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From the Editor

The magic of aM 740

By Judi McLeod
Friday, October 21, 2005

  When I told fellow columnist Klaus Rohrich that I rate aM 740, Toronto the best station I ever heard, he said,  “Yeah, it’s a strong station and almost all of my friends feel the same way.”

  The pithy in print and on the Internet Klaus has his mellow side.

  Early every morning, I turn my radio, or should I say radios, to aM 740 before beginning to work on my PC.  There are radios in almost every room, of the house all tuned in to the same station.  

  Living downtown when I discovered it, I sometimes couldn’t get my favourite station because of the static, a problem even salesmen in electronic shops on Yonge Street got to hear about. 

  Since moving to the Toronto Beach this summer, the static was left behind. 

  aM 740 is as big a deal to me as when PBS Television occasionally brings back singers like Tommy Edwards or Bobby Curtola.  always sorry to see them end, I’m held enrapt and then can’t wait to catch the repeats, aM 740 is even better because it’s part of my everyday life.     “all Time Favourites” is their motto and they stick to it.

  Rainy afternoons don’t seem quite so rainy when Jack Scott is singing Burning Bridges  and who cares if the snow will soon fly so long as Tommy Edwards is singing all in the Game?

  Some tunes floating out from aM 740 while I’m working take me straight back to my high school days.  Others have me up on the floor doing improvised Cha Chas with an imaginary prince, who never came along but is here, albeit momentarily right now.

  One of my favourite business sidekicks, who helps me chase down stories, is an engineer who plays keyboard in a band.  as he calls often, he could sometimes hear my music in the background.  When he asked where the music was coming from, I naturally told him “aM 740!” 

  “It’s one of the best favours you ever did for me,” he announced a few days later.  When he’s working in his basement, he’s always tuned in to what we call 740 announcers, “Our guys.”

  So you can imagine how I felt when Program Director Gene Stevens called the Canada Free Press Elm Street office to say he’d be dropping by.  One of the station account executives had discovered a column I had written about the station last april as he was surfing the Net.

  There was a lot of excitement even from our intern students on the day of the appointment.

  Gene Stevens turned out to be just the sort of Program Director you’d expect to see at aM 740, affable, personal and interesting to talk to.

  This is the guy who put the music together on the station that increasing numbers of people are tuning in on.

  Radio is Stevens' life, and it didn't surprise me he was the original program director behind Toronto's EZ Rock format from 1995 to 2000..

  Stevens, well over six feet tall in both stature and personality, is the father of twin teenaged girls. Recently widowed, he’s both father and mother to his daughters.

  When I mentioned to him how proud the girls must be of his work atthe station, he told me his daughters not only enjoy aM 740's music, but have also taught him a lotabout their own younger music too.

     There was a time when I could only hear Brenda Lee, Jack Scott, Buddy Holly, Bing Crosby Dean Martin and others only fleetingly on those rare times station hopping after my day’s work was done.

  Now Brenda, Jack and company are as close as my On button.

  Gene Stevens and the fabulous Dee Jays at aM 740 put the crooners of another day back where I want them, in my everyday life.

Canada Free Press founding editor Most recent by Judi McLeod is an award-winning journalist with 30 years experience in the print media. Her work has appeared on Newsmax.com, Drudge Report, Foxnews.com, Glenn Beck. Judi can be reached at: judi@canadafreepress.com


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