Radio station in Vancouver
CFOX-FM
(identified on air and in print as
CFOX
) is a Canadian radio station in
Vancouver
,
British Columbia
. It broadcasts on an assigned frequency of 99.3 MHz on the
FM
band with an
effective radiated power
of 100,000 watts (peak). The transmitter is located on
Mount Seymour
in the
District of North Vancouver
, with studios located in
Downtown Vancouver
, in the
TD Tower
. The station is owned by
Corus Entertainment
. CFOX has a
modern rock
format, as it reports to
Mediabase
as a Canadian alternative rock station.
History
[
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]
CFOX began broadcasting on October 15, 1964 on 99.3 MHz with 100,000 watts, under the call sign
CKLG-FM
(not to be confused with the new "
LG
" in Vancouver
CHLG-FM
on 104.3 MHz.). Transmissions originally came from the south slope of Fromme Mountain in North Vancouver.
CKLG initially began with an
easy listening
format, but in the fall of 1967, it started experimenting with
rock music
at night. In October that year, CKLG program director Frank Callaghan hired record store owner Bill Reiter (who later went on to become part of the Dr. Bundolo's Pandemonium Medicine Show comedy troupe
[1]
) to host the
jazz
/
blues
program
Groovin' Blue
on Saturday evenings. CKLG-FM soon shifted to become Canada's first full-time FM
rock
station on March 16, 1968, with the expansion of
Groovin' Blue
to six nights a week and the addition of tracks from rock,
folk
and popular albums. In 1970, CKLG-FM added a two-hour daily
talk show
hosted by Allen Garr, which ran on the station until 1975. By 1973, CKLG-FM had compiled a library of 3000 albums, and all its programming was aired live except on Sunday mornings, with special programming on the station including the Allen Garr talk show, live concerts and a Saturday
sock-hop
program. In 1976, under the guidance of new program director Roy Hennessy (a former morning host on CKLG-AM), the FM station made the gradual transition to a
progressive rock
format.
At noon on January 6, 1979, CKLG changed to
CFOX-FM
, a call sign first used by a
defunct AM radio station
in
Montreal
,
Quebec
in the 1960s and 1970s. The switch was marked by
The Beatles
song "
The End
", followed by "
The End
" by
The Doors
, concluding with three minutes of the sound of a scratching record commonly referred to as "playing the label". The first song on the "new" CFOX was
Steely Dan
's "
FM (No Static at All)
".
In 1984, CFOX moved its transmitter to the Rogers Broadcast multiplex on nearby Mount Seymour in order to reduce multipath reception problems.
On August 20, 1992, the
Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission
(CRTC) approved the sale of CFOX and CKLG from
Moffat Communications
Ltd. to
Shaw Communications
. This was part of Moffat's sale of its radio division. Transfer of CKLG/CFOX to Shaw was completed on September 1, 1992. Shaw's broadcasting division became Corus Entertainment in 1999. When
Western International Communications
, owner of
classic rocker
CFMI
, sold its radio stations to Corus in 2000, CFOX shifted from
album oriented rock
to
alternative rock
, aiming at
Rogers
' former alternative rocker
104.9 Xfm
(
CKVX-FM
), which signed on December 31, 1999.
In 1998, the station received approval to add a transmitter at
Whistler
to operate on the frequency 92.3 MHz with the callsign
CFOX-FM-1
.
[2]
Rogers changed CKVX from alternative rock to a
smooth jazz
/
adult contemporary
hybrid as
CKCL
on December 26,
2003
, making CFOX the lone alternative rocker in Vancouver. CFOX soon returned to an
active rock
format, mixing in classic
hard rock
and
heavy metal music
, but continues to lean
alternative rock
. Most alternative songs were toned down when
CKPK-FM
signed on in 2008. By
2011
, the station returned to alternative.
On July 14, 2011, the CRTC approved Corus's application to increase the average effective radiated power (ERP) from 35,200 to 51,000 watts (maximum ERP from 75,000 to 100,000 watts).
[3]
FOX Seeds
[
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]
Every year since 1979, there has been a competition through voting, live events and a concert with the finalists at the
Commodore Ballroom
and radio air play on CFOX of unsigned local bands that have entered to compete for that year. It is narrowed down to a few winners and one Platinum winner. Prizes include cars, support, agency, management, recording guidance and other items which can be instrumental to a band's career like the ones below.
[4]
Winners include
Nickelback
,
Bif Naked
,
Matthew Good Band
,
Gob
, Murray Atkinson (2007),
Default
,
Faber Drive
(2005),
Theory Of A Deadman
, By a Thread (2003),
State Of Shock
, Incura (2008), Goodbye Beatdown (2009), Stars of Boulevard (2010), Head Of The Herd (2011), Gentlemen Prefer Blondes (2011), FIELDS OF GREEN (2012).
[5]
References
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External links
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]