The new rock doc CFNY: The Spirit of Radio arrived this week via TVO Docs as both a love letter to the beloved Toronto radio station and a reminder of what radio once dared to be: choosing taste, curiosity, and community over churning out the same old mandated pop slop. Clocking in at a tight, economical hour, the documentary breezes by and is an easy watch. Don’t let its relatively short run time fool you. Its impact lingers on even after the final needle drop.
The film opens, appropriately, with Rush’s “The Spirit of Radio,” a song literally inspired by CFNY and also arguably the purest distillation of the station’s ethos. From there, director Matt Schichter traces the station’s unlikely origins back to 1976, when CFNY launched from a suburban “little yellow house” just north of Toronto. Shoutout to Brampton! What followed was nothing short of magic. Against all odds, and often against its own management, CFNY became one of the most influential punk, new wave, and alternative radio stations in the world.
For many millennials like myself, CFNY’s legacy first touched my life through its later incarnation as Edge 102.1. When I started listening in the late 90s and early 2000s, the station still carried a lot of the DNA from their original mission: breaking bands, keeping an ear to the street, and trusting listeners to keep up. While frustratingly the doc doesn’t get into the Edge years and stops abruptly at a management change in the early ’90s, it does a great job of setting up the importance of the groundwork laid throughout the ’80s.
Years in the making by executive producers Alan Cross, Barbara Hall, Chantal Jackson, Ivar Hamilton and Scot Turner, the film is heavy on interviews and thankfully so. UK artists like Andy McCluskey (OMD), Peter Hook (New Order/Joy Division), Lol Tolhurst (The Cure), and members of Japan and Buzzcocks speak candidly about how CFNY’s airplay marked the moment they began to break in North America. Their gratitude feels genuine, not canned. CFNY wasn’t just spinning records; it was a launching pad for acts from across the pond to gain a foothold in North America.
Canadian voices ground the story closer to home. Geddy Lee, Jim Kerr, Steven Page, Emily Haines, Ben Kowalewicz, and Deryck Whibley all underscore how crucial the station was to the growth of new wave and alt-rock in Canada. Just as compelling are the less glamorous chapters: lawsuits, bankruptcies, internal power struggles, forced format changes, listener protests, and the constant tension between art and commerce.
Ultimately, CFNY: The Spirit of Radio isn’t just about nostalgia. It’s about what happens when gatekeepers actually open the gates. In an era of algorithms and corporate playlists, this film lands as both a celebration and a quiet provocation. Radio didn’t have to be boring then, and it doesn’t have to be now.
You can watch CFNY: The Spirit of Radio now via TVO Docs.
