My Summer Lair Chapter #346: What’s A Song You Taped Off The Radio?
A documentary about a radio station seems weird in 2026 but remember the pop culture adage:
Everything Is Always Dying But Nothing Ever Dies.
Matt Schichter’s CFNY documentary chronicles the influential Toronto radio station — now 102.1 The Edge — during its groundbreaking punk, new wave and alternative Spirit of Radio era, roughly 1977 to 1992.
I love, love, love…that his CFNY documentary includes Ben Kowalewicz from Billy Talent and Emily Haines from Metric…the lead singers of those bands talking about eagerly recording songs off the radio. (What made old school pop culture so much richer than today’s disposable junk is the demanded focus. Ya hadda be present.)
It’s a beautiful pop culture ritual that’s mostly gone away in the Spotify era. Was that something you also did?
There’s 2 other radio rituals I still perform: the beginnings and the endings. There’s the fist pump when you score your favourite song from the opening note. And the final notes are also key. With certain songs I’ll wait until the end even if I’ve reached my destination. I’ll sit in my driveway or in the parking lot until the song is over. Closer by Nine Inch Nails has those chimes. I wait for the chimes.
Talking heads in the CFNY documentary include Geddy Lee (Rush), Jim Kerr (Simple Minds), Steven Page (Barenaked Ladies), Emily Haines (Metric), Ben Kowalewicz (Billy Talent), Peter Hook (New Order/Joy Division), Lol Tolhurst (The Cure), Andy McCluskey (OMD), Deryck Whibley (Sum 41) and, as always, much more.
See that list of bands, though?
That’s CFNY.
That’s music that means so much to us.
Matt’s compelling documentary focuses on CFNY’s first incarnation, when the radio station was based in Brampton. The small but mighty radio station that fostered a community of wonderful weirdos and outstanding outcasts.
I inhaled the CFNY documentary— in the late 70s into the 80s the popular radio station broke a lot of incredible bands. We’re talking about Talking Heads and The Clash and The Cure and Simple Minds and OMD and Japan and Rush and Joy Division and then later, sadly so New Order…so much incredible music that kept True Faith alive.
CFNY: The Spirit of Radio isn’t just a documentary — it’s a portrait of a cultural moment many people lived through; especially in Toronto.
This is…
Before MTV and MuchMusic
Before algorithms and playlists.
Before good taste and cool for most of us…
CFNY was the frequency where you discovered your soundtrack. Which naturally in that era dictated which lunch table were you gonna sit at…you gonna slurp jello with the goths. Munch chicken fingers with the jocks?
Radio was a medium that determined your world and helped shape who you would become. As Matt says in this My Summer Lair conversation: When does a radio station create a community? That’s so rare.
CFNY: The Spirit of Radio tells that story through the voices you grew up with from: Alan Cross, Dave Marsden, Chris Sheppard…to Brother Bill and even Martin Streek.
This isn’t nostalgia. Nostalgia is just empty calories.
This is infrastructure.
CFNY: The Spirit of Radio revisits one of the crucial cultural ecosystems that have sculpted Toronto. You can’t share the history of Toronto without recognizing CFNY.
In this MSL episode Matt confirms the documentary is a love letter to radio. Before he was a director Matt was a radio DJ. We unpack taste and how cool struggles to be profitable…it is after all show business not show friends, right?
And of course…the music; we gotta acknowledge the music: from Simple Minds to Rush, to The Cure to Japan. Even later Metric and U2 and Counting Crows.
Yo…when was the last time you listened to Japan? I should make a Spotify playlist for this episode.
We’ve lost so much in Toronto.
To live here is to often mourn.
We’ve recently enjoyed institutional docs on MuchMusic, Honest Ed’s, Ontario Place and now CFNY.
(The Edge is still there, no worries. It’s more I’ll walk by the where the street level studio used to be and there’s always a moment of sadness.)
Matt’s CFNY documentary, CFNY: The Spirit of Radio pairs beautifully with Your Tomorrow, an Ontario Place documentary also part of the TVO Docs library.
Do a tragic yet charming double bill.
CFNY Doc @ W• T • F
Host Sammy Younan
Recorded: Thursday, January 11, 2026 at 9:00 am (EST)
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