CJSU-FM

In October, CKAY began broadcasting in Duncan, 40 kilometres northwest of Victoria on Vancouver Island at AM 1500 with a power of 1,000 watts day and night. The original owners were Dr. John Coleman and a group of Duncan businessmen. 

Bruce Payne started with the station in September. He progressed to the morning show the following year. He hosted the show on a couple of occasions for several years before becoming a Councillor for the City of Duncan in the 1970s. 

On May 28, Radio CKAY Ltd. was authorized to issue 1,180 common shares of capital stock.

On August 8, well-known radio personality Tom Lucas made his start in radio (as Alan Boyle) on CKAY, where he stayed for about a year before moving on to several other stations in Ontario and B.C.

In March Mike Roberts started an evening shift with the station before moving to a weekday morning talk show called “Beefs & Bouquets”. He is best known for his many years at CHBC-TV Kelowna. On New Years Eve, Jim Fraser made his broadcasting debut at CKAY. He stayed until 1971 and is best known for his ten years as morning host at country powerhouse CKWX Vancouver.

On June 12, CKAY was given approval to disaffiliate from the CBC. 

The studio located on Station Street in Duncan caught fire during Bruce Payne’s morning show, caused by a short circuit in one of the tape recorders. Even though he had to evacuate the building, CKAY stayed on the air, thanks to an LP, which he left playing on a turntable. 

Ernie Mykyte was given permission to purchase Radio CKAY Ltd. on July 24.

On December 13, CKAY 1500 was authorized to increase power from 1,000 watts (same directional pattern for day and night) to 5,000 watts day and 1,000 watts night (different directional patterns for day and night).

On August 8, well-known radio personality Tom Lucas made his start in radio (as Alan Boyle) on CKAY, where he stayed for about a year before moving on to several other stations in Ontario and B.C. 

In March Mike Roberts started an evening shift with the station before moving to a weekday morning talk show called “Beefs & Bouquets”. He is best known for his many years at CHBC-TV Kelowna. On New Years Eve, Jim Fraser made his broadcasting debut at CKAY. He stayed until 1971 and is best known for his ten years as morning host at country powerhouse CKWX Vancouver. 

The studio located on Station Street in Duncan caught fire during Bruce Payne’s morning show, caused by a short circuit in one of the tape recorders. Even though he had to evacuate the building, CKAY stayed on the air, thanks to an LP, which he left playing on a turntable. 

Dick Drew purchased the station and became the president with 100% ownership of CKAY (1979) Radio Inc. The new owner increased the daytime power to 10,000 watts in the early eighties. Night power remained at 1000 watts. 

Dick Drew stepped aside from day-to-day operation of CKAY to concentrate on his other projects. Sig Reuter was named station manager and Cam Drew was sales manager. Todd LeSargent was news director. 

CKAY’s morning host was Rick Dennis. Tracy Hamilton was promoted to Regional Sales Manager at CKAY. 

Tracy Duncan became CKAY’s General Manager. She had been General Sales Manager. Former GM Cam Drew moved into the real estate business. 

CKAY received an award from the Fifth Annual West Coast Disaster Response Conference. The Mayor and Council of the City of Duncan nominated the station for important work done for the community during a disastrous five-day winter storm of December ’96 and January ’97. 

Wayne Seaman joined CKAY’s sales department.

The CRTC held a public hearing May 3 in Vancouver to examine several applications for new broadcast services, including one by CKAY (1979) Radio Inc. to convert the station from AM 1500 to FM 89.7. At the hearing, company president Dick Drew presented to the Commission the need for a reliable local signal to reach the many communities of the Cowichan Valley, some of which were barely able to hear the current AM signal. He also emphasized the need for the station to replace its aging transmitter, which had been in use for 35 years.

On October 28 the CRTC approved application to convert CKAY to FM 89.7 with an average effective radiated power of 1,862 watts, with an adult contemporary format.

At the same time the Commission approved O.K. Radio Group Ltd. application to convert CKXM Victoria from AM 1200 to FM 91.3 and the other by Seacoast Communications Group Incorporated for a new FM station to operate on 107.3. Because of the proposed location of the CKXM transmitter on the Malahat Highway near Duncan, a condition of licence was specified that O.K Radio Group could not solicit advertising in the Cowichan Valley. 

Howard Green was now at CKAY.

The new station, CJSU-FM, began broadcasting on August 1 at 89.7 MHz using the slogan “Sun FM”. On August 27, the AM 1500 frequency became clear in southwest B.C. as the old AM station was shut down. 

To reflect the change to FM and new call letters, plans were made to change the company name to Drew Media Inc. 

The CRTC announced in January that effective control of Drew Media Inc., licensee of CJSU-FM Duncan, was transferred from Richard and Aline Drew to Vista Broadcast Group Inc., a widely held corporation controlled by its board of directors. 

Marvin Piuti was the new News Director at 89.7 Sun FM. Most recently, he was with CHEK-TV Victoria, CIVI-TV Victoria, and was an alumnus of Citytv/MuchMusic in Toronto. He succeeded Ric Rathburn who retired.

Keith James Sr. retired as general manager/general sales manager at Sun FM. He would continue as a programming consultant in Vista markets. New GM/GSM was Trevor Harvey. 

Vista Radio welcomed four more people to the team. Darren McPeake joined Vista as the Kootenay Group Program Director and Mountain FM morning host effective August 1. Jennifer Thomson rejoined the Vista family as part of the creative team at 103.9 The Juice in Kelowna. She was previously with the company’s Kootenay Group as the Creative Director for Mountain FM and The Bridge. Tracy Hamilton joined Vista Radio in the role of General Manager/Sales Manager at CJSU 89.7 Sun FM in Duncan. Carmen Weld accepted the position of news anchor/reporter for 99.7 The River in Campbell River. She was a graduate of BCIT’s journalism program and recently did a stint at 89.7 Sun FM in Duncan. 

It was announced that Vista President Terry Coles would move into retirement at the end of 2012 and immediately into a consulting role with the company. His successor would be CEO Margot Micallef who would handle the dual roles of President/CEO. Bryan Edwards moves to Senior VP of Business Development. Vista Kelowna General Manager/General Sales Manager Ross Hawse would become the Director Western Operations. Gary Russell, Vista’s Director of Systems and GM of Vista Prince George, would integrate Haliburton and Vista in Ontario as the Director of Integration and Operations, Vista East. Co-Founder/Executive VP Paul Mann would add Senior VP of Sales and Training and Development to his duties. Assisting him would be Tracey Gard, the GM/GSM of the Cariboo Group of Vista stations, as Director Vista Sales, West and based in Courtenay. The former finance executive at Corus and Telemedia, Chris Lecomte joined Vista as Senior VP/CFO, based in Toronto.

Trevor Harvey, the former General Manager/General Sales Manager at Vista’s SUN FM Duncan, moved to become the company’s Senior Account Executive based in Nanaimo. Since Vista acquired a minority stake in CKAY-FM Sechelt, Harvey was focusing efforts in that direction. 

The CRTC approved a change to the effective control of Vista Radio Ltd. from a control exercised by its board of directors to a control exercised by Westerkirk Capital Inc., a corporation controlled by Thomson Investments Limited. Vista Radio Ltd. was the licensee of radio programming undertakings located in British Columbia, Alberta and the Northwest Territories.

The new Program Director at 89.7 Sun FM was Troy Scott. Earlier this year, he moved to Penticton to be co-host of the morning show at CIGV-FM. Before that, Scott was with B-103 (now Q103) Kelowna co-hosting mornings.

News Director Natasha Riebe of 89.7 Sun FM moved to Edmonton. Her broadcast career began in 2008 as a reporter with Vista Radio’s Mix 100 Yellowknife.

Liz Craig was promoted to News Director at 89.7 Sun FM. She joined the station as an anchor/reporter in August of last year after having worked as an associate producer at CBC Toronto.

CJSU rebranded from SUN FM to JUICE FM with Variety Hits.