CKTY-FM

The CKCL call sign once known to Toronto area (CKEY) listeners were soon to return to the air. A new station was licensed for Truro, N.S., operating on 1400 kHz with power of 250 watts. Manager J.A. Manning said the CKCL calls would be used for the new station. CKCL became a member of the Canadian Association of Broadcasters. The station hoped to be on the air in August. Truro Broadcasting Company opened CKCL Radio on September 10. Studios were at 7 Pleasant Street and the transmitter was at Onslow. Syd Davison was an announcer at CKCL.

Alex Thomson of Australia accepted an executive position with CKCL (commercial manager). Earl Ross left CKCL for CKCW in Moncton. He had been news commentator and sportscaster.

Fred Sherratt, who had started his broadcasting career at CKCL, left the station for Ontario.

CKCL and Newcastle’s CKMR were now members of the co-operative news service – Radio Press Ltd. – formed a year earlier by CKCW Moncton, CFNB Fredericton and CFBC Saint John.

The CBC Board approved a transfer of licence for CKCL from Truro Broadcasting Co. Ltd. to Colchester Broadcasting Co. Ltd.

Roy Chaisson was news editor. George B. Moore was appointed commercial and promotion manager at CKCL.

CKCL was given approval to change frequency from 1400 to 600 kHz and to increase power from 250 to 1,000 watts.

CKCL moved from 1400 kHz to 600 kHz and increased power from 250 watts to 1,000 watts. A single directional pattern was used for day and night operation.

CKCL was now owned by Colchester Broadcasting Co. Ltd. (J.A. Manning 73.4%, T. L. Legge 1.4%, R. L. MacDougall 0.1%, H. W. Murdock 0.1%, F. M. Blois 0.3%, W. R. Moore 0.6% and 33 other shareholders 24.1%). CKCL was an independent station with no network affiliation. J. Arthur Manning was president of the company and CKCL’s manager, Doug Freeman was program director.

CKCL-FM signed on. CKCL 600 was now a CBC affiliate and operating with a power of 1,000 watts. J. Arthur Manning was President of Colchester Broadcasting Co.

The sale of Colchester Broadcasting Co. Ltd. by J. A. Manning to a company represented by Mervyn C. Russell was denied on June 20. The proposed purchaser was controlled by Jack Schoone and J. Irving Zucker. The application was denied because this company already had a strong presence in the region.

Permission was granted March 14 for the sale of Colchester Broadcasting Co. Ltd. from J. A. Manning to Bathurst Broadcasting Co. Ltd.

CKCL-FM became CKTO.

CKCL’s manager Neil H. MacMullen, representing a company to be incorporated, purchased Evangeline Broadcasting Co. Ltd. (CKEN-AM / CKWM-FM Kentville and others).

CKCL received permission to increase daytime power to 10,000 watts.

Mike Trenholm was news director.

Colchester Broadcasting Co. Ltd. became Radio Atlantic (CKCL) Ltd. (owned by Bathurst Broadcasting Co. Ltd., owner of CKBC Bathurst, N.B.). Roy Publicover was general manager at CKCL/CKTO-FM.

Mike Trenholm was news director.

CKCL and CKTO began operating from new studios and offices on September 1. CKTO made the change at 10:00 a.m. and CKCL changed over at 11:00 p.m. Some of the CKCL employees at this time: Roy Publicover (vice president and general manager), David Guy (program director), Mike Halverson (music director), Dale Lyon (country music director), Bob Bartlett (production engineer), Dave Innes (morning man and promotions director), Mike Trenholm (news director), Frank MacDonald (farm news director), Jackie Murphy (news), Barry Cox (announcer). Chief engineers were Harold Thompson (Radio Atlantic) and Don Jardine (CKCL-CKTO). On November 3, approval was granted for authority to transfer effective control of Radio Atlantic (CFNB) Ltd. licensee of CFNB Fredericton, Radio Atlantic (CKBC) Ltd. licensee of CKBC Bathurst, and Radio Atlantic (CKCL) Ltd. licensee of CKCL and CKTO-FM Truro, through the transfer of 40% of the common voting shares of Radio Atlantic Holdings Ltd. from Win Trust Ltd. to Force Holdings Ltd. Radio Atlantic is the sole shareholder of Radio Atlantic Management Ltd. which in turn is the sole shareholder of the three licensee companies mentioned above. Force Holdings presently owns 46.7% of Radio Atlantic. As a result of this transaction, Radio Atlantic will be directly controlled by Force Holdings (86.7%), which is ultimately controlled by the Eddy family.

Radio Atlantic (CKCL) Ltd. was purchased by Radio Atlantic (1997) Ltd. Roy Publicover left CKCL/CKTO as general manager and was replaced by Dan Cormier from Fredericton. Alan Johnson became news director at CKCL/CKTO-FM.

Radio Atlantic (1997) Ltd. was purchased by Telemedia Communications Inc.

Dan Barton became program director for CKCL and Mix 100.9 FM. He had been operations manager and morning man at CHER in Sydney. On March 2, CKCL was given approval to move to the FM dial, operating on 99.5 MHz with effective radiated power of 16,750 watts. The new station would offer a country format. On April 27 at 7:05 a.m., CKCL-AM was replaced by CKTY “99.5 Cat Country FM”. Earlier in the morning, sister station CKTO-FM changed from “The Mix 100.9 FM” to “EZ Rock FM”. CKCL-AM 600 left the air forever on May 12.

Astral Media Inc. purchased Telemedia Radio Atlantic Inc.

On June 19 the CRTC renewed CKTY-FM’s licence until August 31, 2014. Conditions: The licensee shall make a basic annual contribution to Canadian content development. The licensee shall allocate 60% of the basic annual CCD contribution to FACTOR or MUSICACTION. The remainder of the annual basic contribution to CCD may be allocated to parties and initiatives fulfilling the definition of eligible initiatives.

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 CKTY-FM.

In May, Bell Media rolled out a rebrand (Pure Country) of 12 of its country stations. The stations offered local morning and afternoon drive shows with evening and weekend programming being syndicated. No jobs were lost as part of the changes, as former evening and weekend announcers were assigned new duties. CKTY changed from Cat Country to Pure Country 99.5.