CKPK-FM - History

History

CKPK-FM was originally launched by electrical store Hume and Rumble in 1923 as experimental station CFXC, broadcasting on 440 metres with power at 10 watts. It adopted the 1030 AM frequency in 1925. The station was acquired by George Chandler the following year; under Canadian broadcast policy at the time, CFXC was shut down and a new license was issued to Chandler for CJOR. The station subsequently increased power to 50 watts in 1928 and shared time with CNRV, then moved frequencies to 1210 AM and its studios to 840 Howe Street (with another boost in power to 500 watts) in 1930, and then to 600 AM in 1933.

CJOR increased its transmission power to 1000 watts in 1941, moving its transmitter site to Lulu Island, where it is located to this day (making it the oldest broadcast site in the vicinity in continuous operation). In 1944, it became the Vancouver affiliate of Canadian Broadcasting Corporation's (CBC) Dominion Network, then increased power again to 5000 watts in 1947 with two 280-foot towers at a site in Richmond; that same year, Chandler established CJOR Ltd. to run the station.

In 1961, CJOR further increased power to 10,000 watts (and three towers), and became an independent station the following year after CBC ceased the Dominion Network's operations. Following Chandler's death in 1964, Pattison acquired the station the following year after the Board of Broadcast Governors (predecessor of the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission, or CRTC) decided not to allow station parent CJOR Ltd. (by then owned by Chandler's widow) to renew the licence, but requested that it find a new buyer for CJOR.

On October 31, 1983, with the pending demolition of the Grosvenor Hotel on Howe Street, CJOR relocated from the Hotel's basement to its present studios at 1401 West 8th Avenue. On September 2, 1988, at Noon, CJOR dropped its talk radio programming, adopting a classic rock format with the new call sign CHRX, and the first song being Bob Seger's "Old Time Rock & Roll." (The former CJOR callsign currently belongs to a radio station in Osoyoos.) On January 7, 1994, at 7 PM, after signing off with Led Zeppelin's "Stairway to Heaven", the station began stunting with ocean waves; the following morning at Noon, it switched formats and call signs again, adopting the CKBD calls and the on-air brand The Bridge for Canada's first contemporary Christian music station. The first song on "The Bridge" was "Awesome God" by Rich Mullins. On July 31, 1998, the station changed to the adult standards format as "600 AM" with the slogan "Unforgettable Adult Favourites."