Broadcast History - May 4

[jon]

In 1987, CFRW became CIFX "The Fox", still on AM, but playing Adult Contemporary instead of their long-time Top 40 format. The station began its life as CJQM on November 1, 1963, using what was rumoured to be Bellingham-based International Good Music's (IGM) Serial #000000005 automation machine. The machine ran tapes of music and voice-tracks produced by CHQM in Vancouver, in an attempt to clone CHQM's success. Failure came quickly, and IGM #5 was sent to Vancouver to eliminate the costs of Operators while providing most non-simulcast programming for CHQM-FM. Failure came even more quickly, and an Operator was assigned 5 minutes into the first day. As for CJQM, it was sold, became CFRW but later went bankrupt. Jim Pattison bought the station on March 30, 1970, and sold it to CHUM on July 31, 1974. The CFRW call letters were restored in 2003.

In 2004, CFRY-AM in Portage La Prairie (Manitoba) got a sister station, as CJPG-FM signed on for the first time. CFRY had moved into new studios and offices earlier in the year, in preparation for the FM launch. CFRY began broadcasting October 18, 1956, on 1570 KHz with 250 watts.



In 2004, the CRTC announced approval of the sale to NewCap of Newfoundland's VOCM AM & FM, and the stations' repeaters throughout the province. V call letters were assigned to Newfoundland stations before Newfoundland became a province of Canada in 1949. VOCM-AM began experimentally after being issued a license on December 22, 1933. Commercial broadcasting began officially at 8 p.m. on October 19, 1936. VOCM-FM first signed on in September 1982.

In 2006, Orville ("Orv") Kope passed away, having literally spent a lifetime in Medicine Hat (Alberta). Born in 1925, he joined CHAT at the end of World War II, established himself on-air as Morning Man, then Production Manager, and through the ranks of Sales until 1961 when he was appointed Manager of both CHAT Radio and TV. By the time he retired in December 1985, he was Senior Vice-President of the Monarch Group, which owned CHAT. Beginning in 1982, he was also the Founding Chair of the Alberta Motion Picture Development Corporation, responsible for them through a time when they produced 25 motion pictures. CCF bio and picture are here: http://broadcasting-history.ca/personal ... pe-orville