CKLG: The
End of the Charts: A Retrospective
by Jim Bower
With its hit parade survey dated July 26,
1993, CKLG's Top 40 era, which spanned three
decades dating from August 1964, passed into
history. The Morning Zoo with Dean
Hill and his entourage would continue, but
for the rest of LG’s schedule, the perceived
trend was shifting toward “talk radio”, a
format which was gaining more momentum in AM
radio and also television.
In an article in
the Province dated June 21, 1993, columnist
Lee Bacchus wrote:
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“Locally,
CKLG-730 is the city’s most recent
convert to blabola. The
long-time Top 40 pitstop has dropped
its hit list and is slouching toward
an all-talk format.
“‘It’s
an evolution that began about six
months ago,” says ‘LG program director
Dean Hill. ‘Music really has
begun to take a back seat to talk in
our plans.
‘What
will comprise CKLG’s new format?
Politics?
‘Oh,
God, no!’ stammered Dean. ‘We don’t do
abortion—we do boxer shorts!’”
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Bacchus
further writes:
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“So
what’s behind this irresistible urge
to chat? Is it, as “LG’s Hill
offered, “an intensive curiosity about
other people’s lives?
Or
is it, as [CKNW’s Bill] Good suggests,
mere info-seeking boomer brats?” |
CKLG’s flirtation with “talk” would be
relatively brief, less than a year in
fact. Simply put it flopped. In
1994 the station returned to playing hit music
but there was no weekly chart and, sad to say,
most of the faithful former listeners never
returned. The station carried on until
2001 at which time CKLG ceased to exist.
The station's new owners changed the call
letters to CJNW and its format became
all-news. In 2002 it changed again to
CHMJ all-sports. Later still it became
All-Day Traffic. In June 2025, its parent
station CKNW moved from its frequency at 980
to occupy the 730 slot.
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