Radio station in Sudbury, Ontario
CHNO-FM
is a Canadian radio station broadcasting at 103.9
FM
in
Sudbury
,
Ontario
. Owned and operated by
Stingray Radio
, the station is branded on-air as
Rewind 103.9
with a
classic hits
format.
History
[
edit
]
The station began broadcasting on June 24, 1947 on
AM
1440. It was a bilingual radio station, airing programming in both
English
and
French
, and was an affiliate of both
CBC Radio
's
Dominion Network
and
Radio-Canada
. It was operated by
Sudbury Broadcasting
, a company owned by
F. Baxter Ricard
and his wife
Alma Ricard
, and was the first bilingual radio station in Canada outside of
Quebec
.
CHNO's Studios and offices were located at 166 Elm Street West in Sudbury, while the RCA transmitter and two towers were situated in the McFarlane Lake district of Sudbury, along Burwash Road, on part of Lot 3, Concession 6, Broder Township.
In 1952, the station was the subject of controversy when Ricard refused to permit Local 598 of the
International Union of Mine, Mill and Smelter Workers
to purchase airtime on the station for a labour-oriented news program, on the grounds that the program represented "
Communist
propaganda".
[1]
His objection had less to do with the program's spoken content and more to do with the host's choice of interstitial music between segments, including a song by
Paul Robeson
.
[1]
On November 9, 1954, CHNO moved to AM 900.
In 1957, Ricard opened
CFBR
on AM 550 as a full-time
French-language
station, and CHNO switched to full-time English. The licensing of CFBR, which took over the Radio-Canada affiliation from CHNO, made Sudbury Broadcasting the first commercial broadcaster in Canada licensed to operate two
AM radio
stations in the same city.
[2]
[3]
In 1962, the station became independent following the dissolution of the Dominion Network. On December 31, 1969, CFBR and CHNO swapped frequencies, CHNO moving to 550 and CFBR taking over the 900 slot. On May 14, 1976, the CRTC denied an application by Sudbury Broadcasting Co. Ltd. to change CHNO's frequency from 550 kHz to 570 kHz.
[4]
In 1979, CHNO and CFBR moved out of their Elm Street building and moved to their new location at 295 Victoria Street in the old King George School building to accommodate a new FM station.
In 1980, Sudbury Broadcasting launched a new FM station
CJMX
. That same year, CHNO received approval to increase daytime power from 10,000 watts to 50,000 watts with the nighttime power to remain at 10,000 watts and would remain on 550 kHz. Also in 1980, Ricard also became a major shareholder in
Mid-Canada Communications
. Sudbury Broadcasting continued to operate independently, although it was eventually merged into
Mid-Canada Radio
in 1985.
[5]
In 1990, Mid-Canada sold the stations to
Pelmorex
.
[6]
Following this sale, CFBR adopted the new call letters
CHYC
.
In the 1970s and 1980s, CHNO was
Northern Ontario
's most listened-to and most influential radio station, broadcasting a
Top 40
format branded as
55 CHNO
,
Rock Radio CHNO 55
, "Sudbury's Best Rock", and "Sudbury's Hit Music Leader",
NO55
(pronounced "N-oh fifty-five"). However, the 1990 launch of
CJRQ
ended CHNO's dominance, and on July 6, 1992 at 6:00 AM, CHNO flipped to an oldies format as
Oldies 55
. After struggling through a variety of formats, including
classic rock
as
AM 55 The Crusher
in 1994,
country
and
talk
in 1995 and 1996, the station reverted to
oldies
in 1997. Former program director Scott Jackson, now the manager of
CJLF-FM
in
Barrie
, has stated that CHNO and CJMX were the most neglected stations in the entire Pelmorex corporate family during the time that he worked there, despite being the network's nominal flagships.
[7]
Also in 1997, CHNO, CHYC and CJMX-FM moved out of their 295 Victoria Street building into a new location at 493-B Barrydowne Road, where CHNO still remains to this day.
In 1998, Pelmorex sold CJMX to
Telemedia
. The following year, Pelmorex sold CHNO and CHYC to
Haliburton Broadcasting Group
.
Switch to FM
[
edit
]
Haliburton applied to the
CRTC
to move both CHNO and CHYC to FM, which was approved on August 31, 1999.
[8]
In November 1999, CHNO dropped its oldies format and adopted its new
CHR/Top 40
format and
Z103
branding on the old AM frequency a few months before the station made its official move to FM. CHNO began testing its 103.9 FM signal just days before officially launching on February 3, 2000. The FM and AM signals aired simultaneously for a few weeks, and on February 29, the AM signal was closed permanently.
The station was originally licensed to broadcast at 100
kWs
,
[9]
but because of transmitter interference to the
Greater Sudbury Airport
the station's license was permanently amended to 11 kilowatts.
[10]
[11]
As "Z103", the station recovered significantly
[12]
in the local BBM ratings, jumping to a 22.1 per cent share of the local radio audience in 2000 from just 7.3 per cent in the 1999 ratings book.
[13]
As a
Top 40
station, Z103 hosted live-to-air programs from area nightclubs in the city, as well as syndicated shows such as the
Rick Dees Weekly Top 40
,
American Top 40
and
Canadian Hit 30 Countdown
. Positioning slogans during the Top 40 period included "Sudbury's Best Music", "Today's Best Music" and "Sudbury's #1 Hit Music Station."
On November 9, 2001, Haliburton sold CHNO to
Newcap Broadcasting
.
[14]
Despite no longer having common ownership, however, CHYC and CHNO continued to operate from the same studio facility at 493 Barrydowne Road in Sudbury until 2009.
Newcap and
Rogers Media
soon entered into a
joint sales agreement
, under which Rogers held responsibility for advertising sales on CHNO as well as on its own
CJRQ
,
CIGM
and
CJMX
.
[15]
In 2002, however,
Friends of Canadian Broadcasting
filed a brief with the
CRTC
opposing the station's license renewal ? FCB took the position that in practice, the agreement was extending well beyond advertising sales and into both program production and news gathering, and thus constituted an illegal
de facto
local management agreement
.
[16]
On January 31, 2005, the CRTC disallowed the agreement, ruling in its license renewals for the four stations that the agreement must be terminated no later than May 31 of that year.
[17]
Big Daddy
[
edit
]
At 12:00 AM on January 1, 2006, with little or no warning, the station flipped to a
variety hits
format branded as
Big Daddy 103.9
with slogan
"Playing Anything"
, ending another era of
Top 40
music in the Sudbury market. The last song on "Z" was "
Lose Yourself
" by
Eminem
, while the first song on "Big Daddy" was "
Start Me Up
" by
The Rolling Stones
.
[18]
[19]
General manager Darlene Palmer said the station wanted to offer Sudbury "music you can dance to, sing to, date to, divorce to." Some promotional
bumpers
for the station featured a stiff-voiced character representing "Big Daddy" himself. The stiff-voiced character was replaced by a new one around the middle of 2008.
In the first quarter
BBM
ratings for 2006, CHNO's first ratings book under the Big Daddy format, the station regained the #1 status in the Sudbury market for the first time since 1990. However, the move was controversial with some of the station's prior listeners, and in July 2006, just seven months after flipping CHNO to the adult hits format, Newcap applied to the CRTC for a new contemporary hit radio station in the Sudbury market. In the application, Newcap stated that its market research found that a contemporary hit radio station could only be profitable in the market as one station within an ownership cluster, and not as a standalone entity. However, the application was denied by the CRTC on July 12, 2007.
[20]
The denial of the proposed
CHR/Top 40
station also became controversial, in part because the station that was licensed,
CICS-FM
, duplicated the format of an existing station in the market, Rogers'
CIGM
. In July 2008, however, Newcap announced a deal to acquire CIGM from Rogers in exchange for
CFDR
in
Halifax
. Both CIGM and CFDR were the sole remaining AM stations in their respective markets, and in both cases the current owner already had the maximum permitted number of FM stations in the applicable market, whereas the acquirer only had a single FM station. Both companies applied to move the stations to FM as part of the trade.
[21]
This deal was approved on November 24, 2008.
[22]
On June 25, 2009, Newcap received approval from the CRTC to increase CHNO-FM's effected radiated power from 11,000 watts to 100,000 watts, to increase the station's antenna height and to relocate the transmitter.
[23]
On August 17, 2009, the station increased their power to 100,000 watts the same day CHNO-FM's sister station CIGM-FM began on-air tests at 93.5 FM.
2010 format change
[
edit
]
On May 21, 2010, at 12:00 AM without warning, the station dropped
adult hits
and switched to its current
classic hits
format as
Rewind 103.9
, playing 1960s, 1970s, 1980s and 1990s music with the slogan "Sudbury's Greatest Hits". The first song after the change was
Bob Seger
's "
Old Time Rock and Roll
".
[24]
In 2011, CHNO-FM aired syndicated programs such as the 1970s reruns of
American Top 40
with
Casey Kasem
, the
Classic Countdown
with
Dick Bartley
and the
Donny Osmond show
. The syndicated daily radio show,
Daily Dees
, hosted by
Rick Dees
was heard each weeknight. The station, like most classic hits stations, has evolved to playing more 80's and 90's and currently uses the slogan "70's, 80's and More!".
Despite the different branding, the station is closely aligned with Stingray's
Boom FM
-branded stations, with similar logo designs and partial sharing of programs and personalities.
Former Logo
[
edit
]
References
[
edit
]
- ^
a
b
"Robeson Record: Sudbury Station Head Bans Workers' Program".
The Globe and Mail
, March 11, 1952.
- ^
Ricard, F. Baxter (1905?1993)
.
Canadian Communications Foundation
- ^
Then & Now: Alma and Baxter Ricard built a media empire in Sudbury
,
sudbury.com
, November 5, 2020
- ^
Decision CRTC 76-249 - Denial to change CHNO's frequency from 550 kHz to 570 kHz - 14 May 1976.
- ^
Decision CRTC 85-146
- ^
Decision CRTC 90-676
- ^
Recollections from former program director Scott Jackson
- ^
CRTC Decision 99-404
Archived
2011-06-07 at the
Wayback Machine
- ^
Decision CRTC 2001-250
- ^
Decision CRTC 2001-597
- ^
Decision CRTC 2002-294
- ^
"Easy listening: Sudbury's newest radio station enjoying success of new format".
Sudbury Star
, September 16, 2000.
- ^
"FM dial a competitive place to be in Sudbury".
Sudbury Star
, December 16, 2000.
- ^
Decision CRTC 2001-689
- ^
Radio Static
,
Northern Life
, undated
- ^
"Letter to CRTC re Legality of Business Arrangement between Rogers and Newcap in Sudbury"
,
Friends of Canadian Broadcasting
, October 30, 2002.
- ^
CRTC Decision 2005-22
- ^
Who's your daddy?
,
sudbury.com
, January 2006
- ^
Sudbury gets a Big Daddy
,
carrt.ca
, January 3, 2006
- ^
Broadcasting Decision CRTC 2007-229
- ^
"Local country station will be converted to FM"
,
Northern Life
, July 24, 2008.
- ^
Broadcasting Decision CRTC 2008-326
- ^
Broadcasting Decision CRTC 2009-380
- ^
Greater Sudbury radio station rewinds
,
Northern Life
, May 21, 2010.
External links
[
edit
]
46°30′27″N
80°56′42″W
/
46.50737°N 80.94502°W
/
46.50737; -80.94502