CHMJ (AM)

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CHMJ
City of license Vancouver, BC
Broadcast area Greater Vancouver
Branding AM730
Slogan "Continuous drive-time traffic
and the best of talk"
First air date 1955
Frequency 730 kHz (AM)
Format traffic/talk
ERP 50 kW
Former callsigns CKLG (1955-2001)
CJNW (2001-2002)
Owner Corus Entertainment
Webcast Listen live
Website AM730

CHMJ (identified on air as AM730) is a Canadian radio station in the Greater Vancouver region of British Columbia currently owned by Corus Entertainment. It broadcasts at 730 kilohertz on the AM band with an effective radiated power of 50,000 watts from a transmitter in Delta. Studios are located in the TD Tower in downtown Vancouver.

Contents

[edit] Format

On 30 May 2006, CHMJ terminated its all-sports format, switching to a continuous series of promotional content. The station re-launched on 5 June 2006 with a new format described as "continuous drive-time traffic and the best of talk". Programming consists of continuous traffic reports during the morning and afternoon peak periods and rebroadcasts of talk radio programming from CKNW, Corus' news/talk station in Vancouver. CHMJ will continue to provide play-by-play coverage of Vancouver Giants WHL hockey, Vancouver Whitecaps A-League Soccer, and Seattle Seahawks NFL football.

[edit] History

In 1955, Vancouver AM radio station CKLG, owned by Lions Gate Broadcasting Ltd., began transmitting at 1070 kHz on the AM band with a 1,000 watt transmitter. In 1958, the station changed frequencies from 1070 kHz to 730 kHz and increased power to 10,000 watts. The station was sold to Moffat Broadcasting Ltd. in 1961, and in 1964 launched an FM sister station, the original CKLG-FM (now CFOX-FM), at 99.3 MHz. Throughout the 1960s, 1970s, and 1980s, CKLG (also known as "LG73") played a variety of contemporary music, at times ranking as one of the most popular radio stations in the Vancouver market. In 1975, the station once again increased its transmitted power, raising it to the current 50,000 watts.

The station's popularity declined in the 1980s and 1990s, as many music stations moved from AM to FM broadcasting, and in 1992 the Corus Radio Company (now Corus Entertainment) purchased Moffat's Vancouver radio properties. On February 1, 2001, Corus changed the station's call letters to CJNW (the CKLG call sign was later transferred to Rogers Communications' CKLG-FM), adopting a 24-hour news format referred to on-air as "NW2, all news radio, powered by CKNW". The hope was to leverage the Vancouver market dominance of CKNW, in light of the success of Rogers' all-news station News 1130. CJNW's all-news format lasted for approximately 14 months, but was abandoned in light of lower than expected ratings.

MOJO Sports Radio
Enlarge
MOJO Sports Radio

After several months of broadcasting a modern rock format, and over a month of down time for a transmitter site upgrade, in 2002 the station changed call letters once again to the current CHMJ, branded as "MOJO 730, Talk Radio for Guys". When that format failed to attract a large enough audience, the station changed to an all-sports format in early 2004, identified as "MOJO Sports Radio, AM 730". It was the radio home of the Vancouver Giants, Vancouver Whitecaps, and various other local sports events including UBC Thunderbirds and SFU Clansmen football and basketball games. It also carried Seattle Seahawks games from Seattle's 710 KIRO. It was an ESPN Radio affiliate and also shared some sports content with CKNW.

Its main talk personalities were morning host John McKeachie and afternoon host Bob "The Moj" Marjanovich, both former hosts at CKST "The TEAM 1040", a Vancouver all-sports station owned by CHUM Limited. MOJO competed heavily with The TEAM for ratings, personnel, and broadcast contracts, but continued to rank at the bottom of the BBM ratings, placing 17th of 17 stations surveyed in April 2006 with a 0.9 percent market share.

[edit] References

[edit] See also

  • CFMJ, a radio station in Toronto that also used the MOJO format

[edit] External links

AM radio stations in Vancouver, BC; Victoria, BC and Bellingham, WA

Vancouver: CKBD 600 | CISL 650 | CBU 690 | CHMJ 730 | CKNW 980 | CKST 1040 | CKWX 1130 | CHMB 1320 | CFUN 1410 | CJVB 1470

Victoria: CKMO 900 | CFAX 1070

Bellingham: KARI 550 | KGMI 790 | KPUG 1170 | KRPI 1550 | KVRI 1600 edit

See also: Vancouver (FM) (AM)