Switch To FM
On May 30, 2008, CKBD was given approval by the CRTC to move to 100.5 MHz on the FM dial. As part of its move to FM, CKBD planned to switch from adult standards to adult album alternative with a new call sign, CKPK-FM. On October 23, 2008, the station signed on for testing. The station launched on November 13, 2008 with a 25 minute summary of the station's 84-year history on the AM band, and ended with "Thanks for the Memory" by Bob Hope. The adult standards format moved to Astral Media's CISL (formerly oldies) days before. At 7:20 that same evening, at a live party during Vancouver's Seasons in the Park, "100.5 The Peak" launched with U2's "Elevation."
CKPK stopped simulcasting programming and shut down the AM 600 transmitter on December 31, 2008.
CKPK-FM got a new competitor, CHHR-FM on Canada Day, 2009, playing a similar AAA format. This is the first time Vancouver has had the same English language format on two radio stations (other than CISL's temporary adult standards format duplication with the old CKBD) since Rogers Media's former adult contemporary station, CKCL-FM flipped to classic hits on September 21, 2008, leaving CTVglobemedia's CHQM-FM as the only station with adult contemporary music in Vancouver.
CKPK-FM, like competing active rock station CFOX-FM, leans very alternative rock, although CKPK-FM serves as the de facto alternative rock station in Vancouver due to its report on the Mediabase Canadian alternative rock panel. There are no classic rock artists at the station, unlike competitor CHHR-FM.
On December 9, 2010, Jim Pattison applied to exchange frequencies with CFRO-FM which then operated at 102.7 MHz. This application was approved on September 9, 2011. The swap took place almost a year later on September 10, 2012.
Famous quotes containing the word switch:
“Uncritical semantics is the myth of a museum in which the exhibits are meanings and the words are labels. To switch languages is to change the labels.”
—Willard Van Orman Quine (b. 1908)