In 1949, CFCA-FM signed on in Kitchener-Waterloo (Ontario) on 106.1 MHz as Canada's first FM station without an AM sister station. Unfortunately, they did not last long, reducing broadcast hours to six in 1951 and leaving the air a short time later. But, the same owner (Carl Pollock) re-opened the station on April 3, 1967. The CFCA call letters originally belonged to The Toronto Daily Star's AM station that broadcast experimentally in 1921 as 3EC, commercially as CFCA on June 22, 1922, but signed off forever on September 1, 1933, after its owner became convinced the federal government was about to create a broadcast monopoly and take over private stations.
In 1971, Toronto's CKFM won CRTC approval to almost double their transmitting antenna height. CKFM was first licensed in 1938 as an experimental low-powered FM station, VE9AK, simulcasting CFRB with 50 watts in the original 42 MHz FM band. That transmitter was only 60 feet above street level. CFRB-FM began broadcasting with a commercial license in September 1947. And became one of the first non-simulcast FM stations in Canada in 1960. The call letters changed to CKFM on July 1, 1963. The 1971 approval was implemented in 1972 with a 798 foot antenna height on top of the newly-built Commerce Court West, from a previous 441 foot antenna height. But, it came at a cost. The CRTC required that CKFM reduce power from 200,000 to 100,000 watts. And, it didn't stop there. CKFM's transmitter moved to the top of CN Tower, at 1380 feet, but again had to reduce power, this time to 40,000 watts.
In 1989, CKO-FM-7 Winnipeg was given approval to decrease effective radiated power from 180,000 to 14,000 watts on 99.1 MHz for an interim period until the permanent transmitting facilities at Starbuck were operational. (No relationship with the coffee outlets has been established)
In 2001, CHSN-FM was licensed to Estevan (Saskatchewan). And signed on as Sun 102.3 in November with 100,000 watts. The owner was Golden West Broadcasting, owner of CJSL-AM.
In 2008, Ed Murphy passed away at age 79. Leaving CFRB Toronto for Talk Radio in Vancouver, he made his mark in the genre at CKWX, CKNW and CJOR. He was also long-time owner of Murphy's Pub in Vancouver.
