Brampton radio station was first to use all-women DJs
Published March 22, 2022 at 2:42 pm
Back in 1966, when airwaves where dominated by men, a little Brampton radio station tried something new by being the first to employ an all-female team of disc jockeys.
Considered a gimmick at the time, the crew of women record spinners at station CHIC played pop music on both 790 AM and 102.1 FM and did so from an unlikely spot at a home located at 2 Elm St. in Brampton.
Using the slogan “CHIC – Where The Girls Are” the format fit in nicely with the play on words from the station’s call letters (back then “chicks” was a slang term used for young women) and the programmers believed the on-air personalities would appeal to a female audience of stay-at-home housewives. Remember, it was the 60s.
Although though the “gimmick” lasted until 1969 – which can be considered a long time in the radio business – the ground-breaking move made a lasting imprint on the industry as women not only proved they belonged in the radio booth, but many of those original disc jockeys went on to long broadcasting careers and paved the way for the future generation of female on-air personalities in both radio and television.
As for the history of CHIC, it goes back as far as 1953 when Fenwick Job, operator of the Peel Gazette newspaper, applied for a radio licence to broadcast music and local news into Peel County. Brampton was the target audience although the small signal could be picked up as far as North York and into what is now Mississauga. Job named the station CFJB, with “C” being the designation assigned to Canadian stations, the “FJ” his initials, and the “B” standing for Brampton.
The station changed ownership several times and became one of the first to serve an ethnic audience in the early 1960s.
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Today, the AM brand operates as CHLO in Brampton while the FM brand became CFNY and later The Edge 102.1.
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