Erin Davis
Erin Davis is the author of the book Mourning Has Broken: Love, Loss and Reclaiming Joy and a former media figure in Toronto, Ontario. A 2020 inductee into the Canadian Broadcasting Hall of Fame, she was the longtime host of 98.1 CHFI's Morning Show until her retirement on December 15, 2016.
Early life
Davis was born in Edmonton, Alberta in 1962 to Royal Canadian Air Force officer Don Davis and his wife Maureen. Along with her 3 sisters, Davis's childhood was spent in many different cities, as is typical of an Air Force family. She was raised in Ottawa and Trenton, Ontario, and England. Growing up, she was always interested in music and singing, regularly joining her grandfather's orchestra.When she graduated from high school, she decided to pursue her performing further by studying Radio Broadcasting at Loyalist College in Belleville, Ontario. While she was there, she also kept busy hosting a radio show on CIGL-FM in the afternoons and playing piano at a local restaurant in the evenings.
Radio career
Early work
After graduating from Loyalist College, was immediately hired by CIGL-FM. Six months later, she moved to Windsor, Ontario to work at CKLW Windsor, where she has the distinction of being the first female co-host in the Detroit market. Davis co-hosted the morning show on CKLW during its final years as a Top 40 station, and, along with many other employees of the station, was laid off in late 1984 when the station went to a mostly-automated Music of Your Life format. From there, she moved to Toronto, Ontario to co-host Good Morning Toronto at CKO Toronto, the flagship station of Canada's all-news radio network. This job led to her big breakthrough, when in September 1988, she was asked to join popular morning show host Don Daynard on the CHFI morning show.Working at CHFI
Shortly after Davis joined Daynard, 'Don and Erin' became the top rated morning show in the market. In March 1991, Davis gave birth to her daughter Lauren Davis. Thanks to the station setting up a temporary studio in her home, Davis was able to return to the air only one week later and broadcast the show from home for the next three months. Together, Don and Erin maintained high ratings through 1999, when Don Daynard retired and was replaced by Bob Magee as Davis's co-host in the mornings. Together the new duo 'Bob and Erin' continued to maintain the high ratings up until spring 2003, when CHFI station executives decided to take the station in a different direction and released Davis, moving Magee to the "afternoon drive" shift. CHFI's morning drive time was given to Mad Dog and Billie, later called Jay and Billie, with Jay Michaels and Billie Holiday.Released from CHFI
After her sudden departure from radio, since the non-compete clause in her contract forbade her from being hired by another radio station for a year, Davis used her time to pursue other goals. In the summer of 2003, the W Network offered her a chance to create her own daily live national television talk show. That fall she starred in W Live with Erin Davis, featuring guests and viewers discussing women's lifestyle, health and wellness issues.Also that summer, Davis was contacted by Ross Petty, a theatrical producer who was organizing his annual Christmas family pantomime in Toronto. He invited her to audition for and she made her live theatre debut as the Fairy Godmother in Cinderella at Toronto's Elgin Theatre in December for a monthlong run, concurrent with her daily television show.
Working at EZ-Rock
On September 7, 2004, about 14 months after her abrupt departure from CHFI, Davis returned to Toronto radio. CHFI competitor EZ-Rock had an opening in their morning show when host Christine Cardoso left on maternity leave. After polling their listeners for ideas, Davis was an easy choice. On EZ-Rock, she joined Mike Cooper hosting the morning show.Return to CHFI
Davis's stint with EZ-Rock ended earlier than expected in April 2005, when it became known that she had agreed to return to CHFI the following September. In addition, it was learned that Mike Cooper would be leaving EZ-Rock and joining her as co-host on the morning show at CHFI once his 6-month non-compete clause expired in late October. Together the two reunited at CHFI and continued to go strong there, putting CHFI back at the top of the Toronto ratings and holding it there.After Cooper's retirement in February 2016, Davis introduced CHFI listeners to Darren B. Lamb, formerly of CHUM-FM, until her own retirement in December 2016. She and her husband now live in North Saanich, British Columbia, where they have family.