CANADIAN RADIO NEWS
A surprisingly busy week of Canadian Radio News.
530 ON Brampton CHLO Despite co-owned CFMB-1280 no longer licensed to test HD, CHLO still prominently displays the HD logo on their web site. Latest information indicates that CHLO is still running Hybrid HD/IBOC full-time.
920 BC Granisle CBKG This 40 watt CBC Radio One LPRT of CBYG-FM Prince George BC has been approved by the CRTC to become CBYG-FM-4 on 105.9 MHz with 106 watts non-directional at 142 feet below average terrain, no later than January 29 2027.
990 YT Carmacks CBQF This 40 watt CBC Radio One LPRT of CFWH-FM Whitehorse YT has been approved by the CRTC to become CBQF FM on 105.1 MHz with a directional 550 watts at 585 feet below average terrain, no later than January 29 2027.
1060 AB Calgary CKMX Big surprise that Bell has found a buyer, Akash Broadcasting Inc of Surrey BC,
for CKMX despite it being off the air for more than 18 months. (Nigel Pimblett) Which means this is likely the last DX Season to catch KYW Philadelphia PA for those previously impacted by CKMX’s strong signal.
CKMX first signed on as CFCN in 1922. Original owner William Walter Westaver Grant began in Halifax with his own radio station in 1919.
1280 QC Montreal CFMB No longer licensed for HD. It has been several years since they announced
their testing of Hybrid HD/IBOC, with no recent updates on their progress. Unless this was a clerical error, this appears to be the end of HD plans for CFMB. (Andy Reid)
1290 MB Winnipeg CFRW Akash negotiated a deal to buy CFRW and CKMX subject to CRTC approval after the upcoming March 27th Hearing to consider the Sale. The CRTC has emphasized to Akash, which owns ethnic stations CJCN-FM Surrey and CKER-FM Edmonton, that CFRW and CKMX have a standard AM license which limits non-English programming to 15% of the Broadcast Week. (Nigel Pimblett) That translates into 18.9 hours per week PLUS midnight-6:00 AM seven days a week. Reading in between the lines of Akash’s response, it appears that once they get CRTC approval, they will apply to change the licenses of both stations to allow full-time Ethnic programming.
CFRW began in 1963 on 1470 as CJQM with a very early IGM stereo automation machine, rumoured to be Serial Number 000005, used mainly on CJQM-FM. When CJOR Vancouver owner Jim Pattison bought the pair of stations in 1970, and changed their call letters to CFRW AM and FM, he had no interest in automation so previous owner CHQM tried to recover their costs by shipping the automation machine to Vancouver and using it for CHQM-FM. Despite immediate failure trying to get the AM announcer to also run the automation machine for FM, one of their Board Operators just could not figure it out, so he was fired and replaced by a UBC Computer Science student. As for the manufacturer, IGM, they were owned by KGMI-790 Bellingham WA, with the “GMI” a rearrangement of the IGM name, which stood for International Good Music, with IGM’s first automation machine used for KGMI-FM.
Jon Pearkins jon@pearkins.com to IRCA DX Monitor Feb 8, published Feb 3 via WOR iog (2025-02-03)