labeled number 1, was issued for the week of March 19, 1960.

Like the earlier homemade McCormick surveys it still carried the name "HI-FI FORTY" although the surveys, which were now more professional in appearance, usually listed at least fifty, sometimes 60 songs. By mid-summer the station settled in on the name "FUNTASTIC FIFTY" (or C-FUNTASTIC FIFTY).

It would remain as such for many years. CFUN, largely due to McCormick's efforts, had established itself as Vancouver's new hit parade station and in addition to Dave, gave us the radio personalities, known then as the "Swingin' Men At 1410", which included Al Jordan, Brian Lord, Ken Chang, Frosty Forst, and Jerry Landa. On Sunday evenings Andy Laughland (pronounced LOCK-lund) would host "Comedy Night", the only time during the week that CFUN deviated from the hit parade format.

In early 1962, as competitor CKWX began phasing itself out of the "Top Forty" format, over at C-FUN Dave McCormick was preparing to leave the station for a position in Fresno, California. (Brian Lord had departed only a few months earlier, also for California.) Red Robinson left WX and moved to C-FUN that April, filling Dave's spot as Program Director. Red didn't actually move into Dave's time slot, but rather the evening slot occupied by George Morris (aka the Late Daddy 'G'), who also left the station around this time.

With Red and other new personalities coming aboard, by this time nicknamed the "Good Guys", C-FUN solidified its position for the next few years as Vancouver's Rock 'N' Roll/Pop music station. The new DJs would include, over a period of time, Buzz Leboe, Ronn "The Beard" Grimster, Tom Peacock, Fred Latremouille, Mad Mel, "Jolly" John Tanner, and Daryl 'B'.

John Tanner with The Sunrays ("I Live For The Sun") in front of the C-FUN studios showing the 1966 bumper sticker. This photo appeared in CashBox Magazine in the summer of 1966.
Soundathon number 4 was never printed or distributed. There is brief mention of it in the Vancouver Province's weekly C-FUN feature for July 13, 1962 where, in one lone paragraph, Al Jordan writes:

"C-FUN will be programming its summer soundathon next weekend and it's a wonderful time to refresh your memory of some of the musical moments of the past. This is a two-day special and will begin July 21." And that, to date, is the only known reference to the summer Soundathon of 1962. This much is certain however, like the "Summer Soundathons" of years to come, this one was a showcase of flashbacks from past summers covering each July and August dating back to 1960.

Pictured from top to bottom: Tom Peacock, Frosty Forst, Red Robinson, Ed Karl, Fred Latremouille, Al Jordan.
There were no rankings of songs, and there is no evidence that any votes were asked for or sent in. If a survey had been printed it would likely have appeared like those of future summer soundathons, showing a long list of songs listed in groups by month and year.

Using those guidelines you can get a pretty good idea of what songs were heard during the summer soundathon of 1962.

HERE COMES THE GOOD GUYS.
CKLG entered the "Top Forty" format in August 1964. The two stations vied for top spot in the Rock/Pop format for several years during which time personalities moved back and forth between the two stations, although mostly from the former to the latter. Eventually CKLG gained supremacy.

"Unlike regimented radio today, we didn't 'think tank' or sit around with department heads, or hire a consultant…the listener phone line was our consultant. Our 'format' was very loose, in fact just about non-existent! If it worked, we kept doing it!"
-Dave McCormick
Mad Mel hanging out with the Beatles in Australia. Listen to Mel talking about the White Album with John Lennon [ here ].


The final C-FUN chart, September 16, 1967. The collage of DJ pics was assembled by Red Robinson.

Mad Mel joined C-FUN during the Spring of 1965. Unlike the station's other DJs who were commonly known as "The Good Guys", Mel earned a spot as C-FUN's "Bad Guy."

By the Fall of 65 Mel was gone, although he could still be heard in C-FUN ads for the Bad Boys Rag Shop, a new trendy clothing enterprise in which he was involved. Short as his stay with C-FUN was, it was memorable.

On January 25, 1967 listeners woke up to the A.M. morning drive program hosted by Red Robinson. [ LISTEN ] (29:06)

Red Robinson left C-FUN in 1967 and returned to CJOR. CFUN's last survey, by this time called the "FUN FORTY" was issued in September 1967.

On September 18, 1967 CFUN dropped it’s Top 40 format for an easy listening format called the “Sound of Music”. It's last weekly #1 song is "The Letter" by the Box Tops. In 2 years it would change it’s call letters to CKVN (VN: Vancouver News) and become Vancouver’s first all news radio station.

It would also offer talk shows, a brief stint as a big band format and after all these experiments with different formats failed, returned to Top 40 in March 1970, with Terry David Mulligan, Fred Latremouille, John Tanner and JB Shayne.

Some materials found on this page were originally published by the following: Rock Radio Scrapbook and Vancouver Top 40 Radio.