CKLN-FM - History

History

CKLN began as a closed circuit station set up in 1977 with the call letters CRFM, its broadcasts piped to loudspeakers around campus. It was licensed by the CRTC in 1983 as a Ryerson University-based campus-community radio station and assigned the CKLN call letters. Ryerson had surrendered its earlier radio station, CJRT-FM, due to financial constraints, although that station was revived as an independent public radio station by the Ontario government headed by Bill Davis.

Among the station's early accomplishments was the launch in 1983 of The Fantastic Voyage, Canada's first radio show devoted to hip hop. The program was influential in promoting and developing many of Canada's early hip hop stars, including Maestro Fresh-Wes and Michie Mee. According to poet Clifton Joseph, the show was "the single most important agent responsible for the breaking of rap music in Toronto and laying the groundwork for the emergence of Canadian rap artists such as Maestro Fresh Wes."

Other artists such as Blue Rodeo and k.d. lang received airplay on CKLN prior to being picked up by mainstream radio. The Globe and Mail says of the station that "it sat at the forefront of independent music and radical politics in the city for more than three decades, working with a shoe-string budget, and yet it somehow always managed to survive."

In the 1980s, the station helped create a news service to share content among left-wing stations world-wide including those run by the African National Congress and the FMLN in El Salvador. The station aired live coverage of the release of Nelson Mandela from prison.

CKLN was the first broadcast outlet to air Toronto's Gay Pride Day Parade.

In its coverage of the Rwandan genocide, CKLN aired an investigation of the colonial history behind the events.

In April 1992, one student successfully petitioned for a referendum to decide if the station should continue to receive student funding; CKLN won the referendum.

By September 2003, following the departure of station manager Conrad Collaco, CKLN was teetering on the brink of insolvency. As a result, the Ryerson Students' Union bailed out CKLN on at least $100,000 of unpaid taxes and other debts.

In August 2005, CKLN shifted its broadcast studios from the basement of Jorgenson Hall at Ryerson University to the second floor of the newly constructed Ryerson Student Campus Centre.