BY MIKE WYMAN

Marc “Mais Oui” Denis was bitten by the radio at a tender age. The Pointe Claire native would stop by CFOX on his way home from school every Friday afternoon, picking up the weekly hit parade in the days when the only station that mattered to Montreal teenagers broadcast from the northeast corner of Hymus and St. John’s boulevards.

In the years since, Denis has manned a microphone for virtually every station in town. AM, FM, English or French, he’s worked at just about every outlet in town and still found time for five years in Toronto, neatly timed to miss both the 1998 ice storm here and the SARS scare there.

Now hosting Saturday afternoons on Q-92 and still enjoying himself immensely on the air, Denis does most of his work from home, producing and recording material for a variety of clients.

When he hung out his shingle in 2003 the veteran broadcaster decided to add something extra for those who might be interested in retaining his services, a link to a site that detailed the history of one of his many stops, CKGM, Montreal’s AM powerhouse where Denis’ breezy bilingual style found favour from 1974-‘80.

“We had 800,000 people, that was us at our peak,” he exclaimed. “It was unheard of to have an audience of that size tuning in to an English AM station that was playing music in a predominantly French market. You won’t find that, even with French-language stations now.”

There are dozens of places on the CKGM Super 70s Tribute page where visitors can click and return to the days when they were younger, slimmer and more popular. Vintage photos and sound clips abound. From the original lineup from the station’s 1959 debut to their eventual demise and resurfacing as an all-sports outlet, a lot of bases are touched.

Ralph Lockwood is there. So are legendary local bands The Haunted, The Rabble and Mashmakhan. CKGM broadcast the Expos’ first season, memorialized by the final minutes of Bill Stoneman’s 1969 no-hitter. Over thirty on-air personalities from the glory years of AM radio are there, live air checks available for download, all patter, no music.

Strangely enough, the idea for the site came while Denis was in Toronto, now home to many expatriate Montrealers. “I got tons of calls from them,” he said. “‘We’re not here by choice. I miss Montreal so much. It’s so great to hear you, and by the way I never see anything on CKGM on the Internet.’

“I went online and there was never anything on CKGM. There was stuff on a lot of other stations but nothing on CKGM,” Denis continued. “Have you heard from Ralph Lockwood? How’s Donny Burns?”

Denis has been in contact with hundreds of visitors to the site, meeting people who grew up as listeners and relinking with former colleagues. His French Connection teammates, Rob Christie and Scot Carpentier are doing well, the former in Edmonton, the latter farther away in Japan.

When last heard from Omega Medina, former traffic reporter, was with the National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences, the organization responsible for the Grammys.

While most of the people donating memorabilia, be it photos or tape recordings, have a local connection, one significant benefactor came from overseas.

“A guy from Holland just blew me away. He used to be a technical operator on a pirate station, Radio Veronica. He came to Montreal twice. He recorded CFOX in 1969 and CKGM in 1976. He sent me an e-mail wondering if I could use it. What was I going to say? Mais Non?”

In December, Denis launched the 1470 CFOX Radio Archive, a repository for all things Foxy, with the stations vulpine mascot on the masthead.

Launched in 1960 by the legendary Gord Sinclair, CFOX hit the airwaves in 1960, listing OX7-2250 as their phone number and broadcasting from studios on the second floor of 203 Hymus Blvd. in Pointe Claire. The building remains and the road has been upgraded but the station went off the air in 1977, its call letters adopted by a Vancouver station, an impetus for Denis to preserve the original’s history.

With a lineup of on-air talent dubbed The Good Guys, it held sway with local teens for the latter half of the 1960s releasing three compilation albums featuring the hot hits of the day. Two covers are reproduced on the site as are many of the weekly charts from the ‘60s.

“I’m missing the first album. I’ve got the second and third but somebody out there must have the first one,” Denis said, hopefully. “It’s a hobby that’s also turning into a passion. With the help of a lot of people we’re getting all kinds of things.”

Already up are numerous photos and sound segments, with more to come in the near future. Planned updates include more memorabilia and a number of audio features, among them the first moments of the stations history and the day Gord Sinclair turned the morning show over to Dean Hagopian, a particularly bubbly occasion.

A pleasant rewind to simpler times, both sites can be clicked to at www.marcdenis.com">www.marcdenis.com">www.marcdenis.com