| Defunct | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Broadcast area | Montreal,Quebec |
| Frequency | 1470kHz (AM) |
| Branding | 1470 CFOX |
| Programming | |
| Format | top 40, thenall-news |
| Ownership | |
| Owner | Lakeshore Broadcasting, then Canada All-News Radio Limited |
| History | |
First air date | 1960 (as CFOX) 1977 (as CKO) |
Last air date | September1977 (as CFOX) November 10, 1989 (as CKO) |
| Technical information | |
| Class | B |
| ERP | 10,000watts |
CKO/CFOX was anEnglish languageCanadianAMradio station located inPointe-Claire,Quebec from 1960 to 1989. The station's call sign wasCFOX from 1960 to 1977 and it later operated asCKO, the Montreal station of the news network ofthe same name, from 1977 until 1989.
With studios based at 203 Hymus Blvd. in Pointe-Claire, the station went on air on March 15, 1960 asCFOX with anadult contemporary format with 1,000 watts of power. On February 5, 1963, the station upgraded their signal to 10,000 watts. In 1964 the station format changed tocountry, and in 1965 to aTop 40 station.
The station was originally operated by Lakeshore Broadcasting, which was owned by noted Montreal radio journalist Gord Sinclair Jr. (the son of Toronto radio/TV journalistGordon Sinclair). It was sold toAllan Slaight in 1972, and he converted it to a country format. In 1975, the station went back to a Top 40 format until September 1977. The last song played wasFox on the Run bySweet.
Later that year it was purchased by theCKO news network, changing the call sign toCKO accordingly and converting it from Top 40 to anall-news format. The CFOX call sign would later resurface in January 1979 at anFM station inVancouver,British Columbia.
In 1986, CKO applied to convert from the AM band to the FM band on 95.1 MHz; that application was denied on March 19, 1987.[1] (95.1 FM has since been occupied byCBF-FM, after that station's relocation from 690 kHz in 1998.) On June 20, 1989, the commission approved an application by changing the frequency from 1470 kHz to 650 kHz, as a way to improve reception in areas of Montreal Island; CKO's frequency change proposal was never implemented.[2]
The station went off air when the network ceased broadcasting during a noon newscast on November 10, 1989. The news was produced, but never aired. The broadcasting licences for the CKO network were returned to theCRTC in 1990. To this day the 650 and 1470 frequencies has not been reactivated in the Montreal area; in addition, the 1470 frequency would no longer be available in Montreal, following the 2007 sign on ofCHOU on 1450, whose allocation relocated to Montreal fromGranby. Its transmitter site with three antennas inChâteauguay was demolished in 1992.
CFOX is perhaps most famous for getting exclusive access toJohn Lennon andYoko Ono's 1969Bed-in for peace in room 1742 at theQueen Elizabeth Hotel, during which the song "Give Peace a Chance" was recorded.
