Radio station in Chilliwack, British Columbia
CKSR-FM
(98.3
kHz
Star 98.3
) is a Canadian
radio station
located in
Chilliwack, British Columbia
. The station, operating at 2,100
watts
of power, is owned by
Rogers Radio
, a division of
Rogers Sports & Media
. CKSR also runs a repeater station in
Hope
(
CFSR-FM
100.5).
History
[
edit
]
Early years and CBC affiliation
[
edit
]
CKSR began broadcasting on June 27, 1927, as
CHWK
(which stood for
CH
illi
W
ac
K
), airing for two hours a day (noon-1 p.m. and 6-7 p.m.) at its original frequency of 1210
AM
with transmission power of 5 watts. The station had been started up by original owners, radio set salesmen Casey Wells and Jack Menzies, as a response to the problems Chilliwack residents had with picking up radio signals from
Vancouver
due to the area's mountainous terrain and the less-sophisticated radio receivers of the time. During CHWK's early years, there were some days when the station would not go on the air if Wells and Menzies were busy selling radios; this was eventually remedied in 1929 when Jack Pilling was hired on to help run station operations.
CHWK moved to 665 AM and increased power to 100 watts in 1930, and Wells bought Menzies' ownership stake in the station in 1933, with programming geared toward the Chilliwack area's farmers. CHWK became a charter affiliate of the
Canadian Radio Broadcasting Commission
upon the network's formation in 1932 and later became the local affiliate when the CRBC reorganized as the
Canadian Broadcasting Corporation
in 1936. The station switched frequencies again to 780 AM in 1937 and increased power to 250 watts the following year. In 1940, Pilling acquired half-ownership of the station, which changed over to 1340 AM in 1941. The original
CBC Radio
became known as the
Trans-Canada Network
on January 2, 1944, when its new sister network, the
Dominion Network
, went on the air, and CHWK became a charter affiliate of the Dominion Network at that time.
Fraser Valley Radio
[
edit
]
CHWK made further frequency switches over time, to 1230 AM on April 14, 1951, then to 1270 AM (with a power increase to 1000 watts) in 1952. In 1957, Fraser Valley Broadcasters Ltd. was established as the owner of CHWK, with Jack Pilling as the new company's largest shareholder. The station's power was increased to 10,000 watts in 1960. On August 20, 1962, Fraser Valley Broadcasters established
CFVR
in
Abbotsford
as a semi-satellite of CHWK, operating on 1240 AM with 250 watts of power; CFVR initially broadcast separately 6 to 9 a.m. and during the noon hour, while the balance of its programming came from Chilliwack With the move from the Park Hotel to new studios separate programming was expanded to 6 a.m. to 6 p.m. With the establishment of CFVR, Fraser Valley Broadcasters formed the regional radio network
Fraser Valley Radio
with CHWK and CFVR as its founding stations.
[1]
Pilling retired as the majority owner and president of Fraser Valley Broadcasters in 1963.
Also, in 1962, the Dominion Network dissolved and CHWK's affiliation transferred to
the main CBC Radio network
.
In 1966, CHWK and CFVR parent Fraser Valley Broadcasters was under the ownership of Murdo Maclachlan, Bill Wolfe, and Bill Teetzel when Dennis Barkman purchased a ⅓ interest in the company by acquiring Teetzel's shares, with an option on the remaining shares of Maclachlan and Wolfe. By selling his interest to five employees; Ken Davis, Gerald Pash, Harold Roberts, Eugene Ross, and Bob Singleton, Barkman acquired the interest of MacLachlan and Wolfe and became the majority owner in 1969. Operational responsibilities were divided at both stations. At CHWK Harold Roberts was appointed program manager, Ken Davis as Sales Manager and Gene Ross as Commercial Manager. At CFVR Gerald Pash was a sales manager and Bob Singleton program manager. On May 8, 1972, CHWK got a second rebroadcaster when CKGO went on the air in Hope at 1490 AM with 250 watts, airing two hours of local programming a day with the rest from CHWK. Peter Slack was the first manager at CKGO. He died March 27, 2010, at age 60. Casey Wells, one of the co-founders of CHWK, died in Chilliwack on November 11, 1976, at age 74.
In February 1977, CFVR moved to 850 AM and increased its power to 10,000 watts, while CKGO later took over CFVR's old 1240 frequency and made a power increase to 1000 watts in the daytime, remaining at 250 at night. Jack Pilling, the former president and majority owner of Fraser Valley Broadcasters, died on July 16, 1977, at age 69. In June 1981, CHWK, CFVR and CKGO dropped their CBC affiliations when CBC set up
CBYF-FM
, a Chilliwack repeater station of
CBU
.
Original Star FM and the sale to Rogers
[
edit
]
Bill Coombes took over from Dennis Barkman as the president of Fraser Valley Broadcasters in 1986. On October 1 that year, Fraser Valley Broadcasters put the original
CKSR-FM
(also identified on-air as
Star FM
) on the air at 107.5 in Chilliwack, with a repeater station (originally called
CFSR-FM
) in Abbotsford at 104.9, broadcasting a mixed
adult contemporary
/
easy listening
format.
On June 25, 1994, CFVR discontinued its
adult contemporary
format for
oldies
music and changed its call sign to CKMA (adopting the on-air brand
85 Radio MAX
). Dennis Barkman, who had relinquished his interests in Fraser Valley Broadcasters some years earlier, died on March 11, 1995, of a brain tumour at the age of 62. CHWK and CKGO later began simulcasting CKMA (with CKMA's on-air brand being shortened to simply
Radio MAX
as all three stations adopted it as a common brand) on September 8, 1997. In August 1999,
Rogers Communications
bought Fraser Valley Broadcasters and its stations. On December 31, 1999, at 5 p.m., CKSR/CFSR changed its call letters to
CKVX-FM
(eventually to become
CKCL-FM
on April 8, 2004).
Switch to FM
[
edit
]
On June 9, 2000, the
CRTC
gave approval to CHWK to switch to FM, to operate at 98.3 MHz.
[2]
In preparation for the switch, in September that year, CHWK, CKMA, and CKGO changed call signs as well as CHWK adopted the old CKSR name, while CKMA became
CFSR
and CKGO changed to
CKIS
. On December 15, CKIS was approved to move to FM at 100.5,
[3]
and CFSR got the green light on June 5, 2001, to move to 107.1 FM. On August 31, 2001, the switch took place as the stations (with CKSR as the originating broadcaster) adopted the on-air brand
98.3 Star FM
and dropped their
oldies
format for
adult contemporary
; their old AM frequencies would continue simulcasting CKSR until December. Former CHWK co-owner Murdo Maclachlan died on July 8, 2003, in
North Vancouver
at age 93. CFSR ceased rebroadcasting CKSR on March 24, 2005, at noon as it became
CKQC-FM
, airing a separate schedule of contemporary
country music
, while the CFSR calls were transferred to CKIS. Bill Wolfe, another former co-owner of CHWK, died on June 1, 2005, at the age of 77.
In an announcement made in 2007, the historic CHWK call letters were planned to be brought back by Manitoba-based Golden West Broadcasting, which had applied to the CRTC for a licence for an FM station in Chilliwack, to operate on 89.5 FM if the application was successful.
[4]
[5]
The application by Golden West Broadcasting was denied by the CRTC on May 30, 2008, in favor of an application by Radio CJVR Ltd. (later called Fabmar Communications Ltd., the owner of
Melfort, Saskatchewan
, station
CJVR-FM
, since acquired by the
Jim Pattison Group
), which began using the CHWK calls for
its new station
when it went on the air with a test signal on February 11, 2009, then officially launched on Friday, February 20 at 12:05pm.
[6]
[7]
In 2011, CKSR changed its branding slightly to
Star 98.3
. The station also changed its logo.
Rebroadcasters
[
edit
]
In 1980, CKGO added a rebroadcast transmitter at Boston Bar as CKGO-FM-1. It was later changed to CFSR-FM-1 at 106.1 MHz until it was deleted from the
ISEDC
database in 2018.
Former logos
[
edit
]
-
CHWK/CFVR logo, used until CFVR switched frequencies in 1977.
-
"Star FM" logo used until June 2011.
-
"Star" logo used from 2011-2018.
Other stations named CKSR
[
edit
]
CKSR called letters for the
student radio
station for the
University of Alberta
starting in 1970 (The "
SR
" stood for "
S
tudent
R
adio"). The station was renamed to
CJSR
in 1978.
References
[
edit
]
- ^
Fraser Valley Radio coverage map from 1964
- ^
Decision CRTC 2000-192
, Conversion of AM station CHWK to FM,
CRTC
,
June 9, 2000
- ^
Decision CRTC 2000-756
, Conversion of AM station CKGO to FM,
CRTC
, December 15, 2000
- ^
Golden West Broadcasting applies for new Chilliwack FM station (02/21/07)
- ^
Local spin to station (
Chilliwack Times
, February 20, 2007)
- ^
Broadcasting Decision CRTC 2008-116 May 30, 2008
- ^
Northwest Broadcasters - FM Stations
External links
[
edit
]
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Some assets listed above are or were only partially owned by Rogers Communications. Refer to each individual article for detailed information.
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49°06′35″N
121°50′52″W
/
49.10972°N 121.84778°W
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49.10972; -121.84778