Marilyn Denis has signed off from Toronto’s CHUM 104.5, 40 years to the day she inked her deal to join the station’s morning show in 1986.
Denis announced in February she’d be stepping away from the show this summer after four decades waking up Toronto.
Her final turn on the CHUM-FM airwaves saw the show joined by veteran programmer Ross Davies, who was responsible for hiring Denis at CHUM-FM; former morning show co-host Roger Ashby; morning show producer Tom Jokic; and Denis’ son, radio and podcast personality Adam Wylde, and granddaughter Everly.
“10,800 times you’ve gotten up at 3 a.m.,” co-host David Corey noted at the outset of Friday’s show.
Wylde called CHUM “one of the main characters” of Denis’ life, recalling running around the hallways as a kid while she hosted the morning show, long before he helmed mornings down the hall on 99.9 Virgin Radio (CKFM-FM).
“We’re gonna miss the routine of CHUM and always having it as a member of the family,” said Wylde, now the co-founder of sports podcasting network, SDPN.
Ashby, who worked alongside Denis for 32 years, told her she was a true trailblazer.
“You’ve been that to so many, not just female broadcasters, but broadcasters in general who you have kind of coached and guided along the way, which I think is fantastic, because before you came, there weren’t a lot of women in broadcasting,” said Ashby. “And there weren’t, to my knowledge, any three-person morning shows that included two men and a woman. I think we were real trailblazers in that respect.”
Friday’s show capped a walk down memory lane over the past few weeks that included calls and well-wishes from celebrities like Dan Ackroyd, Eugene Levy, Michael Bublé and Jann Arden, alongside texts and messages from longtime listeners.
“It has been a privilege to do this morning show for the last 40 years,” Denis said in a tearful last break. “I can’t say that enough…”
“I want to thank Bell Media for an elegant and generous exit. And for trusting me with this morning show all these years. I will always be proud to say that I worked at CHUM. Always. And to you, the CHUM listening family…from the kids who fell asleep with the transistor radio under the pillow, to everyone who has us on in the car, the kitchen, or streaming on their phones right now, you have always been the heartbeat at this station.”
Denis signed off with Mike + the Mechanics’ 1985 hit, All I Need is a Miracle.
“I want to go back to 40 years ago, if we could. This is when I was on my way to the interview at CHUM-FM at 1331 Yonge Street. What a big day that was,” Denis recollected. “I was in the back of a cab, and this song came on the radio, and I remember thinking ‘I am never gonna forget this song. Where I was. How I felt.’ And the title of the song will say it all…this is Mike + the Mechanics – All I Need is a Miracle…And it’s been just that. Thank you from the bottom of my heart for listening.”
Denis previously wrapped her daytime show, The Marilyn Denis Show, in 2023, following 13 seasons on CTV and a 34-year career in daytime television as the host of Citytv’s Cityline for nearly 20 years. Born in Edmonton, but raised in Pennsylvania, she got her start in broadcasting in 1976 as the first woman DJ at KRPL Moscow, Idaho, before moving to Calgary to join CHFM and CJAY-FM, while also working at CTV Calgary as a sports, weather, and entertainment reporter and freelancer for TSN.
Nat Hunter and Josie Dye will helm the station’s new morning show, starting Monday, July 6. David Corey is also set to depart CHUM 104.5 after stepping in to co-host 21 months ago, following a station shuffle that saw former morning co-host Jamar MacNeil and Dye paired in afternoon drive.
Denis was a guest on Broadcast Dialogue – The Podcast in 2024, upon receiving a Lifetime Achievement Award from the Academy of Canadian Cinema & Television. Listen here:
