CKCW-FM

CKCW-FM
City of license Moncton, New Brunswick
Branding K94.5
Slogan Today's Best Music
Frequency 94.5 MHz (FM)
First air date December 4, 1934
Format Contemporary hit radio
Callsign meaning randomly assigned, unofficially means Canada Knows Country and Western (during its days as a country music station)
Owner Maritime Broadcasting System
Sister stations CFQM-FM, CHOY-FM
Website K94.5

CKCW-FM is a Canadian radio station broadcasting at a frequency of 94.5 MHz in Moncton, New Brunswick. The station plays an adult top 40 format and is owned by the Maritime Broadcasting System.

CKCW originally began broadcasting on December 4, 1934 at 1370 kHz with 100 watts of power. The station was owned by Moncton Broadcasting Ltd. managed and owned by F.A. (Fred) Lynds. The frequency changed to 1400 kHz in 1941, and to 1220 kHz in 1946. Eastern Radio Broadcasting, the forerunner of MBS, purchased CKCW in 1972. CKCW was the only privately owned AM radio station ever to operate in Moncton. Noteworthy, many radio personalities who worked at CKCW 1220 in the 1970s and onward would attain success in larger markets such as Bro Jake, Bob Powers (The Legend), Marty Kingston, Larry Hennessey.

In 1976, a companion station was granted a licence to operate on the FM band, the first in Moncton, at frequency 103.9. CFQM-FM went on the air in 1977 with an easy listening format until its seguing to a country music format on January 1, 1979.

A co-owned television station, CKCW-TV, signed on in 1954 but was sold to CHUM Limited in 1972. It is now part of the CTV Atlantic (formerly ATV) network.

During the 1990s, CKCW had a soft adult contemporary format, then in 1994 switched to an oldies format. In August 1998, CKCW 1220 did a format flip to country music with sister station CFQM which would be branded as an Adult Contemporary station.

Original K 94.5 logo

In 2001, CKCW moved to the FM band [1] and changed to a contemporary hit radio format branded as "Moncton's Newest Music K94.5". The new K 94.5 enjoyed early success with the new music format, however, constant tweaking of the format and lack of advertising led to the downfall of the format. By 2009, when sister station CFQM-FM moved from adult contemporary to classic hits, the station switched to its current format, as Mediabase and Nielsen BDS moved the station to the hot adult contemporary panel. A month later, sister station CIOK-FM in Saint John, New Brunswick did the same thing by moving from adult contemporary to contemporary hit radio, even though it is another station using the same K branding.

CKCW was the station to first hire international syndicated radio star AJ Reynolds.

CIOK-FM was never listed on Mediabase until March 2011, but used the same adds as CKCW-FM even after the adult top 40 shifts at those stations in 2009. As of August 2011, MBS's website shows that CKCW-FM's, and their sister station CIOK-FM's, formats as being CHR or Contemporary Hit Radio.[2]

Former on-air Radio personalities (from 1970s onward)

References

  1. ↑ Decision CRTC 2000-360
  2. ↑ http://www.mbsradio.com/radio.php

External links

Coordinates: 46°08′41″N 64°54′11″W / 46.14472°N 64.90306°W