On the 40th anniversary of the release of its album, “Permanent Waves,” the classic rock trio Rush had a special animated video made for their song, “The Spirit Of Radio.” It serves a dual purpose — as a tribute to their drummer, Neil Peart (who died recently), and to the radio stations that helped boost the band’s popularity. That includes CFNY, the Canadian station that first played and promoted Rush and used the song as its audio signature.
I first heard about this from longtime classic rock radio consultant Fred Jacobs, who wrote a full blog post in which he explains who some of the other radio personalities featured in the video are. He also spoke to several longtime disc jockeys who offered their memories of Rush and the tune.