This week, we head north of the “dotted line” to Vancouver BC to see the very first survey from 1410 CKVN a short-lived top40/album-rock hybrid. The station had been once the mighty top40 powerhouse C-FUN, but had gone through a couple of disastrous format flips. The “VN” in the calls stood for ‘Voice of News’ & was one of Canada’s first stations to attempt programming all-news. Top40 CKLG & underground/album-rock CKLG-FM had the city’s rock listeners to themselves. CKVN picked the middle ground & was immediately appealing. Hiring a first-class group of DJs, they hit the air in spring 1970. They lasted 3 or 4 years before gradually returning to all-top40 & even acquired their old C-FUN call letters back! Enjoy!
retired broadcaster: on-air, MD, PD, asst PD, Prod Mgr, IT, station technician/engineer, pioneer Internet webcaster, station installation/maintenance; 12 years in commercial radio, 17 years volunteer in campus/community radio in B.C., Alberta & Wash. Amateur radio operator & “DXer” specializing in AM night-time DX, short-wave DX/listening & remote SDR DXing/listening
From the Internet Archive (www.archive.org) we reclaim some of our Lost Comments:
Steven Smith says:
September 2, 2018 9:45 am at
When I was a kid, the Vancouver station I listened to was CKLG in the days of Hennessey, Latrimouille, Peter Star, Daryl B and Stevie Wunder. Berge was there along with Ken Chang. They maybe did news. Cfun was hard to pickup clearly in Bellingham, but it was popular with kids in the north county. Kjr had a clear signal in Bellingham for that short span between when Keny 930 went dark and before it came back on as Kbfw.
Mike Cherry says:
September 2, 2018 2:59 pm at
Good recollections of air talent from that era, Steven. However, Tim (now Pamela) Burge & Ken Chang were both on-air jocks & not in news. I’m surprised that either you or Jason were able to hear 1410 C-FUN in it’s 1960’s rock era: it ran an elderly tired old 1 kW transmitter into 2 sticks & was tough enough to hear in parts of metro Vancouver. It was finally replaced & they were allowed to increase to 10 kW during CKVN’s all-news experiment. 730 CKLG was on a “clear channel” & ran 10 kW from some of the swampiest, most perfect ground-plane for an AM and could be heard all over the US & Canadian west coast.
Jason Remington says:
September 2, 2018 11:43 am at
As a kid, late-night DXing from Tacoma brought in CFUN and CKLG for music. The news was from CKNW. In fact, CKNW came in fairly clear most days. I listened to Remember When a collection of old time radio shows on CKNW each Sunday afternoon. My memory is a bit hazy, I used to keep a list of the stations. I was also a huge fan of any TV shows from the UK or Canada. What American kid with a sense of humor didn’t watch every episode of SCTV? Benny Hill, Fawlty Towers, Monty Python…great stuff!
Mike Cherry says:
September 2, 2018 3:06 pm at
Amazed you heard C-FUN…see above. 980 CKNW has a pretty good ‘coverage pattern’ south & is located not far north of the dotted line, so should put in a good signal to Tacoma. CKNW today is a pathetic shadow of what it once was & is typical of corporate radio in both countries currently. It’s heritage & success rest with being a full-service MOR/AC very similar in sound & ratings success to KVI, KOMO or KING. CKNW was once the “go-to” station for news.
Jason Remington says:
September 2, 2018 8:53 pm at
My mistake. The Remember When Show was CKWX 1130. Don’t know that I ever heard anything between 950 KJR and 1000 KOMO.
Steven Smith says:
September 2, 2018 6:46 pm at
Cam McCubbin and Dave Palmer come to mind at 1960s Cklg too. I did not realize Cfun was 1k….I had thought it was 10K even way back.
Mike Cherry says:
September 2, 2018 7:45 pm at
Dave Palmer was a newsman at “73CKLG” & Cam McCubbin was a long-time newsman, then ND at 1130 CKWX for a number of decades.
Steven Smith says:
September 2, 2018 6:48 pm at
Ckwx had a great signal in Bellingham as did Cjor. And NW was not bad either. Was NW pushing 50K.
Mike Cherry says:
September 2, 2018 7:51 pm at
1130 CKWX with 50 kW non-directional antenna, was on a Canadian designated “clear channel” The CBC foolishly gave up 1130 to move CBU to 690 – also a Can. clear but somewhat impaired by co-channel blowtorch 690 XEWW (then XEAW) Tijuana. CKWX has been heard in parts of Australia, also in Scandinavia. 600 CJOR used 10 kW but had excellent, swampy river delta land for a great ‘ground-plane’ so always had a potent signal. The new 600 CHOF about to go on air, is co-located with 980 CKNW’s towers using a combiner. I think they’re 50 kW day/20 kW night. Without research, I can’t remember the years of the changes, but 980 CKNW used 10 kW directional in the 60’s & 70’s then increased to 25 kW D & N, then 50 kW D & N