CKGR-FM

On December 11, Hall-Gray Broadcasting Co. Ltd. (Bob Hall and Walter Gray) received a licence to operate a new AM station at Golden, operating on 1400 kHz with 1,000 watts day and 250 watts night. Hall-Gray owned CKXR Salmon Arm and CKCR Revelstoke.

CKGR signed on the air, rebroadcasting the programs of CKCR. All three stations were known as “The Big R Network”.

On December 18, Robert J. Hall and J. Jeanne Hall were given permission to acquire 64% of the shares of Hall-Gray Broadcasting Co. Ltd. from 14 shareholders.

CKGR was given approval to add local programming, in addition to the material originating from CKCR Revelstoke. Approval was also granted for CKGR to add a transmitter at Invermere, operating on 870 kHz with a power of 1,000 watts day and 250 watts night.

CKGR was granted a night-time power increase from 250 to 1,000 watts. 

The Invermere transmitter went on the air as CKIR.

Okanagan Skeena Group Ltd. was given approval to purchase Copper Island Broadcasting Ltd. Okanagan was recently purchased by Telemedia Radio Inc.

Standard Radio Inc. purchased the Ontario and Western operations of Telemedia Radio Inc. In turn, Standard sold a number of those stations to other companies. CKGR was among the stations retained by SRI.

CKGR’s founder Bob Hall passed away on October 21.

On September 27, Astral Media Radio G.P. received CRTC approval to acquire the assets of the radio and TV undertakings owned by Standard Radio Ltd., subject to certain conditions.  The purchase included CKGR-AM. 

On October 15, the CRTC approved the application by Astral Media Radio (Toronto) Inc. and 4382072 Canada Inc., partners in a general partnership carrying on business as Astral Media Radio G.P., for a broadcasting licence to operate a new English-language commercial FM radio programming undertaking in Golden to replace its AM station CKGR. The new station would operate at 106.3 MHz (channel 292A) with an average effective radiated power of 890 watts (non-directional antenna with an effective height of antenna above average terrain of -373.3 metres). The new station would offer a Mainstream Adult Contemporary music format targeting adults 18 to 54 years of age. Programming would include over 4 hours of pure news each broadcast week, of which 80% would be local. Astral would also provide extensive coverage of community events and activities, interviews, public service announcements and general community information. The licence would expire 31 August 2014. The Commission noted that the transmitter CKIR Invermere, currently authorized as a transmitter of CKGR, would be part of the new FM licence. Its technical parameters would remain unchanged.

CKGR 106.3 was on the air, testing. After two months, the testing phase was over and CKGR-FM officially signed on the air. CKGR-AM 1400 left the air when the FM simulcast period expired.

Roy McKenzie, the regional sales manager for Astral’s B.C. Interior stations, was no longer with the company. His position was eliminated.

On June 27, 2013, after a previous such application had been denied in 2012, the CRTC approved an application by Astral Media Inc. to sell its pay and specialty television channels, conventional television stations and radio stations to BCE Inc., including CKGR-FM.

Ron Langridge, General Manager/General Sales Manager at EZ Rock Salmon Arm/ Revelstoke/Golden left the stations. Gord Leighton, GM/GSM at SUN FM Vernon added the responsibilities for the EZ Rock stations to his existing role