Radio Glendon - Early History

Early History

From the archives of the Glendon newspaper, Pro Tem, the following is known. CKRG broadcast on FM with a 'cable only' licence from May 23, 1977 to August 15, 1980. Alan Lysaght was the manager during this time. By January 1978 RG had 2 new 'on-air' studios in the Glendon mansion, one of which fed the pub and Junior Common room, the other, licensed, studio fed a low power transmitter which covered the campus and Rogers and Metro Cable for transmission throughout Toronto on Cable FM. In March 1979, CKRG was seeking funding for a full FM licence not restricted to cable FM. In November 1981, Pro Tem published an article entitled, "The CKRG Story", stating that funding stopped in August 1980, the station stopped broadcasting, and that the station's broadcast equipment was moved out of the Glendon Hall studios for safekeeping until funding for the license could be secured. The funding never came and the equipment was donated to non profit broadcasters. The station went off air for a period of 5 years.

By 1985, CKRG was piped into the cafeteria and student lounge using extremely long speaker wires strung through conduit from the basement of the Glendon mansion to the physical plant building and finally connecting into ceiling loudspeakers, as well as a line in the pub also located in the basement of the Glendon mansion. For the next three years CKRG did mostly college DJ dance events using a combination of owned and rented DJ equipment in the pub and cafeteria.

In 1989, station manager Stefan Caunter, who had started in 1985 on the staff of the station, felt that the time had come to re-acquire a license, to provide real radio transmission to Glendon using mostly existing carrier current equipment. In 1990, CKRG was given approval by the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission (CRTC) to broadcast at AM 800 kHz with the transmitter power of 25 watts. Note that the company which was to be incorporated, Bayview Avenue Non-Profit Student Radio, was incorporated by Caunter in 1990, and was the licence holder for the FM 89.9 licence.

In 1991, station manager Derek Allerton began to rebuild the station and put forth a serious effort to re-acquire an FM licence, to broadcast at 200 watts on 106.3 MHz, to replace the existing AM carrier-current licence (the signal was transmitted through the campus electrical system, rather than through the air) the station ran on. By 1993 the Toronto radio market had become saturated, and competition for the remaining broadcast frequencies was fierce. The CRTC denied the application in 1994.

Broadcast equipment was largely obsolete and in a state of series disrepair by 1991. Allerton contacted various commercial and public radio stations in the Toronto area and requested any unused equipment by donated. Only the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation replied, but was able to provide a substantial amount of equipment, including reel-to-reel machines and equipment racks.