by jon » Sun Feb 17, 2008 12:49 pm
Great to hear these! If memory serves, this was one of many jingle packages used over the K-Lite years. I recall them changing jingle packages quite frequently in the early years.
CKRA began as Rock Radio 96, but neither I nor anyone else I knew noticed. Soon they became K-96, and went up against K-97 (CIRK-FM, formerly CJCA-FM), without the heavy metal. And they wouldn't play Michael Jackson either. Ironically, it "forced" K-97 to move steadily to a heavier sound, until they became known as "Music to Weld By".
As mentioned in Today in History this morning, CIRK filed a complaint with the CRTC that forced CKRA to move to Light Rock, like they proposed in their original license applicaiton. K-Lite was born, at a time when similar sounding Adult Contemporary FM stations were just starting to become popular in the U.S.
Six months later, the CRTC reversed their decision, but it was clear that K-Lite had more potential than K-96, so the station stuck with the approach. Although it did not, technically, draw the station's biggest numbers, "Music at Work" really made K-Lite popular by keeping many newfound listeners throughout the broadcast day, as background on the commute, and at home. Prior, it was just unacceptable to play a radio in most offices, especially in a "open office" cubicle environment.
For more than a decade now, CFMG-FM, as Easy Rock Edmonton, has owned the "Music at Work" audience that K-Lite invented in Edmonton. How that audience switched stations is a story for another time, but the chain of events began with CKRA Program Director Len Thuesen bowing to audience pressure, against his own better judgement, and moving from PM to AM Drive when Mike Lynch left AM Drive for a lucrative 2 year contract with CKXM-FM for AM Drive.