Music

Ryerson says the Sam the Record Man sign will be back

by Tyler Munro

via Adam ShaX, Scotiabank Contact Photography Festival

What’s become a lengthy he-said-she-said between Ryerson University’s Student Learning Centre and Toronto City Council over the iconic Sam the Record Man sign seems to have met its happy ending late last week with the Toronto Star that the landmark lighting rig is officially coming back soon. The problem? Until it does, it’s stored in hundreds of pieces in the back of a tractor trailer.

“Yes, it will be put up once again,” said Ryerson spokesperson Erin McGinn, who says the delay was over the city giving them only two locations to hang it—on the new school student centre or down the road at the library. Ryerson didn’t think it fit, so they played coy in the interim, but as rumours grew that the sign was going to be gone forever, the school took it upon itself to reiterate their plans to relight it once again.

They gave media outlets ten minutes (15 for the Star) to see that the sign was still around, hiking them to Concord, Ontario to show that it’s in a safe spot, taken apart but under the watchful eye of cameras and its container’s wheels welded tight.

So while we still don’t know where will shine once more, we have confirmation that it eventually will. No take backs. And now, while we wait, let’s remember that time we hypothesized 23 possible new locations for the sign.

While we’d love to see it outside of Jilly’s, we’ll happily make space in the office for those big bright records.