In 2006, Oldies W-14-40 was born in Wetaskiwin (Alberta) as part of a NewCap move to drop the Cat Country network that had been run out of West Edmonton Mall and spanned most of their non-urban stations across Central and Northern Alberta. With all local programming, CKJR-1440 (W-14-40) began with announcers that actually live in Wetaskiwin, including long-time Edmonton DJ Billy Williams on Morning Drive. Like CAM-FM (CFCW-FM) in nearby Camrose, NewCap recognized the fact that their competition was Edmonton radio stations, and fashioned each station after a specific Edmonton station, only better, more local, etc. CAM-FM was fashioned after JOE-FM (CKNG-FM Edmonton) and W-14-40 after the late Cool 8-80 (CHQT-AM Edmonton), though arguably the Cool 8-80 of 2001 when they first switched formats from CHQT's Familiar Favourites. This began as local radio on a tight budget, with lengthy jockless periods and DJs doing 6 hour shifts, including their own News, though Morning Drive News was done from the CFCW-AM Newsroom in Camrose. And religious and ethnic programming on the weekend. The first few weeks were plagued with transmitter (grounding) problems that made CKJR sound like it had 10 watts instead of the 10,000 watts it is licensed for.
Also in 2006, at 7:15 a.m., CKBA-850 in Athabasca switched from Cat Country to The Fox. Many of NewCap's Cat Country stations switched to The Fox around this time, which corrected many of the previous problems associated with announcers hundreds of miles away from the community, most notably: one or two short local News items buried amongst the local items of many other communities; and, most glaring, incorrect current weather conditions.
