CKWW (580
AM) is a Canadian
radio station
Radio broadcasting is transmission of audio (sound), sometimes with related metadata, by radio waves to radio receivers belonging to a public audience. In terrestrial radio broadcasting the radio waves are broadcast by a land-based radi ...
in
Windsor,
Ontario
Ontario ( ; ) is one of the thirteen provinces and territories of Canada.Ontario is located in the geographic eastern half of Canada, but it has historically and politically been considered to be part of Central Canada. Located in Central C ...
. It is owned by
Bell Media
Bell Media Inc. (French: ) is a Canadian company formed by the amalgamation of several companies.
Establishment (2011–13)
On December 9, 2011, the Ontario Teachers' Pension Plan announced the sale of its majority stake in Maple Leaf Sports ...
and airs an
oldies
Oldies is a term for musical genres such as pop music, rock and roll, doo-wop, surf music (broadly characterized as classic rock and pop rock) from the second half of the 20th century, specifically from around the mid-1950s to the 1980s, as wel ...
format
Format may refer to:
Printing and visual media
* Text formatting, the typesetting of text elements
* Paper formats, or paper size standards
* Newspaper format, the size of the paper page
Computing
* File format, particular way that informati ...
targeted to the Windsor/
Detroit
Detroit ( , ; , ) is the largest city in the U.S. state of Michigan. It is also the largest U.S. city on the United States–Canada border, and the seat of government of Wayne County. The City of Detroit had a population of 639,111 at ...
market. Most of the
playlist
A playlist is a list of video or audio files that can be played back on a media player either sequentially or in a shuffled order. In its most general form, an audio playlist is simply a list of songs, but sometimes a loop. The term has sev ...
is made up of hits from the 1950s, 60s and 70s. The studios and offices are on Ouellette Avenue in Windsor.
CKWW's
transmitter
In electronics and telecommunications, a radio transmitter or just transmitter is an electronic device which produces radio waves with an antenna. The transmitter itself generates a radio frequency alternating current, which is applied to ...
is on Concession Road 4N in
Amherstburg, Ontario
Amherstburg is a town near the mouth of the Detroit River in Essex County, Ontario, Canada. In 1796, Fort Malden was established here, stimulating growth in the settlement. The fort has been designated as a National Historic Site.
The town is ...
. The station is powered at 500
watt
The watt (symbol: W) is the unit of power or radiant flux in the International System of Units (SI), equal to 1 joule per second or 1 kg⋅m2⋅s−3. It is used to quantify the rate of energy transfer. The watt is named after James Wa ...
s, using a
directional antenna
A directional antenna or beam antenna is an antenna which radiates or receives greater power in specific directions allowing increased performance and reduced interference from unwanted sources. Directional antennas provide increased performan ...
to protect other Canadian and U.S. stations broadcasting on 580 AM. CKWW streams its programming live on its website and on the
iHeartRadio
iHeartRadio (often shortened to just "iHeart") is an American freemium broadcast, podcast and radio streaming platform owned by iHeartMedia. It was founded in August 2008. , iHeartRadio was functioning as the national umbrella brand for iHear ...
platform.
History
The original applicant for the CKWW licence was
Royce Frith (later to be a Canadian
Senator
A senate is a deliberative assembly, often the upper house or chamber of a bicameral legislature. The name comes from the ancient Roman Senate (Latin: ''Senatus''), so-called as an assembly of the senior (Latin: ''senex'' meaning "the e ...
). But Frith sold the station to
Geoff Stirling before it went to air. The station was launched by Stirling on March 29, 1964, signing on the air on March 30, 1964.
Initially CKWW featured a
middle of the road (MOR) or "good music" format with a heavy news and information commitment, making it the Windsor equivalent of Detroit's
WJR
WJR (760 AM) is a commercial radio station in Detroit, Michigan, owned by Cumulus Media, with a news/talk format. Most of WJR's broadcast studios, along with its newsroom and offices, are in the Fisher Building in Detroit's New Center area. A ...
. The morning host was Norm Aldred, with news delivered by Stan Switzer and sports with Al Shaver (who was also the station manager). Other
disc jockey
A disc jockey, more commonly abbreviated as DJ, is a person who plays recorded music for an audience. Types of DJs include Radio personality, radio DJs (who host programs on music radio stations), club DJs (who work at a nightclub or music f ...
s included Ron Burgoyne in the afternoons and Richard "Dick" Gasparini hosting an all-night program called "Music 'til Dawn," at one point totally sponsored by a well-known tobacco company. Popular recording artists featured on a regular basis included
Frank Sinatra,
George Shearing
Sir George Albert Shearing, (13 August 1919 14 February 2011) was a British jazz pianist who for many years led a popular jazz group that recorded for Discovery Records, MGM Records and Capitol Records. Shearing was the composer of over 300 ti ...
,
Peggy Lee
Norma Deloris Egstrom (May 26, 1920 – January 21, 2002), known professionally as Peggy Lee, was an American jazz and popular music singer, songwriter, composer, and actress, over a career spanning seven decades. From her beginning as a vocalis ...
,
Andy Williams
Howard Andrew Williams (December 3, 1927 – September 25, 2012) was an American singer. He recorded 43 albums in his career, of which 15 have been gold certified and three platinum certified. He was also nominated for six Grammy Awards. He hos ...
,
Nat King Cole
Nathaniel Adams Coles (March 17, 1919 – February 15, 1965), known professionally as Nat King Cole, was an American singer, jazz pianist, and actor. Cole's music career began after he dropped out of school at the age of 15, and continued f ...
,
The Four Freshmen
The Four Freshmen is an American male vocal quartet that blends open-harmonic jazz arrangements with the big band vocal group sounds of The Modernaires, The Pied Pipers, and The Mel-Tones, founded in the barbershop tradition. The singers acc ...
and
Barbra Streisand
Barbara Joan "Barbra" Streisand (; born April 24, 1942) is an American singer, actress and director. With a career spanning over six decades, she has achieved success in multiple fields of entertainment, and is among the few performers awar ...
.
In 1967, sister station
CKWW-FM was launched (later CJOM and now
CIMX-FM). Stirling sold the stations in 1984, and the station dropped its
MOR
Mor or MOR may refer to:
Names and titles
* Mór (given name), a list of people named Mór or Mor
* Mor (surname), a list of people named Mor or Mór
* Mor (honorific), or Mar, in Syriac
Radio and television
* Middle of the road (music) genre
* ...
music programming to adopt a
news/
talk
Talk may refer to:
Communication
* Communication, the encoding and decoding of exchanged messages between people
* Conversation, interactive communication between two or more people
* Lecture, an oral presentation intended to inform or instruct
...
format in 1989.
In February 1993,
CHUM Limited
CHUM Limited was a Canadian media company based in Toronto, Ontario in operation from 1945 to 2007. The company was founded in 1945 as York Broadcasters Limited when it launched CHUM-AM 1050 but was acquired by salesman Allan Waters in 1954. CH ...
acquired
CKLW
CKLW (800 AM) is a commercial radio station in Windsor, Ontario, serving Southwestern Ontario and Metro Detroit. CKLW has a news/talk format. It features local hosts in morning and afternoon drive times, with syndicated Canadian hosts in midd ...
and
CKLW-FM as well. CKLW (by then a "
Music of Your Life
Music of Your Life is an American syndicated music radio format featuring adult standards music. First created by recording executive Al Ham in 1978, the format achieved popularity in the 1980s among AM radio stations in the United States and C ...
"
adult standards station) and CKWW swapped formats on March 1 of that year, with CKLW becoming the news/talk outlet and CKWW adopting the adult standards format.
As an oldies station
In 2005, CKWW changed its on-air moniker from ''580 Memories'' to ''AM 580 Motor City Favorites''. It dropped all jingles and added more uptempo hits from the 1960s through 1990s plus some
adult contemporary
Adult contemporary music (AC) is a form of radio-played popular music, ranging from 1960s vocal and 1970s soft rock music to predominantly ballad-heavy music of the present day, with varying degrees of easy listening, pop, soul, R&B, quiet ...
chart recurrents while dropping most of its pre-1960 titles, in an attempt to appeal to a younger audience. The change in the music proved largely unpopular with fans of the old standards format.
In October 2006, in response to 104.3
WOMC
WOMC (104.3 FM, "104.3 WOMC") is a commercial radio station in Detroit, Michigan. It airs a classic hits radio format and is owned by Audacy, Inc. The transmitter and studios are both located on American Drive off 11 Mile Road in Southfield, M ...
eliminating the word "oldies" from its on-air positioning, CKWW revamped its playlist once more to focus primarily on music from the late 1950s through the late 1970s while dropping all post-1980 material. CKWW now plays many of the oldies hits originally heard during the
Top 40
In the music industry, the Top 40 is the current, 40 most-popular songs in a particular genre. It is the best-selling or most frequently broadcast popular music. Record charts have traditionally consisted of a total of 40 songs. "Top 40" or "conte ...
era of CKLW, then known as ''The Big 8''. Although still known as ''AM 580, Motor City Favorites'', the station returned
jingle
A jingle is a short song or tune used in advertising and for other commercial uses. Jingles are a form of sound branding. A jingle contains one or more hooks and meaning that explicitly promote the product or service being advertised, usually ...
s to its on-air presentation and added the taglines "Great Fun! Great Oldies!" and "All Oldies, All the Time" to its slogans.
AM 580 plays up its connections to
Windsor/Detroit's
Top 40
In the music industry, the Top 40 is the current, 40 most-popular songs in a particular genre. It is the best-selling or most frequently broadcast popular music. Record charts have traditionally consisted of a total of 40 songs. "Top 40" or "conte ...
radio past on the air, as the station's top-of-the-hour identification mentions that the station "broadcasts from the legendary studios of "The Big 8" (at 1640 Ouellette Avenue in Windsor) and also features the widely recognized instrumental signature tunes from CKLW's glory years.
In 2007 CKWW along with the other CHUM stations were sold to CTVglobemedia. In 2011, CTVglobemedia was acquired by
Bell Media
Bell Media Inc. (French: ) is a Canadian company formed by the amalgamation of several companies.
Establishment (2011–13)
On December 9, 2011, the Ontario Teachers' Pension Plan announced the sale of its majority stake in Maple Leaf Sports ...
.
In June 2012, CKWW began airing the syndicated ''
American Top 40
''American Top 40'' (previously abbreviated to ''AT40'') is an internationally syndicated, independent song countdown radio program created by Casey Kasem, Don Bustany, Tom Rounds, and Ron Jacobs. The program is currently hosted by Ryan Sea ...
- The 70s'' with
Casey Kasem
Kemal Amin "Casey" Kasem (April 27, 1932 – June 15, 2014) was an American disc jockey, actor, and radio personality, who created and hosted several radio countdown programs, notably ''American Top 40''. He was the first actor to voice No ...
from 7-10 p.m. on Sundays and Tuesdays, but scaled it back in mid-2013 to a once-weekly broadcast in the Sunday evening time slot. Other weekend specialty programming includes ''Breakfast with
The Beatles
The Beatles were an English rock band, formed in Liverpool in 1960, that comprised John Lennon, Paul McCartney, George Harrison and Ringo Starr. They are regarded as the most influential band of all time and were integral to the developm ...
'', ''Money Matters'', ''
Elvis Only!'', ''Shake, Rattle, Showtime'' and the ''Sunday Oldies Show''. In the spring of 2020, ''Roger Ashby Oldies Show'' was added to the weekly program list, airing on Saturday mornings. In addition, CKWW also has ''Back to the 70's'' with host M.G. Kelly, airing on Saturday nights; ''Live from the 60s'' rebroadcasts with the Real Don Steele, airing on Friday nights; and ''Breakfast With the Beatles'' with host Dennis Mitchell, airing on Sunday mornings.
See also
*
Media in Detroit
As the world's traditional automotive center, Detroit, Michigan, is an important source for business news. The Detroit media are active in the community through such efforts as the ''Detroit Free Press'' high school journalism program and the Old ...
References
External links
AM 580, Motor City Favorites*
*
Radio-Locator Information for CKWW-AM
{{coord, 42.29741, N, 83.02568, W, display=title
KWW
KWW
KWW
Radio stations established in 1964
1964 establishments in Ontario