There was a time when 102.1 The Edge was the greatest radio station in... well, this city at least. Because there was a time when, if you wanted to hear new music in Toronto, 102.1 was the only place you had your dial tuned (in fact, there was a time where the station was actually called "The Spirit of Radio"!). CFNY had such a loyal following that when we were growing up, my buddy DVZ used to claim that listening to 102.1 alone could cure cancer.
The same can no longer be said today.
For awhile there, I thought it was simply because of my advancing age, the result of which meant that I was no longer in tune with what the kids were listening to these days. I felt like I was going through some kind of a mid-life crisis whereby I was being forced to question my current musical tastes. But as it turns out, maybe it wasn't me who was going through the crisis.
There was a time when Barry Taylor was the most entertaining DJ on Toronto's airwaves (exhibit A - This November 2008 piece). The Barry Funny Joke was an endless source of entertainment. The Barry Interesting Survey was a basehead's delight. And Megaphone man was the kind of gig that only The Edge could get away with airing. Everything he did was unconventional, which was why he was so wildly popular.
But a few months ago, BT was unceremoniously dismissed from 102.1. At first, I chalked it up to the fact that his bosses simply got sick of his endless soliloquies and one-sided discussions regarding all things Zeitgeist that invariably ruined my weekly Wednesday night drive to hockey (if you haven't seen it yet, you can catch it here: Zeitgeist, The Movie, and Zeitgeist: Addendum).
But as it turns out, there was more to it than simply the fact that BT: The Conspiracy Theorist just wasn't cutting it. And it's too bad, because even a decidedly un-funny Barry Taylor was infinitely better than anything else on the air (with the exception of the always affable Dave Bookman, of course).
And sure, this is probably a pretty one-sided take on how it all went down, but Barry Taylor's version of the events which led to his eventual dismissal go a long way in explaining why 102.1 The Edge currently sucks...
Taken from his MySpace Blog, here is BT's:
2 comments:
BT was my boy. In fact, still is my boy. Ever since he called me out for my write-in commment where I compared myself to Homer Simpson and the great Norm Peterson almost 5 years ago (Liquor? Don't even know 'er!), I knew I had to stick by him. He only bolstered my opinion when I responded to one Barry Interesting Survery about fake mohawks with "Fake everything sucks", and he wrote me back, "So true". He was the man.
And contrary to what CFNY might think, still is the man. If I can find him on the airwaves, he'll have at least one loyal listener.
Llibs
Dude I know I'm way late to leaving a comment but I thought I'd google "102.1 The Edge Sucks" to see what I get. From your post, I can tell that the reason it sucked to you was because you grew out of the demographic. How do I know? Because by the time you were listening to it, I already thought it sucked, while you thought it was aces. So why did I think it sucked? Because I was no longer between the ages of 18-25.
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