CFUN

Jim Bower of vancouvertop40radio.com writes: “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.

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’.”

I remember seeing Daryl B at the PNE at an “on location” booth broadcasting live from the fairgrounds. The charts surveyed for the research on this website number 415 between 1959 and 1967. And there are over 300 more charts between 1978 and 1984 that data has been gathered from, including some gaps due to strikes by the Vancouver Province that published the weekly charts until the end of December 1984.

Here is a CFUN jingle from 1960 and another from 1966