CHOR-FM

On December 31, Okanagan Radio Ltd. was licenced to operate an AM station at  Summerland – 1450 kHz with 1,000 watts day and 250 watts night (omnidirectional)

On April 14, permission was granted for the transfer of Okanagan Radio Ltd. (CKOK-AM-FM, CKOO, CKGF and the proposed CKSP Summerland) from M. P. Finnerty, L. M. Finnerty, P. C. Finnerty and L. C. Wells to Fraser Valley Broadcasters Ltd. and D. C. Barkman.

CKSP 1450 signed on the air.

On June 9, approval was granted for the transfer of Okanagan Radio Ltd. from Fraser Valley Broadcasters Ltd. and Dennis Cornelius Barkman to Barkman, Kenneth Lewis Davis and Gerald William Pash.

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

CKSP was noted as broadcasting 114 hours per week of locally-produced programs. All other programming originated with CKOK Penticton. 

Okanagan Skeena Group Ltd. acquired control of Okanagan Radio Limited. OSG already held 40.7% of OKR. It acquired all the shares of Davis Communications Ltd., which held 52.6% of OKR.

In March CKSP changed call letters to CHOR.

CHOR began simulcasting some of its programming on CIOR Princeton. This ended in 1995.

Okanagan Skeena Group Ltd. was purchased by Telemedia Radio Inc.

Standard Radio Inc. purchased the Ontario and Western properties of Telemedia. Some stations were then sold to other companies. The Okanagan Skeena stations were retained by SRI.

Application was made to the CRTC to convert the station to the FM band at 94.5 MHz with an effective radiated power of 5,000 watts using the same tower as Standard’s CJMG-FM in nearby Penticton.  On April 23, the Commission denied the application on the grounds that Standard would then have three stations directly serving the Penticton market, with signals even penetrating the Kelowna market to the north.

Standard subsequently re-applied to convert CHOR to FM to operate at 98.5 MHz with a reduced effective radiated power of 250 watts, with the antenna placed on the existing AM tower serving Summerland.  The company cited engineering studies that showed this configuration would closely duplicate the existing AM station coverage.  However, on August 3 the Commission once again denied the application, stating that the signal would still serve the Penticton market, in which Standard already owned two stations.

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 CHOR-FM.    

On June 17, 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 Summerland to replace its AM station CHOR. The new station would operate on frequency 98.5 MHz (channel 253A) with an average effective radiated power of 20 watts (maximum ERP of 100 watts with an effective height of antenna above average terrain of 348 metres). It would offer a mainstream Adult Contemporary music format targeting adults aged 18 to 54. The local programming would include 12 hours and 24 minutes of spoken word programming each broadcast week, including 3 hours and 25 minutes of pure news. The Commission noted a situation of non-compliance relating to CHOR’s transitional Canadian content development condition of licence as it relates to CCD contributions for 2008. In Broadcasting Decision 2009-794, the Commission approved in part a payment plan proposed by Astral to remedy this issue.

CHOR flipped to FM November 24 at 6:00 a.m. The station was now known as 98.5 EZ Rock although the format did not change. 98.5 EZ Rock and CHOR-AM were to simulcast through to the end of December. The new morning host was David Cannon.

The old CHOR 1450 signed off the air in December.

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 CHOR-FM.