CFNY radio documentary returns home to Brampton for final screening

The story of one of Canada’s most influential alternative radio stations is coming full circle this weekend — and for one of its key voices, the final stop carries special meaning.

The documentary The Spirit of Radio, which chronicles the early, rebellious years of CFNY-FM, will hold its final public screening Saturday in Brampton, the city where the station first began broadcasting in 1976.

For former CFNY music director and on-air personality Ivar Hamilton, the closing event is more than just another stop on a national tour.

“It feels good to bring it home,” Hamilton said, noting the significance of ending the screening run in the city where CFNY first launched out of a small house on Main Street North.

CFNY would go on to become one of Canada’s most influential alternative stations, shaping the country’s punk, new wave and indie music landscape. But Hamilton says its beginnings were modest — and crucial.

“It started in Brampton, and that’s something people forget,” said Hamilton, who is from Brampton and attended Chinguacousy Secondary School. “That’s where the spirit really began.”

The documentary traces that evolution, focusing on what Hamilton and others describe as the station’s defining “Spirit of Radio” years, roughly the late 1970s through the end of the 1980s.

Hamilton says the idea for the film emerged years ago during a conversation with fellow broadcaster Alan Cross, with longtime CFNY figure Scot Turner also playing an important role in shaping the project and helping preserve memories from the station’s formative era. Turner, who worked closely with CFNY during its influential years, is also among those taking part in the post-screening discussion in Brampton.

“We were on a plane just talking about it,” Hamilton recalled. “We saw these other station documentaries and thought, why hasn’t CFNY’s story been told in the same way?”

But turning that idea into reality took nearly a decade, as financing, production partners and archival material slowly came together.

“There was a lot of talk about it for years,” Hamilton said. “Eventually, we just decided, if it’s going to happen, we have to make it happen ourselves.”

The result is a feature that evolved from an earlier one-hour TVO broadcast into an expanded version featuring additional interviews, archival footage and restored material that fans had initially said was missing.

“People loved the original, but they wanted more,” Hamilton said. “So we went back in and opened it up because there was so much material that never made the first cut.”

The film includes appearances from a wide range of artists and industry figures connected to CFNY’s rise, including members of New Order, Simple Minds, The Cure, and Canadian acts such as Blue Rodeo, Metric and Billy Talent.

Hamilton says what made CFNY unique was its independence in shaping playlists during a time when most commercial radio followed strict formatting.

“We didn’t follow the charts,” he said. “We built our own hits. We were playing Kate Bush and bands like Japan and The Undertones before anyone else would touch them.”

That freedom, he argues, helped the station build a fiercely loyal audience.

“People felt like it was their station,” Hamilton said. “There was nothing else like it in Canada at the time.”

Saturday’s screening will take place at the Cyril Clark Theatre, followed by a live Q&A featuring Hamilton, Alan Cross, David Marsden, Liz Janik, Scott Turner, and Humble and Fred. It starts at 7 p.m.

Hamilton says choosing Brampton as the final stop was deliberate.

“We absolutely needed to do it in Brampton,” he said. “That’s where it all started, and it feels right to end it there.”

He adds that the response to the documentary so far has reinforced how deeply CFNY still resonates with listeners decades later.

“There’s just so much love for that era,” he said. “People remember it vividly. It meant something to them.”

For Hamilton, the return to Brampton is about more than nostalgia — it’s about recognizing the unlikely beginnings of a cultural movement in Canadian radio.

“It started in a small place,” he said, “but it ended up meaning a lot more than any of us could have imagined.”

The presentation is a ticketed event. More information can be found by following this link.