Phantom Station CHPC

Bits and Pieces of BC Radio History

Phantom Station CHPC

Postby cart_machine » Tue Nov 27, 2018 2:02 am

A surprising discovery appears in several editions of <i>Radio Digest</i> magazine in the later '20s: a mysterious Vancouver-area station owned by the Presbyterians.

CFCQ Sprott-Shaw Radio Co, Vancouver, B.C.
CFYC International Bible Students, Burnaby, B.C.
CHPC Central Presbyterian Church, Vancouver, B.C.
CJOR G.C. Chandler, Sea Island, B.C.
CKCD Daily Province, Vancouver, B.C.
CKFC United Church, Vancouver, B.C.
CKWX Holstead & Hanlon, Vancouver, B.C
CNRV Canadian National Railways, Vancouver

I thought it was perhaps an incorrect entry, but I've spotted mentions of it in the Vancouver Sun in several editions of September 1927. The paper actually wrote about it in its radio page of October 22, 1927.

CHPC Broadcasts Its Church Music
Broadcasting by phantom license, CHPC, the Presbyterian church, although only lately entering the field of radio, has a large unseen audience at its command. CHPC broadcasts only church services. It use the transmitter of CKCD.
The latter is using a power of 100 watts and broadcasts news items in addition to a weekly concert of music. The transmitter and studio is located in the downtown district.


Radio Digest says the station only operated on Sundays at 11 a.m. and 7:30 p.m. When it received the license and when it stopped operating, I cannot discover. It was gone by 1928. CKCD had a different phantom station in operation then, CHLS, co-owned by the man running CKCD, Billy Hassell.

cArtie.
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Re: Phantom Station CHPC

Postby jon » Tue Nov 27, 2018 9:13 am

I have not researched the topic, but broadcasting-history.ca (CCF) states that Phantom Stations were outlawed in 1933. Prior to that, they were fully licensed, with call letters and everything, to operate using the transmitter of another station.

I had never heard of CHPC before. The only other Phantom Station I've heard of, in Vancouver, was CHLS, which CCF lists as providing "Entertainment" while CKCD provided the Newscasts. The Vancouver Province owned CKCD and was really only interested in News programming.

Most other major Canadian cities had CNR Radio running Phantom Stations, rather than having their own transmitter, as they did in Vancouver.

It is important to differentiate between Phantom Stations and stand-alone stations that shared the same frequency. Both had separate call letters, but Phantom Stations always shared the same transmitter with the "main" station.

Up until World War II, Canada had a lot of stations that shared the same frequency.

Nice piece of detective work, cartie!
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Re: Phantom Station CHPC

Postby cart_machine » Thu Aug 08, 2019 5:43 am

Jon, as best as I can tell, the station existed from September 11 to November 27, 1927. The Central Presbyterian Church's newspaper box announcement for its services of December 4, 1927 makes no mention of any broadcast (earlier ones do) and I can find nothing to show the station ever went on the air again.

Dennis Duffy's Imagine Please has a footnote about the station putting the license date at 1928 but there is no source.

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