CKST
CKST is a radio station located in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada. Owned by Bell Media, the station broadcasts a sports talk format branded as TSN Radio 1040. CKST's studios are located on Robson and Burrard Street in Downtown Vancouver, while its transmitters are located in Delta. TSN 1040 is the flagship station for BC Lions football broadcasts, as well as Vancouver Whitecaps soccer games.[2]
City | Vancouver, British Columbia |
---|---|
Broadcast area | Metro Vancouver |
Frequency | 1040 kHz (AM) |
Branding | TSN 1040 Vancouver |
Programming | |
Format | Sports |
Affiliations | Fox Sports Radio[1] TSN Radio |
Ownership | |
Owner | Bell Media (Bell Media British Columbia Radio Partnership) |
CFTE, CFBT-FM, CHQM-FM, CIVT-DT | |
History | |
First air date | January 19, 1963 |
Former call signs | CJJC (1963-1985) CJUP (1985-1988) |
Former frequencies | 850 kHz (1963-1975) 800 kHz (1975-1992) |
Call sign meaning | C(K)oaST (former branding) |
Technical information | |
Class | B |
Power | 50,000 watts |
Transmitter coordinates | 49.092431°N 122.932388°W |
Repeater(s) | 103.5 MHz HD2 |
Links | |
Webcast | Listen live |
Website | iheartradio.ca/tsn/tsn-vancouver-1040 |
History
CKST went on the air for the first time on January 19, 1963 in Langley 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 with Up Radio, AM 800 as its on-air name. 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 (which had begun operations on September 12, 1986[3] as CIOF, then CKXY, then CIMA) 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.[4] 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.[5] CKST ended its modern rock format at midnight on September 30, relaunching with an adult standards format under the new on-air name Q104 (which was later dropped in favour of using the CKST calls). 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 short-lived "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 ("MOJO Sports Radio"), an all-sports station in Vancouver owned by Corus Entertainment, until that station dropped its sports format in May 2006.
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.
CTVglobemedia purchased CKST and its sister radio stations in Vancouver as part of the acquisition of CHUM Limited on June 22, 2007, following its approval by the CRTC, while former co-owned CKVU was sold to Rogers Communications on October 31, 2007.
TSN Radio 1040's secondary station
On November 5, 2009, station management announced the immediate discontinuation of CFUN's talk format and its replacement with sports radio.[6] CFUN, rebranded "Team 1410" (and eventually re-called CFTE), would henceforth serve as CTVglobemedia's secondary sports radio station for the city, primarily featuring ESPN Radio and other syndicated sports talk shows, BC Lions football coverage, replays of Vancouver Canucks games, and coverage of various American or overseas sports events not previously available on Vancouver radio. TSN Radio 1410 was also the home of the Major League Soccer team Vancouver Whitecaps FC. During the annual IIHF U20 World Junior Ice Hockey Championship, TSN Radio 1410 also broadcast Team Canada's games. Meanwhile, CKST continued to air its locally focused sports format.
With the loss of Vancouver Canucks and Toronto Blue Jays rights to CKST/CFTE's new rival, Rogers-owned CISL, Bell's need for a secondary sports station in the area diminished. The company announced on April 18, 2018 that CFTE would re-launch as BNN Bloomberg Radio on April 30, 2018. CKST absorbed much of CFTE's remaining live sports content.[7]
Re-branding as TSN Radio
On August 28, 2014, it was announced that both Team stations in Vancouver would rebrand as TSN Radio stations on September 8, 2014. The move coincides with Don Taylor's full-time return to the station after being released from rival Sportsnet.[8][9]
In 2017, after having CKST as their radio home for 11 years, the Vancouver Canucks moved to Rogers-owned CISL for the 2017-18 season.[10][11]
References
- https://www.tsn.ca/radio/vancouver-1040/shows
- https://www.tsn.ca/radio/vancouver-1040/shows
- Decision CRTC 85-1054
- Decision CRTC 92-27
- Decision CRTC 93-75
- A message from James Stuart - Vice President & General Manager of CHUM Radio Vancouver Archived 2009-11-08 at the Wayback Machine, CFUN website, 2009-11-05, accessed 2009-11-05
- Johnson, Patrick (April 18, 2018). "TSN 1410 is ditching sports, rebranding as business radio". The Province. Postmedia. Retrieved April 18, 2018.
- Douglas, Greg (August 8, 2014). "Don Taylor, Craig MacEwen out as Sportsnet moves away from Vancouver". Georgia Straight. Retrieved August 9, 2014.
- "TEAM RADIO SWITCHES TO TSN1040 & TSN1410". teamradio.ca. Retrieved 28 August 2014.
- Ip, Stephanie (March 8, 2017). "TSN 1040, radio home of Cancuks loses broadcast rights to Rogers". The Province. Retrieved March 9, 2017.
- "Sportsnet launching all-sports radio station in Vancouver". The Province. Postmedia. Retrieved 25 April 2017.
- Houston, William. "Mojo says goodbye to all-sports format," The Globe and Mail, May 30, 2006.
- Pap, Elliot. "Sports radio stations brimming with hockey coverage," The Vancouver Sun, September 23, 2005.
- Schecter, Brian. "Radio's Jock Talk Wars," The Tyee, April 19, 2004.
- Yu, Karl. "Jock Talk," Vancouver Courier, April 14, 2005.
- "Radio Station Fires Announcer For Comments Made About Vancouver Player's Wife," Associated Press, February 5, 2003.
External links
- TSN Radio 1040
- CKST AM history – Canadian Communications Foundation
- Biography of CJJC founder Joe Chesney
- CKST in the REC Canadian station database