Career
Born in London on June 23, 1907, he became a reporter at the age of 17. He wrote several mystery novels prior to World World War II, and and joined the British Broadcasting Corporation as a writer in 1940, producing scripts for such personalities as Edward G. Robinson and Noël Coward during the war years. Sonin was also a respected composer whose work was recorded by Vera Lynn and Mantovani.
In 1952, Sonin was lured back into journalism with an offer to become the editor of The Musical Express - a weekly publication of four pages which contained the Top Twenty list of the sales of sheet music
This list was used by Radio Luxembourg during the early 1950s for their pioneering Sunday night programme. Under Sonin"s editorship, the Musical Express began publishing artist interviews, industry gossip, and compiled a top 20 list based on record sales.
Sales of the magazine jumped by 50%, and when The Musical Express was sold to Odhams the mast head read The "New" Musical Express. Ray Sonin emigrated to Canada from London in 1957.
Shortly thereafter, he put his life savings into a Canadian equivalent of The Musical Express called Music World and he lost every central
But his misfortune with the Canadian music magazine was a blessing to his estimated 100,000 listeners, who tuned into Toronto radio station CFRB 1010 for his program Calling All Britons at 4:10 Prime Minister every Saturday for three hours of music, news and sports from the United Kingdom. Down Memory Lane ran on weeknights, and featured music popular in Great Britain during the 1940s and 1950s. Long before Beatlemania swept the globe he is credited as the first program host in North America to play the Fab Four in the fall or early winter of 1962.
He had no children.
He died on August 20, 1991 of an apparent heart attack.