CJAQ-FM

The Calgary Albertan (Albertan Publishing Co.) started CJCJ on 690 kHz with 250 watts of power. Studios were in the Albertan Building. The station shared frequency and airtime with CFAC, CFCN, CHCA and CNRC. 

Power was increased to 500 watts. 

Rolly Ford got his start in radio, at CJCJ. He would later go on to manage CHUM in Toronto. 

CJCJ was still sharing time with CFAC, CHCA and CNRC on 690 kHz.

Francis Martin joined the station as a singer bur as time moved on he becane a salesman.1,2,3

CJCJ decreased power to 100 watts. 

Bert Cannings was a news writer.

Fred Shaw left CJCJ for CFAC.

Under the Havana Treaty, CJCJ moved from 690 to 1230 kHz (Class IV) on March 29. Power was 100 watts.

G.M. Bell was manager of CJCJ and D.H. Mackay was commercial manager.

CJCJ hoped to have its new studios (just west of the Palliser Hotel) open in time for the Western Association of Broadcasters convention.

Slogans: “Calgary’s Community Station” and “The Friendly Voice of the Prairies”.

Announcer George Dewey left CJCJ for Vancouver’s CKMO.

CJCJ added a number of returned servicemen to it staff: commercial manager Fred Colbourne; chief engineer Des Readwin; scripter Nev. York; production manager Clarence Mack and announcers Bob Robinson and Brian O’Brien. Euice Hoffman left the continuity department at CJCJ. He went to CKNW New Westminster. Alderman Don Mackay was CJCJ’s manager. Fred C. Colborne was CJCJ’s assistant manager.

CJCJ received federal approval to increase power from 100 to 1,000 watts and to change frequency from 1230 to 1140 kHz (directional at night). Two new 200 foot towers would be built on the Strathmore Road. The changes took place later in the year. Studios and offices were at 210 9th Avenue West. The transmitter site had beenat Grandview Heights.

CJCJ was sold to Frederick Shaw.

Manager Don MacKay became Calgary’s mayor in the fall elections. Last year he served as an alderman on the city council.

Fred Shaw joined CJCJ as manager. He had been commercial manager at CFAC, joining that station from CJCJ in 1938.

CJCJ became CKXL in April.

Ted Soskin (started Calgary’s CHQR in 1964) opened an office in Los Angeles so he could interview Hollywood personalities for CKXL. The program would be syndicated to 36 stations. 

Ken Foss was sports director. He also handled Calgary Stampeder CFL broadcasts for the station. Bruce Alloway returned to radio as CKXL’s national sales manager as of October 23.

The CBC approved the transfer of control of CKXL from The Albertan Publishing Co. Ltd. to The Albertan Broadcasting Co. Ltd. (same ownership).

Ted Soskin returned to Canada, joining the CKXL on-air staff. 

Slogan: Calgary’s progressive station. 

CKXL was selected to carry the 70 game schedule of the Calgary Stampeders hockey team.

F.H. (Fred) Cripps was appointed news director. He had been with CKEY Toronto. He left CKXL later in the year for free lance work. Stan Sparling was on-air at CKXL. Pearl Borgal was promotion director. Jack Stewart was production manager.

Slogan: News on the hour – 24 hours a day.

A joint television application by radio stations CKXL, CFCN, and CFAC was filed under the name Calgary Television Ltd. The application was deferred by the CBC Board of Governors. The board wanted to allow additional applications from the city to be reviewed. The CBC approved the joint application later in the year.

Joe Carbury (Mr. Sport) did sports at CKXL.

Approval was given for the transfer of 10,000 common shares in The Albertan Broadcasting Co. Ltd.

The CBC approved a change of corporate name from The Albertan Broadcasting Co. Ltd. to CKXL Ltd.

Joe Carbury was sports director and commentator. 

Merv Phillips joined CKXL from CJGX Yorkton where he had been an announcer.

Merv Phillips left CKXL to return to CJGX Yorkton. He would be Production Manager.

CKXL operated as an independent station with no network affiliation, and broadcast on 1140 kHz with a power of 1,000 watts (directional at night). CKXL was owned by CKXL Ltd. (F. Shaw 50.04%, Tel-Ray Ltd. 49.95% and A. R. MacKenzie 0.01%). Fred Shaw was president of the company and Al MacKenzie was manager of the station.

Frederick Shaw sold his interest in CKXL to Tel-Ray Ltd. (an existing partner in CKXL). Shaw then purchased CKXL’s interest in CHCT Television.

Approval was given for the station (on 1140 kHz) to increase power from 1,000 watts (directional at night) to 10,000 watts day and 1,000 watts at night (directional at night). CKXL would also operate from a new transmitter site.

CKXL increased power to 10,000 watts full-time. 

Ted Soskin became responsible for servicing and airing all commercial activity on the station. 

Ted Soskin left CKXL to establish CHQR in the city. 

On May 16, Bow Valley Broadcasting Ltd. (Moffat Broadcasting) acquired control of CKXL. 

CKXL moved to new studios and offices at 804 16th Avenue in 1965-66. 

Dave Lyman joined CKXL in January as Program Director. He had been with CKY in Winnipeg. 

On-Air line-up: Ned Corrigal (6-10 a.m.), Bob Arnold (10-2), Don Lloyd (2-6), and Buddy B. (aka Bryce Christianson) (6-midnight).

Don Lloyd was on-air. James M. Pryor was vice president of Moffat Broadcasting and general manager of CKXL. David E. Lyman was named CKXL operations manager. He had been program director. G. Stuart Menzies was appointed retail sales manager. He had been an account executive with the station. John E. Tyrrell was named national sales manager.

Moffat Broadcasting Ltd. was awarded all Western Conference CFL broadcast rights for 1968 through 1970. Moffat owned CKY-AM-FM and CJAY-TV Winnipeg, CKXL-AM Calgary, CKLG-AM-FM Vancouver and part of CHED-AM Edmonton. The CFL Western Conference consisted of the Winnipeg Blue Bombers, Saskatchewan Roughriders, Edmonton Eskimos, Calgary Stampeders and the British Columbia Lions.

On-air: Michael James Anthony O’Brien (6-9 a.m.), David Paul (9-2), John Novak (2-3), Jack Casey (3-6), Wayne Bryant (6-midnight), Dr. Dan Gavin (overnights). Other announcers: Gord Robson, Chris Thomas, Rob (Tom Cat) Gentry, Terrible Ted Robinson, and Tom Tompkins. News: Dale O’Hara, Wayne Bill, and Murray Dale. 

Approval was given November 19 for the corporate name change from Bow Valley Broadcasting Co. Ltd. to Moffat Broadcasting Ltd.

On November 22, Moffat purchased the remaining shares of CKXL not already held. 

CKXL was affiliated with CHUM Limited’s new Canadian Contemporary News System.

David E. Lyman was appointed station manager in July. He had been manager. James M. Pryor was named chairman of the board of Moffat Broadcasting Ltd.

On-air: Bill Adams (6-10 a.m.), Charlie West (10-2), Mal Ferris (2-6), Gord Robson (6-10), Greg Haraldson (10-2) and Dr. Dan Gavin (2-6 a.m.). 

Cy Coffyne left CKXL as a sales executive to become General Sales Manager at CHAB in Moose Jaw.

Effective September 1, Thomas E. McBride was appointed General Manager of CKXL. He had been GM at CKY Winnipeg. McBride replaced David E. Lyman who moved on to CKY as General Manager.

Ross Campbell was now doing the 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. shift, followed by Mike McMahon (2-6 p.m.). Robson was now on 6-9 p.m. and Heraldson 9-midnight.

Moffat Broadcasting Ltd. became publicly traded Moffat Communications Ltd., with Randall Moffat holding 51.2%. Prior to the share offering, Randall Moffat and his sister Donna Hardstaff, each held 50%.

On December 21, Moffat was given permission to purchase CHFM-FM in Calgary. 
Bob Lowe, Glen Schey and Ted Pound were on the air at CKXL.

By this time, CKXL had a staff of 40. Studios and offices were at 804 16th Avenue S.W. and the transmitter was located just south of Calgary.

CKXL received approval to increase power to 50,000 watts full-time and operate from a new transmitter site.

Herm Harrison, former Calgary Stampeder and member of CKXL’s sales team for the past ten years, was now the station’s general sales manager.

CKXL increased power from 10,000 watts full-time, to 50,000 watts full-time, using four 220 foot towers.

On January 14, CKXL began broadcasting in stereo, using the Kahn system. 

After 15 years as CKXL’s program director, Greg Haraldson was moving on….

On August 9, CKXL was granted changes to its day and night-time radiation patterns. 

Herm Harrison was promoted to manager, corporate/promotion accounts at CKXL. Bob Fisher joined from CHAB Moose Jaw to be sales manager.

Roy Hennessey moved from CKY/CITI-FM Winnipeg to manage CKXL/CHFM-FM. Keith James moved from CKXL/CHFM to CHAM Hamilton and Don Kay moved from CHAM to replace Hennessey at CKY/CITI Winnipeg.

The station dropped its long-time Contemporary Hits format on September 4, and adopted a soft rock (Adult Contemporary) format, using the new call letters CISS (Kiss). 

Moffat moved Roy Hennessy from CKY Winnipeg to manage CISS.

Gord Eno left CISS as assistant program director to become PD at CHAM in Hamilton.

In September, CISS switched from a combination of oldies music and talk to classic rock as CFXX “The Fox”. 

On August 20, the CRTC approved the sale of CFXX by Moffat Communications Ltd. to Golden West Broadcasting Ltd. Moffat’s Calgary FM station – CHFM – was sold to Rogers Broadcasting. These sales were part of Moffat’s overall divestiture of its radio division. 

CFXX became CFXL.

Golden West named Lyndon Friesen to the post of general manager for CFXL Calgary and CHRB High River. 

On August 16, the CRTC gave Golden West Broadcasting permission to move CFXL from 1140 kHz to the FM band at 96.9 MHz with an effective radiated power of 100,000 watts. Also approved, the purchase by a new numbered company of CFXL-AM (to convert to FM) from Golden West and of CFFR-AM from Rawlco Communications Ltd. The new company is jointly owned by Rawlco (82.5%) and Golden West (17.5%). 

CFXL moved its studios and offices to the CFFR Building. 

The new CKIS-FM or “KISS-FM” 96.9 began broadcasting on June 3. It was Calgary’s first new FM station in 15 years. Doug Pringle, director of programming for Rawlco, said CKIS would play only mass appeal music of the ‘90s.

The old CFXL-AM transmitter was shut down on October 1. Golden West Broadcasting’s CHRB in High River took over the 1140 kHz frequency, moving from 1280 kHz.

On October 27, CKIS-FM was given approval to add a lower power transmitter at Banff, operating on 94.3 MHz. The transmitter signed on the air later in the year. Effective radiated power was 420 watts maximum and 200 watts average. The antenna was located on the rooftop of a hotel alongside the highway near the base of Mt. Norquay.  (The CRTC decision lists an ERP of 9.2 watts). The corporate name is now listed as Rawlco (Alberta) Ltd.

On October 20, CKIS-FM was authorized to add transmitters at Invermere and Lake Louise. The Invermere transmitter would operate on frequency 97.3 MHz with an effective radiated power of 50 watts and the Lake Louise transmitter would broadcast on 93.9 MHz with an effective radiated power of 30 watts.

Vinnie Taylor and Patti McNeil were the new co-hosts of KISS-FM’s morning show. Gone were Tim Kilpatrick, Jerry Steen and Karen Daniels. Rick Sadler, who had been part-time at Power 107 Calgary, was now doing afternoon drive at KISS-FM.

Rogers Broadcasting announced its purchase Rawlco’s Calgary stations, CFFR and CKIS-FM. Rogers Broadcasting President & CEO Tony Viner said the two stations were terrific and would complement Rogers existing Calgary stations, CFAC and CHFM-FM. He added, “with this acquisition, we’ve now achieved our objective of increasing our presence in four key markets: Toronto, Vancouver, Ottawa, and Calgary.” Rawlco president Gordon Rawlinson, said the decision to sell was a difficult one. He said the company looked into the alternatives and it became “quite clear that it is in the best interest of our company, our staff, our listeners and our clients.” Rawlco’s Toronto station, CISS-FM, was in an LMA with Rogers at this time and an application was pending for Rogers to acquire it too.

Approval was granted on July 8 for CKIS-FM-1 Banff to increase ERP from 9 watts to 45 watts.

On September 10, the CRTC approved the sale of Rawlco (Alberta) Ltd., licensee of CFFR-AM and CKIS-FM (including CKIS-FM-1 Banff, CKIS-FM-2 Lake Louise and CKIS-FM-3 Invermere) and of Rawlco (Toronto) Ltd., licensee of CISS-FM Toronto, to Rogers (Alberta) Ltd. (division of Rogers Broadcasting Ltd. ). Rogers already owned CFAC-AM and CHFM-FM in Calgary.

CKIS-FM became CHRK-FM in 1999 or 2000.

In June, CFAC-AM and CHFM-FM moved studios and offices to the renovated and expanded CHRK-FM / CFFR-AM facility at 2723 37th Avenue N. E.

On July 3, CHRK-FM-1 Banff was authorized to increase ERP from 9 watts to 45 watts and to relocate the transmitter. These changes were authorized in 1999 but never implemented.

Rock 97 hired former CKFM Toronto morning host Matt O’Neal for the wake-up slot vacated by Shadoe & Patti.

On July 19, CHRK changed from a Rock format as “Rock 97” to Urban (hip hop and R&B) as “Kiss FM 96.9”.

On September 11, Rogers (Alberta) Ltd. was given approval to relocate the transmitter of CHRK-FM from the CBC tower to the new CFCN-TV tower where sister station CHFM-FM was located. This was a move of about three kilometres east of the existing site. Effective radiated power would change from 100,000 watts non-directional to directional with 100,000 watts maximum and 48,000 watts average. Due to the terrain immediately to the west of Calgary, much of the transmission power broadcast to the west by the existing antenna was impaired or blocked completely by the foothills of the Rockies. The new directional pattern would minimize transmission losses to the west. Antenna height would be lowered from 223 to 160 metres.

On April 1, CHRK returned to the CKIS call letters. The format changed from Urban as “Kiss FM” to Classic Hits as Jack-FM.

The move of the Banff transmitter from Mount Norquay to Sulphur Mountain was completed in the spring.

When CKIS-FM had its licence renewed on August 8, it was noted that the rebroadcast transmitters still operated with the CHRK call letters (ie: CHRK-FM-1 Banff and CHRK-FM-3 Invermere).

On October 21, Rogers (Alberta) Ltd. was given permission to change the frequency of CKIS-FM-1 Banff from 94.3 to 94.1 MHz and decrease effective radiated power from 200 watts to 25 watts. Antenna height was unchanged at 320.2 metres. In 2003, the transmitter was moved to a new location but it was found that because of this change, the station was causing interference to NAV Canada’s monitoring station in the area. The transmitter site moved back to the old location near Mt. Norquay. Rogers wanted to use the newer Sulphur Mountain location so it applied for the change of frequency which allowed for the use of the new tower site.

Early on the morning of December 2nd, Ted Rogers, founder and former Chief Executive of Rogers Communications, owners of CKIS-FM, died at his home in Toronto, after having suffered from congestive heart failure for some time.

With the return of KISS FM in Toronto, Rogers swapped the call letters of the Toronto and Calgary stations. CKIS-FM Calgary was now CJAQ-FM. This matched the JACK format running on the station. 

Jeff Walker was appointed music director of JACK. 

Tim Schutz, former Music Director at Jack FM Calgary, became the new Program and Music Director at 107.7 The River Lethbridge as of July 12.

Kapila (Kaps) Ratnayake left Rogers Radio Calgary to become Chief Engineer at Corus Radio Cornwall. 

New Music Director at JACK Calgary was Jeff Walker, former MD/Swing Announcer at K-97 Edmonton. 

Former CKXL personality Mal Faris passed away on October 5. 

On November 30, the CRTC renewed the licence for CJAQ-FM Calgary and its transmitters CJAQ-FM-1 Banff and CJAQ-FM-2 Invermere, until August 31, 2017. 

Promotions Director Amanda Young left Rogers Calgary for Country 93.3 FM and Rock 97.9 in Fort McMurray. Emma Harding was the new Promotions Director at 96.9 JACK FM. She moved across the road from Newcap Radio Calgary.

Kevin McKanna, executive VP, Rogers Radio Alberta, retired at the end of March. He began his 22-year career with Rogers as VP/GM at CFAC Calgary (Sportsnet 960 The FAN) and CFHC AM Canmore (now 106.5 Mountain FM). Later, he was promoted to VP/GM of CHFM FM (LITE 95.9), CKIS FM (96.9 JACK FM) and CFFR AM (660News) which combined to form the Calgary Radio cluster. In May of 2005, McKanna was appointed executive VP, Rogers Radio Alberta, overseeing 14 radio stations. Before moving to Rogers, he was program director at CHED Edmonton.

Jim Blundell succeeded Kevin McKanna and is the Acting General Manager of the 13 Rogers Radio stations in Alberta. Blundell had been the Vice President & GM at CTV Vancouver Island, C-FAX and KooL FM Victoria and left Bell Media in September of last year. Blundell’s background included being the Market Manager for the CHUM radio stations in Brockville, Kingston and Peterborough. In 2007, he was promoted to VP/GM of then Star-FM London and, in 2009, he was promoted again to take the lead at CHUM’s (now Bell Media’s) Victoria properties. 

Greg Heraldson Passed away In January. The long-time Calgary programmer (with a stop at CKLG Vancouver) died just before his 63rd birthday. Heraldson had spent time at CKXL, CHQR and COUNTRY 105.

Rogers Radio began a TV campaign in Vancouver and Calgary for its Jack FM stations. The 30-second spot had album covers moving to create three-dimensional structures.

Most of the staff at Rogers Radio Calgary joined their TV colleagues at City/ OMNI’s downtown location, 535 7th Avenue S.W.