Radio station in Vancouver
CJAX-FM
(96.9
MHz
) is a
commercial
radio station
in
Vancouver
,
British Columbia
. Owned by
Rogers Radio
, a division of
Rogers Sports & Media
, it broadcasts an
adult hits
radio format
branded as
Jack
96.9
. Its studios are at 2440 Ash Street in the
Fairview
neighbourhood of Vancouver. CJAX was the first conventional radio station in
North America
to adopt the "
Jack
" branding, officially classified as "
variety hits
" or "
adult hits
". Most "Jack" stations play a wide mix of music from the late 60s through the 90s, as well as some current and recent
adult contemporary
and
hot adult contemporary
singles.
CJAX-FM is a
Class C
station with an
effective radiated power
(ERP) of 32,000
watts
(70,000 watts maximum).
[1]
The
transmitter
is atop
Mount Seymour
in the
District of North Vancouver
. Programming is
simulcast
on a 1,430-watt
repeater
, 96.9
CJAX-FM-1
in
Whistler
.
[2]
History
[
edit
]
Jazz and Urban AC
[
edit
]
The station
signed on
the air on March 1, 1980
; 44 years ago
(
1980-03-01
)
. Its original
call sign
was
CJAZ-FM
and it broadcast on 92.1 FM in Vancouver. It was owned by
Selkirk Communications
, airing an all-
jazz
format. It transmitted from
Salt Spring Island
at 100,000 watts. Although overall regional coverage was very good, poor
stereo
reception in the key Vancouver area led the station to make some changes in 1984. It switched its frequency to 96.9 MHz and it relocated its transmitter to Mountt Seymour.
Low ratings for its jazz sound led to a format change on September 15, 1985, when the station adopted an
urban adult contemporary
format, the first in Canada. It rebranded as
FM 97
and the call sign was changed to
CKKS-FM
.
Adult Contemporary
[
edit
]
About a year later, the station switched again. This time it began playing
adult contemporary music
with an on-air rebranding to
97
Kiss FM
. Four years later, the station was sold to Maclean-Hunter Ltd, and in
1994
it became a part of Rogers Broadcasting. Rival station 103.5
CHQM-FM
dropped its
easy listening
format in
1992
, also switching to an AC sound. Its ratings surpassed CKKS as Vancouver's leading AC station, becoming Vancouver's most-listened-to FM station later on.
In 1988, the West Coast Community T.V. Association received CRTC approval to add a low-power transmitter at 102.7 MHz in
Ucluelet
to rebroadcast the programming of CKKS-FM.
[3]
The call sign for the Ucluelet transmitter (currently
dark
) is CIWC-FM.
Jack-FM
[
edit
]
In early December of
2002
, the station switched to
Christmas music
for the holidays. On
Boxing Day
, at 8 a.m., CKKS flipped to
adult hits
as
Jack FM
. The first song on "Jack" was "
You Shook Me All Night Long
" by
AC/DC
. The change ended the ten-year AC war in Vancouver, which meant that
CHQM-FM
became the only mainstream AC station in the Vancouver market.
Given the "attitude" inherent in the "Jack" brand, management felt that the call letters "CKKS" would maintain an undesirable association with Kiss-FM's "soft favourites" identity. As it turned out, in 2001, Corus Entertainment had abandoned the old CKLG call sign formerly assigned to one of its Vancouver AM stations (
Mojo AM 730
). Rogers applied to transfer these letters to Jack FM, and the station's call sign became
CKLG-FM
shortly thereafter. This was in part an attempt to trade on
CKLG-AM
's history as a popular Vancouver music station in the 1960s, 1970s, and 1980s. The move was successful, as Jack-FM's ratings increased dramatically, at one point briefly surpassing traditional market leader
CKNW
before settling into the upper rankings in the Vancouver market. (The CKKS call sign was subsequently given to a
Sechelt
rebroadcaster of
CISQ-FM
in
Squamish, British Columbia
.)
In July 2012, the station adopted the "Playing Whatever! Whenever!" slogan. The station also added in more recent
adult contemporary
and
hot adult contemporary
songs. In 2014, the call letters were changed again, this time to
CJAX-FM
to reflect the "Jack" branding.
Controversy
[
edit
]
In 2005, some members of Vancouver's
Indo-Canadian
community accused the station of racial insensitivity. They objected to 96.9 Jack-FM's advertising strategy.
[4]
[5]
The ads in question featured Vijay Chandra, a
Fijian
radio engineer for the station with a strong
South Asian
accent, singing to promote Jack-FM's "Larry and Willy show".
[6]
The complaints stemmed from a perception that viewers are intended to laugh at Chandra's accent, rather than at the ad copy itself, and that similar lyrics performed without an accent would not be considered humorous.
HD Radio
[
edit
]
In May 2016, CJAX began broadcasting using
HD Radio
technology.
[7]
On June 23, 2016, CJAX added a simulcast of all-news
sister station
1130
CKWX
on its HD2
digital subchannel
.
[8]
[9]
On August 28, 2017, CJAX added a simulcast of co-owned
sports radio
station 650
CISL
to its HD3 subchannel.
References
[
edit
]
External links
[
edit
]
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