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Iconic Signs
By Susan Pointing
“I listen to CHUM!”
Anyone who was a teenager living in Toronto in the ‘70s remembers answering the phone with that phrase to anyone and everyone who called, just praying it was CHUM FM offering some cool prizes.
The station’s call for listeners to answer their telephones with the phrase was genius advertising at the time.
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But those were the days when only a handful of stations had teens glued to their radios. CHUM AM and later FM was once home to the only Top 40 station in Canada.
Something else has also vanished: The iconic sign that once stood at 1331 Yonge St. in Toronto.
Luxury condominiums now occupy the spot where the CHUM marker once proudly stood. Erected shortly after the station’s move to Yonge from its original location at 250 Adelaide St., the sign could be seen from St. Clair Avenue in the north to Summerville Avenue in the south, along a stretch of the world’s longest street.
At one time, some local residents and businesses accused the sign’s wattage of interfering with radio and phone lines. When it was finally removed for refurbishing, it left a permanent hole in the landscape.
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The sign was such an important part of Toronto that there is a book in the CHUM Radio museum titled The CHUM Sign.
Jon Arklay is vice-president of design and brand for CTV’s creative agency, “the marquee had a two-sided V-shape, which the city forced down because of the new over-hang laws. And so we put up a marquee that clung to the wall immediately below the sign. That was also removed during a re-facing of the building in the mid-‘60s. The entire sign came down when vandals took out the sign, and part of the Chevrolet-Corvette showroom across the street. But then the sign was completely replaced based on the original specifications that had been kept on file.”
Dismantling the marker was not as complicated as the CHUM team thought it would be, Arklay says, “the sign was still structurally in good shape, worn out, but still in good order. Every precaution was taken to ensure that it was not damaged while removing it.”
But, Arklay recalls that it was a slow process because the sign was in three separate sections: Two wings and a vertical element made the dismantling an intricate process. Each section was carefully unbolted and lifted off the rooftop, and the steel structure was put onto a transport trailer.
The CHUM sign was returned to its former glory and now sits atop its new digs on the popular corner of 260 Richmond St. W. at Duncan Street in Toronto’s entertainment district.
To maintain the original look of the sign, neon was used over LED tube lighting. This made the sign greener because the neon transformers were updated to high efficient electronic transformers.
As Arklay explains, “the old neon and original transformers were destroyed in compliance with the handling of hazardous materials; and, of course, all the wiring and housing was brought up to code.”
FAST-FORWARD: TORONTO’S STILL LISTENING TO CHUM!
After nine months of painstaking refurbishment, the Toronto landmark was re-erected at its new home on June 15, 2009.
Signs are all around us, and for different reasons they have an impact on us because they mark times in history. CTV’s communications manager, Alexis Hood says, “It was incredible to see people on the day it was being installed, there were quite a few people standing across the street reminiscing about the sign and recalling old stories. We received numerous emails and calls, and onlookers stopped through the day and into the night.”
CHUM Radio president, Chris Gordon says, “this sign is a great reminder of CHUM’s irrefutable place in the history of this city. For over six decades, CHUM has been the city’s go-to destination for the hits and this tradition lives on with 104.5 CHUM FM.”
CHUM Radio launched in Toronto in 1945 with a 250-watt radio station and was originally licensed only to broadcast from dawn ‘till dusk. The first CHUM sign was installed at 1331 Yonge Street in 1959 and was altered to the current design in November 1978. It was removed from 1331 Yonge Street on the evening of September 4, 2008 for refurbishing.
Here’s to the CHUM sign continuing to light up the night sky for decades to come.
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