The concept was developed by David Marsden, the program director at CFNY at the time, when he heard the Juno nominations announced on CBC radio, and included was Long John Baldry — who was newly resident in Canada but had already been in the music business for almost 20 years — as most promising vocalist.
[2] The 1985 ceremony, hosted by Carole Pope and Paul Shaffer,[3] also marked the first time that the awards were broadcast nationally by CBC Television.
[2] In the first year, voter ballots were distributed exclusively by the Canadian music magazine Graffiti.
[4] In later years the awards expanded the distribution, printing ballots in a number of major market daily newspapers across Canada.
[6] The award's bid for national prominence faltered in the late 1980s, particularly after CFNY's short-lived shift to a more mainstream music format also affected public perception of the awards' identity.