On May 2nd, 1922 the station began broadcasting. RadioWest previously shared an aircheck of then station program manager, Jim Kunkel, from November 1970 in which he outlined the chronological history from the issuance of the station's first broadcast license on April 2, 1922 right up to late 1970 - https://soundcloud.com/westernbroadcast ... on-history
Calgary Herald 2 May 1922 - the first day of the first radio station in Alberta
Calgary Herald 5 May 1922 - the first studio
Calgary Herald 28 August 1980 - A summer 1980 article on the early days of radio in Calgary
Calgary Herald 26 August 1922 - CFAC Radio increases its broadcasting power to 2,000 watts from a new facility***
From the Keith James, Jr. (KJ) archives -
After his run, on-air, in promotions as well as production, at Edmonton's 630 CHED, KJ moved south to Calgary to take the reins as head of the production department of 960 CFAC. In 1982, the station was marking its 60th anniversary and KJ produced this station profile -
https://soundcloud.com/westernbroadcast ... ofile-1982
He would return to Edmonton in the Spring of 1982 to work with Bob McCord and help launch 103.9 CISN FM which went on-air in early June 1982.
Doug Thompson profiled KJ's career in 2010 for Broadcast Dialogue - https://worldradiohistory.com/hd2/IDX-C ... e-0019.pdf
We thank KJ for sharing his work with us. Watch for more CFAC audio from his archives in the near future.
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From the RadioWest aircheck archives -
In the fall of 1969, Jim Kunkel was promoted to program manager for CFAC Radio and with two other colleagues, the station's manager and music director, traveled 8,000 miles in 18 days around the US checking out the country music programming of various radio stations.
At the conclusion of the trip, the decision to implement the "Town and Country Sound" at CFAC was made in an effort to help it return to its market leading status which was lost in the mid-1960s. CFAC, after CBC Radio established a station in Calgary, had flirted with Top 40 and Talk formats which didn't catch on with local listeners.
From late 1970 here's a station profile of 960 CFAC and its "Town and Country Sound" -
https://soundcloud.com/westernbroadcast ... -late-1970
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We are also very pleased to share a few more audio pieces from the RadioWest archives.
The informal general consensus is that the following is the late Bob Robertson (Double Exposure) from the waning days of CFAC's pop music period in 1967. It's "Winchester 9-6-0" -
https://soundcloud.com/westernbroadcast ... chester-96
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And for many years, John Digney was known as the "Voice of the High Country" on CFAC Radio. Here's one of his announcements from the early 1980s -
https://soundcloud.com/westernbroadcast ... gh-country
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Happy 100th anniversary, (Sportsnet) 960 (The Fan) CFAC!
