Scruff Connors
| Scruff Connors | |
|---|---|
| Birth name | Jeffrey David Newfield |
| Born | May 12, 1952 Toronto, Ontario, Canada |
| Died | December 18, 2016 (aged 64) |
| Station(s) |
Q107 Toronto WYSP, Philadelphia CHTZ-FM, St. Catharines CFBR-FM Edmonton CJKR-FM Winnipeg CFMJ (MOJO) Toronto |
| Style | Rock radio, shock jock |
| Country | Canada |
Jeffrey David Newfield (May 12, 1952 – December 18, 2016), known as Scruff Connors, was a Toronto-born Canadian radio broadcaster known for conducting controversial on-air practical jokes.
His career included host duties at various radio stations in Canada and the United States. His most prominent work is with Q107 in Toronto, where he became morning host in 1980. After broadcasting in other cities, he returned to Q107 in the early 1990s to join the "The Q Morning Zoo". In 1980, after Terry Fox was forced to abandon his Marathon of Hope, Connors responded by raising CAD$72,000 for cancer research by continuously hosting a 36-hour "Scruff-a-thon" on Q107.
On December 18, 2016, Newfield was travelling on a train and suffered a massive heart attack. The train made an unscheduled stop and he died in an ambulance en route to hospital. Connors was also dealing with complications from bladder cancer which he fought off-and-on for more than a decade. He was 64.
At one point while working at Q107 in 1982, Connors confined himself to the station's on-air studio and repeatedly aired the Led Zeppelin song "Stairway to Heaven".
By July 1982, Connors completed 107 trips in seven hours on the Mighty Canadian Minebuster roller coaster at Canada's Wonderland establishing a record during the theme park's initial years.
Connors conducted a contest in 1989 as an announcer at CHTZ-FM in St. Catharines, Ontario, claiming that the Mayflower would be stationed at a nearby port so that 40 winners would be eligible to have a Thanksgiving meal there. However, what actually appeared was a moving truck from Mayflower Transit.
While still at CHTZ-FM, the disc jockey announced during a 21 March 1990 broadcast that "new kids" would appear at the station the following day. The music group New Kids on the Block were scheduled to play in nearby Hamilton later that week. Although that band's music was not aired on the rock-oriented CHTZ-FM, hundreds of fans of the boy band appeared at the station, expecting to see their idols. Instead, they were greeted with limousines arriving at the station containing several mothers and their newborn infants (or "new kids"). Some of the upset crowd tried to enter the station building, requiring the station to secure the facilities.
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