 | |
| |
|---|---|
| Broadcast area | Greater Toronto Area |
| Frequency | 1430kHz |
| Branding | Fairchild Radio |
| Programming | |
| Language | Chinese |
| Format | Multilingual |
| Ownership | |
| Owner |
|
| Fairchild Television | |
| History | |
First air date | May 5, 1925; 100 years ago (1925-05-05) |
Former call signs |
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Former frequencies |
|
Call sign meaning | CanadaHong Kong Toronto |
| Technical information | |
Licensing authority | CRTC |
| Class | B (regional) |
| Power | 50,000 watts |
| Links | |
| Website | www |
CHKT (1430kHz) is acommercialAM radio station inToronto, Ontario,Canada. The station, owned by theFairchild Group service, airs mainlyCantonese andMandarin Chinese programs as well as weekend shows in the following languages:Cambodian,Filipino,German,Hindi,Hungarian,Italian,Korean,Lao,Macedonian,Polish,Punjabi,Russian,Thai andVietnamese. CHKT'sstudios at 151 Esna Park Drive, Unit 26 inMarkham.
CHKT is powered at 50,000 watts, the maximum for Canadian AM stations. It uses adirectional antenna with a six-tower array, to protect other stations onAM 1430. Thetransmitter is on one of theToronto Islands.[1]
Prior to being acquired by Fairchild and becoming a multilingual outlet, the station was best known asCKEY from 1945 to 1991.
The forerunner of CKEY firstsigned on the air on May 5, 1925. Itscall sign wasCKCL, broadcasting on 840kilocycles, and owned by the Dominion Battery Company. As with many radio stations in the early years of radio broadcasting, the station changed frequencies a number of times in its first years of operation. It settled on 580kHz frequency in 1931.
In 1945, the station was sold toJack Kent Cooke'sToronto Broadcasting Co., and adopted the call signCKEY. It was acquired in 1961 by Shoreacres Broadcasting, a consortium that includedWestinghouse andThe Globe and Mail. CKEY changed its frequency to 590 in 1964 asCKWW signed-on on 580 that year inWindsor and CKAR, (known today asCFBK-FM), inHuntsville had to change its frequency from 590 to 630 kHz.
In the late 1950s and early 1960s, CKEY was the leadingTop 40 competitor to 1050CHUM. One of itsDJs was laterCFNY-FM stapleDavid Marsden, known as Dave Mickie at CKEY (and later at CHUM as well). Another notable broadcaster wasBryan Fustukian, broadcasting asVik Armen. The station dropped its Top 40 format formiddle of the road music in 1965, now going up againstCFRB, and was successful in that arena for a time. Shoreacres, in turn, was acquired byMaclean-Hunter in 1966.
A transmitter for CKEY was once located on Midland Avenue and Eglinton Avenue East inScarborough. This site was sold to theScarborough Board of Education in 1964 to buildTabor Park Vocational School for the area's redevelopment.[2] From 1972 until the 1990s, CKEY's and then CKYC's offices and studios were located in theToronto Star building atOne Yonge Street.
From 1970 to 1984, CKEY featuredCharles Templeton andPierre Berton on the commentary showDialogue with Templeton also reading the morning news for several years. The station also hadStephen Lewis as a commentator in the late 1970s and early 1980s.
On January 1, 1984, CKEY flipped from its long runningMOR format tosoft rock/oldies as "Solid Gold CKEY."[3][4]
On April 25, 1988, theCRTC denied Key Radio Limited and Canada All-News Radio Ltd. permission for CKEY andall-news radio stationCKO (99.1 FM) to swap frequencies and bands, a proposal both owners thought would have benefitted their stations as music listeners were increasingly listening to FM while AM was thought better suited for talk and information and was more accessible to commuters as many cars were only equipped with AM receivers. While the CRTC agreed both stations would benefit from trading frequencies, the application was denied due to CKO failing to meet broadcast targets and CKEY asking to reduce itsCanadian content requirements.[5][6]
On June 20, 1988, the station becameKey 590, moving from its Soft AC and Oldies mix to all-Oldies, once again competing directly with a re-formatted CHUM.
At 7 p.m. on March 14, 1991, CKEY signed off and beganstunting with the sound of a heartbeat. The following morning at 9, the station adopted acountry format, changing its call sign toCKYC.[7][8][9][10] TheCKEY call sign was subsequently picked up by a station inFort Erie.
AfterRogers Communications acquired Maclean-Hunter in 1994, CKYC was sold toTelemedia. Telemedia subsequently swapped CKYC's frequency with that of its sports outletCJCL. On February 6, 1995, at 10 a.m., CKYC ceased airingcountry music, and after stunting with a ticking clock for two hours, CJCL and CKYC swapped frequencies.[11][12]
CKYC subsequently aired onlysyndicated programming until it went off the air permanently in late 1996.[13]
CHKT was launched as an ethnic, multilingual radio station byFairchild Group in 1997, over the 1430 AM frequency that had been occupied by CKYC immediately prior to its signing off for the last time.[14][15] TheCKYC call sign was subsequently picked up by a station inOwen Sound in 2001.
In October 2019, Fairchild Radio gained public attention when it fired a Toronto radio talk-show host allegedly because of his questions during an interview perceived as critical of the Chinese government's stance on the2019–20 Hong Kong protests.[16]
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43°37′3″N79°22′46″W / 43.61750°N 79.37944°W /43.61750; -79.37944
