johnny lombardi

It's hard to imagine what life would be like for Italians in Toronto - for members of almost any ethnic group really - without this week's great Italian, Johnny Lombardi. Where else would Italian merchants - names like Gino's Fashions and Grace Textiles leap to mind - hawk their wares? And where else would Italian customers find these merchants? Johnny helped build the businesses of hundreds of entrepreneurs of Italian extraction.

Living in a mostly Canadian part of town, with mostly Canadian chums whose foods and family habits differed greatly from my own, I often felt weird for being Italian while growing up. CHIN provided a backdrop against which this weirdness was dissolved. To see our weirdness reflected elsewhere beyond the limited walls of our home - on the public airwaves, at the CHIN Picnic, in the businesses of the station’s advertisers and the homes of the advertisers’ customers - made it more normal. And the music Johnny exposed me to gave me something besides food my parents and I could wholeheartedly agree on the greatness of and love, bringing us closer together across the cultural divide. Signor Presidente, La ringrazio.