A long chapter in Canadian radio ended today. The callsign CFQC left Saskatoon's radio airwaves as Hot 93 FM, the current holders of the callsign, became 92.9 The Bull under the call letters CKBL. The original CFQC hit the air on the AM band in the 1920s, broadcasting on 600 khz until February 6th, 1995, when it became Hot 93 on the FM band. CFQC will continue in use on television as the callsign for the local CTV affiliate, which retained them even after the ownership of the radio station changed in the 1980s.
Although I didn't listen to Hot 93 it's sad that CFQC has been replaced. One of the earliest Canadian radio callsigns is now gone, assuming of course someone doesn't attempt to have it reassigned to them, although I would suspect if it is reused it may not be in the Saskatoon market.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
1 comment:
I'm rather unhappy about this one too. I doubt that the call sign will be reassigned - unless CTV decides to start a radio station for some obscure reason - simply because of the potential for confusion with the TV station. The same thing happened after CFCF in Montreal was sold away from the TV station. Still the call sign has a truly amazing history as a radio call sign.
One of the things I find really frustrating is that there are no good histories of Canadian radio from the beginning until say about 1960. Knowlton Nash's books are great of course but they're focused on the CBC, while books about private broadcasting either attack the private broadcasters or (in a few cases written by shills for the Canadian Association of Broadcasters) are focussed on running down the CBC. There's nothing that tells me what shows were on, what private broadcasters were producing on their own, or even presenting an unbiased view of the politics of private radio in Canada.
Post a Comment