Radio station in Dartmouth, Nova Scotia
CFLT-FM
(92.9
MHz
) is a
commercial
radio station
licensed
to
Dartmouth, Nova Scotia
,
Canada
and serving the
Halifax Regional Municipality
. The station is owned by
Rogers Radio
, a division of
Rogers Sports & Media
, and broadcasts an
adult hits
format
, using the
syndicated
music service and
trademark
known as
Jack
92.9
.
The
radio studios
are on Young Street in Halifax, while its
transmitter
is on Washmill Lake Drive in
Clayton Park
.
The station is the successor to
Newcap
-owned
AM
station
CFDR
(780
kHz
), which
signed off
the air on July 27, 2009, eleven days before the FM station's official launch.
History
[
edit
]
CFDR
[
edit
]
CFDR had made its home at various locations on the dial, first at 790 kHz, moving to 680 kHz in 1978, then to 780 kHz in 1991.
[2]
Originally owned and operated by Patterson Broadcasters Ltd. (consisting of President
C.A. (Arnie) Patterson
, Senior Vice-president/National Sales Director W.L. (Bill) Patterson and Vice-president/Chief Engineer Jack Hutchison), CFDR (the "DR" standing for "Dartmouth Radio"), also known as "CF Big 'D' R", first hit the AM dial in 1962. The studios were originally located at 66 Ochterloney St. in Dartmouth, and moved to 12 Queen St. in 1971, until the decision was made in 1981 to occupy half of the 18th floor and the entire penthouse (19th floor) of the
Queen Square
building (which commanded an excellent view of Halifax Harbour). CFDR and
CFRQ
moved their broadcasting facilities to the
CIEZ
building in
Bedford
in 1995.
The station's 790 kHz transmitter was on the Montague Mines Road in the suburbs of Dartmouth before relocating to Kearney Lake Road in Bedford with the change to 680 kHz. When the frequency changed to 780 kHz, the transmitter was moved to St. Margaret's Bay Road in the
HRM
community of
Lakeside
.
Popular disc jockeys during CFDR's flagship easy listening era included avuncular morning man Gerry Parsons (with his signature "March Around the Breakfast Table"), smooth-voiced Tony Beech (of Sunday night's "Candlelight and Wine" renown), Jack Hutchison's "Tartan Hour" on Saturday mornings, Program Director Gail Rice (mid-days), Clary Stubbert (afternoon drive), midnights with Dave Tramley and Paul Meagher, traffic reporter. Other popular former DJs and announcers include Colleen Jones, "Graveyard Shifter" Ron Roberts, Andrew Boyle, Cam Allen, Dale Schwartz, John Cunningham and John Kyte.
CFDR was an
easy listening
station until 1987, when it changed its format to
Top 40/CHR
; around the same time, it also began broadcasting in
Motorola
C-QUAM
AM stereo
. The format change to
Top 40
was protested vehemently by fans of the
Easy Listening
format in the Halifax area. It generated many complaints to the
Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission
(CRTC), and to the station itself, but the format change stood until it switched to the
country
format in December 1993. Ultimately, the station became known as
Classic Country
780 KIXX
, differentiating itself from Halifax's more popular contemporary country station
CHFX-FM
; in addition, CFDR became one of a handful of radio stations in Canada to air the format.
Conversion to FM and sale
[
edit
]
After
CHNS
moved to an
FM
frequency in July 2006, only two Halifax stations, CFDR and
CJCH
, remained on the AM dial in a market with over a dozen FM stations. In October 2006, Newcap applied to the CRTC to move CFDR to the FM band at 88.9
MHz
. It was to drop its
country
format in favour of
alternative rock
, since CHFX would continue to air a country format. The station was to be branded
LIVE 88.9
, patterned after Newcap's Ottawa station
CILV-FM
. The move was approved in 2007, on condition that Newcap sell its 50% interest in
CKUL-FM
. With Newcap also owning
CFRQ
, as well as 50% of CKUL, converting CFDR to FM would have put Newcap in violation of CRTC regulations on radio station ownership, which limits a single company to two AM and two FM stations per market.
After
CTVglobemedia
announced plans to convert CJCH to FM as well, it was required to divest its own 50% share of CKUL to proceed with the conversion (as it also owned
CIOO-FM
). Newcap then elected in early 2008 to acquire full control of CKUL,
[3]
negating its own conversion plans in the process.
However, this left CFDR as the last remaining AM station in the market, with Newcap unable to move the station to FM. Thus, later in the year, the company announced it would trade CFDR to
Rogers Radio
in exchange for Rogers'
Sudbury
station
CIGM
, with both stations applying to move to FM following the trade. CIGM's situation paralleled that of CFDR: it was the last AM station remaining in the Sudbury market, where Rogers already owned two FM stations, and hence it would not be permitted to convert to FM under Rogers ownership. Rogers later announced it would move CFDR to 92.9 MHz rather than the previously approved 88.9. The applications were approved by the CRTC on November 24, 2008.
[4]
CFDR went off the air permanently on July 27, 2009, at 10:00 a.m. ADT, coinciding with the final consummation of the Rogers-Newcap swap. The last two songs played were "
Who's Gonna Fill Their Shoes
" by
George Jones
and "
Happy Trails
" by
Dale Evans
and
Roy Rogers
. A farewell message was posted by morning hosts Frank Lowe and Stephanie Woodin on Kixx's former (now defunct) website 780kixx.ca.
CFDR was the last remaining AM station in the Halifax area prior to the shutdown. CFDR was also the most powerful AM station in the province during the day at 50,000 watts.
[5]
At night, power was reduced to 15,000 watts.
[6]
Competing AM stations CJCH and CHNS left the air in 2008 and 2006, respectively.
Lite 92.9
[
edit
]
Rogers initially indicated that it would follow through with Newcap's plan to air alternative rock on the relaunched station.
[7]
However, they ended up adopting an
adult contemporary
format, known as
Lite 92.9
, patterned after Rogers-owned
CHFM-FM
in
Calgary
.
92.9 Jack FM
[
edit
]
On February 28, 2014, at 8 AM, CFLT-FM changed their format to
adult hits
, branded as
92.9
Jack FM
.
[8]
The last song on "Lite" was "
Forget You
" by
Cee-Lo Green
, while the first song on "Jack" was "
We Will Rock You
" by
Queen
.
[9]
With the change, CFLT brought back "Griff & Caroline In The Morning", previously heard on
CKUL-FM
before they dropped the show upon changing formats in August 2013.
References
[
edit
]
External links
[
edit
]
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