CKST (AM)

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**CKST**

Broadcast area	Vancouver, BC
Branding	The TEAM 1040 Sports Radio
First air date	1963
Frequency	1040 kHz (AM)
Format	sports radio
ERP	50 kW
Former callsigns	CJJC (1963-1985) CJUP (1985-1988)
Owner	CHUM Limited
Website	The TEAM 1040

CKST is a radio station located in Vancouver, BC, Canada currently owned by CHUM Limited. It broadcasts at 1040 AM, has an an all-sports (sports radio) format and is branded as the "The TEAM 1040 Sports Radio". It broadcasts the games of the Vancouver Canucks and BC Lions, Vancouver's most popular sports teams. A portion of its weekday afternoon talk show Pratt and Taylor, hosted by David Pratt and Don Taylor, is simulcast on Rogers Sportsnet Pacific live from the station's studio. Other hosts include Lions play-by-play broadcaster Rick Ball, Barry Macdonald, Scott Rintoul and Jeff Paterson.

1 History
2 Programming
3 References
4 External links

[edit] History

CKST went on the air for the first time on January 19, 1963 in Langley, British Columbia as CJJC, broadcasting on its original frequency of 850 AM with 1000 watts of power and offering a country music format. The station's original owner was City & Country Radio Ltd., headed by former CJAV and CKNW personality Joe Chesney.

CJJC was given approval by the CRTC on December 15, 1970 to change its frequency and transmission power from 850 AM and 1000 watts to 800 AM and 10,000 watts, but the station waited until June 1975 to put the change into effect. In 1977, CJJC (which had been dealing with financial trouble for some time) rehired 23 of 32 staff members who were given 30 days notice on New Year's Eve. Parent company City & Country Radio was authorized to transfer all of the station's shares to a company run by Joe Chesney and Ernie Mykyte; Mykyte would become sole owner of CJJC in 1978 when he bought out Chesney's half-interest in the station.

CJJC and parent City & Country Radio were purchased on June 26, 1985 (following CRTC approval) by an ownership consortium of Saskatoon Telecable Ltd. (72%), Sam Folstad (18%) and L.M. McDonald (10%); later in the year, CJJC changed its call letters to CJUP and dropped its country format for Top 40. In 1987, CJUP majority shareholder Saskatoon Telecable was purchased by Clint Forster and his family, and the station changed call letters again to the present CKST in 1988; on July 7, 1989, CKST increased its power to 25,000 watts and began broadcasting in stereo.

CKST switched formats to modern rock and adopted the on-air name "Coast 800" on November 9, 1990. The station underwent major changes during the early part of 1992; on January 30, the CRTC authorized station owner Western World Communications (the former Saskatoon Telecable) to buy Vancouver station CIMA 1040 (which had begun operations on September 12, 1986 as CIOF) from Monarch Broadcasting Ltd., also granting permission to CKST to switch frequencies (from 800 to 1040), increase transmission power (from 25,000 watts to 50,000), relocate its transmitter from Aldergrove to Delta and move its operations from Langley to Vancouver. CIMA 1040 signed off for the final time on February 4, and CKST moved into CIMA's facilities and became "Coast 1040" on March 9.

Plans were made to move CKST to the FM band (at 94.5 FM with 38,000 watts of power) in 1993, but were denied by the CRTC. CKST ended its modern rock format upon sign-off at midnight on September 30, returning to the air at 5:30 AM with the new on-air name "Q104" (which was later dropped in favor of using the CKST calls) and a new nostalgia music format. The station was purchased by Ronald Dixon and Gary Mathiesen in 1994.

CKST was in the process of being sold when Dixon was killed in a car accident in Mexico on September 15, 2000; the station would be sold to Grand Slam Radio Inc., which assumed ownership on February 1, 2001, switched CKST to its present all-sports format and adopted its current on-air name "The TEAM 1040" on April 25, and joined CHUM's TEAM all-sports network on May 7. Station founder Joe Chesney died in Langley on November 10, 2001, at the age of 82, and CHUM would purchase CKST on February 10, 2003, adding to the company's ownership of CFUN, CHQM-FM and CKVU-TV in Vancouver.

It was a member of CHUM Limited's shortlived "The TEAM" sports radio network in 2001-2002 and remains loosely affiliated with those stations that retained the sports format. It competed heavily with CHMJ 730 AM ("MOJO Sports Radio"), an all-sports station in Vancouver owned by Corus Entertainment, until that station dropped its sports format in May 2006.

The station made headlines in 2003 when host John Conners made comments about Vancouver Canucks player Todd Bertuzzi's wife on the air. Conners was fired by CKST after the Canucks revoked their accreditation of its reporters and pulled their advertising from the station in response to the incident.

In 2004, it acquired the radio broadcast rights for BC Lions football games, beating longtime broadcaster CKNW. Veteran play-by-play man J. Paul McConnell stayed with CKNW, while colour analyst Giulio Caravatta moved to CKST and joined new play-by-play announcer Rick Ball.

In 2006, it acquired the rights for Canucks hockey games, which had also been a long-time property of CKNW. The play-by-play team of John Shorthouse and Tom Larscheid also moved stations from CKNW to CKST.