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CJDL-FM (107.3 FM, ''Country 107.3'') is a radio station
licensed A license (or licence) is an official permission or permit to do, use, or own something (as well as the document of that permission or permit). A license is granted by a party (licensor) to another party (licensee) as an element of an agreeme ...
to
Tillsonburg Tillsonburg is a town in Oxford County, Ontario, Canada with a population of 18,615 located about 50 kilometres southeast of London, on Highway 3 at the junction of Highway 19. History Prior to European settlement, the present site of Tillso ...
,
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 Ca ...
. Owned by
Rogers Sports & Media Rogers Media Inc., operating as Rogers Sports & Media, is a Canadian subsidiary of Rogers Communications that owns the company's mass media and sports properties, such as the Citytv and Omni Television terrestrial television stations, Sportsnet, ...
, it broadcasts a
country A country is a distinct part of the world, such as a state, nation, or other political entity. It may be a sovereign state or make up one part of a larger state. For example, the country of Japan is an independent, sovereign state, while the ...
format. The station was established in 1955 as the AM station CKOT, before migrating to FM in 2007. It had been operated by the locally-owned Tillsonburg Broadcasting Company until 2017, when it was sold to Rogers Media.


History

The station was originally licensed on April 26, 1955, and began broadcasts four days later at 1510 AM. The station was owned by John B. Lamers Sr., Ken Orton, and four other shareholders under the name of Tillsonburg Broadcasting Company, Limited. The transmitter and two high towers were located in Lot 16, Concession 2, of Middleton Township in Norfolk County. The station was a
daytimer A clear-channel station is an AM radio station in North America that has the highest protection from interference from other stations, particularly concerning night-time skywave propagation. The system exists to ensure the viability of cross-coun ...
(operating only during the day) for much of its existence and was also the last remaining Canadian daytime-only station still in operation until it shut down its AM side in 2013. In 1958, the station was granted permission to increase to 1,000 watts of power (in the daytime only), using one tower. John B. Lamers became the sole owner of CKOT when he bought out his partners four years later. CKOT gained a
sister station In broadcasting, sister stations or sister channels are radio or television stations operated by the same company, either by direct ownership or through a management agreement. Radio sister stations will often have different formats, and somet ...
in 1965, when
CKOT-FM CKOT-FM is a Canadian radio station licensed to Tillsonburg, Ontario, broadcasting at 101.3 FM and serving the London area. Owned by Rogers Sports & Media, the station broadcasts an adult contemporary format. Its transmitter is located near the ...
signed on. The FM station originally served as a simulcast/rebroadcast transmitter of CKOT. CKOT-FM eventually became so successful, it was spun off into its own radio station in 1970. CKOT-FM adopted the
Sound of Music ''The Sound of Music'' is a musical with music by Richard Rodgers, lyrics by Oscar Hammerstein II, and a book by Howard Lindsay and Russel Crouse. It is based on the 1949 memoir of Maria von Trapp, '' The Story of the Trapp Family Singers'' ...
format, while CKOT remained as "Active, Lively, Community Information Radio". In 1973, the station requested a change of frequency from 1510 to 1600 kHz, which had been vacated by
CJRN CJRN was a radio station in Niagara Falls, Ontario, Canada, which aired at AM 710. The "RN" in the call is for Radio Niagara. The station was launched in 1947 by local businessman B. H. Bedford, operating on AM 1600 with the callsign CHVC. The ...
in
Niagara Falls Niagara Falls () is a group of three waterfalls at the southern end of Niagara Gorge, spanning the border between the province of Ontario in Canada and the state of New York in the United States. The largest of the three is Horseshoe Falls, ...
. The request was denied, and the frequency ultimately went to CFRS (now
CHCD-FM CHCD-FM is a Canadian radio station, broadcasting at 98.9 FM in Simcoe, Ontario, Canada. The station airs an adult contemporary format branded as ''98.9 myFM''. History The station was originally launched in 1956 as AM 1560 CFRS, a 250-watt da ...
) in nearby
Simcoe, Ontario Simcoe is an unincorporated community#Canada, unincorporated community and former town in Southwestern Ontario, Canada near Lake Erie. It is the county seat and largest community of Norfolk County, Ontario, Norfolk County. Simcoe is at the junct ...
. On July 11, 1974, CKOT was granted approval to increase its daytime-only power on 1510 kHz from 1,000 watts to 10,000 watts. It was also given approval to move its transmitter location roughly 10 miles (16 kilometres) to Glen Meyer, southeast of Tillsonburg. On May 17, 1988, CKOT was finally able to end its status as a daytimer and add a night-time signal on the same frequency (to operate non-stop). The station was given permission to double its power to 20,000 watts as well. However, these changes were not implemented because of American technical objections from stations across
Lake Erie Lake Erie ( "eerie") is the fourth largest lake by surface area of the five Great Lakes in North America and the eleventh-largest globally. It is the southernmost, shallowest, and smallest by volume of the Great Lakes and therefore also has t ...
that feared possible signal interference.


Migration aspirations

By 1993, CKOT had hoped to migrate to the FM and had its hopes set for 102.3 MHz. However, that frequency went to
CKDK-FM CKDK-FM is a Canadian radio station owned by Corus Entertainment, and is licensed to the city of Woodstock, Ontario. It serves the London market, with transmitter power of 51,000 watts on the assigned frequency of 103.9 MHz, covering most of Sou ...
in
Woodstock Woodstock Music and Art Fair, commonly referred to as Woodstock, was a music festival held during August 15–18, 1969, on Max Yasgur's dairy farm in Bethel, New York, United States, southwest of the town of Woodstock, New York, Woodstock. ...
. The station had been considering a number of solutions to fix its daytime-only signal on AM. One possible solution was to use AM 1510 in the day and another frequency at night, and at one point, a move to AM 1200 24/7 was considered. In 1999, the station lost another chance to move to FM. By this time, it had become a
country music Country (also called country and western) is a genre of popular music that originated in the Southern and Southwestern United States in the early 1920s. It primarily derives from blues, church music such as Southern gospel and spirituals, ...
station, and wanted to move to 102.3 MHz (occupied by CKDK-FM Woodstock), but this was awarded to
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. CHU ...
for their
London, Ontario London (pronounced ) is a city in southwestern Ontario, Canada, along the Quebec City–Windsor Corridor. The city had a population of 422,324 according to the 2021 Canadian census. London is at the confluence of the Thames River, approximate ...
, rebroadcast transmitter. In 2005, the station had received approval to migrate to FM. The station had proposed to occupy the frequency of 104.7 MHz, but this was awarded to a new station in Woodstock. The station had to find an alternate FM frequency. Its application for FM 104.7 meant it would have operated at 2,300 watts (with a maximum of 5,000 watts), and an antenna height of 163.5 metres (sharing the same tower as CKOT-FM). The station had also been granted a temporary permit to operate at 10 kW at day and 10 kW at night on the 1200 kHz frequency as well, a request that had previously been declined. CKOT has also been able to broadcast on very low power at night, to Tillsonburg and Ingersoll, partially shedding its daytimer status, broadcasting at 20 kW in the daytime and 10 kW at night, on the same frequency (1510 kHz), as well as on 1200 kHz, as a temporary measure to cure the station's problem of being a daytimer, until it could find an available FM frequency.


Moving to the FM band

In 2006, the CRTC had opened up the frequency of 107.3 FM for a new station in Tillsonburg, and had approved of CKOT's owners to simulcast CKOT on that frequency during the day only, much like how CKOT-FM had migrated to the FM band in the early 1970s. The approval of an FM translator for CKOT was not without interventions. Byrnes Communications, owners of nearby
CHCD-FM CHCD-FM is a Canadian radio station, broadcasting at 98.9 FM in Simcoe, Ontario, Canada. The station airs an adult contemporary format branded as ''98.9 myFM''. History The station was originally launched in 1956 as AM 1560 CFRS, a 250-watt da ...
in Simcoe and
CIHR-FM CIHR-FM is a Canadian radio station broadcasting at 104.7 FM in Woodstock, Ontario. The station plays an adult contemporary format branded as ''104.7 Heart FM'' and is owned by Byrnes Communications Inc. CIHR also broadcasts HD Radio, with the se ...
in Woodstock, protested that an FM translator for CKOT would stall CIHR-FM's growth, as it has been on the air for "less than a year", and had not become an established station yet, unlike CKOT (despite being a daytimer, it has been around since 1955), particularly because CKOT's signal would be increased to Ingersoll, Woodstock, St. Thomas and parts of London, where CIHR-FM contains its targeted audience. Tillsonburg Broadcasting Company gave a rebuttal, which was that Oxford County, Woodstock and Ingersoll are a part of the London radio market, and it is allowed to have an FM broadcast translator, especially with CRTC approval, given its longtime technical restrictions of being a daytimer AM station. The company did admit that converting CKOT to the FM band would result in a change of its radio contour (listening area), but would not adversely impact CIHR-FM, as its signal would just barely reach Woodstock. In this manner, TBCL sees no problems with this situation, especially since CIHR-FM will be able to establish itself, people in Woodstock can still listen in (though the listening audience in Woodstock is relatively small), and (probably most importantly) CKOT-AM can finally move to the FM dial and fix its previously mentioned technical limitations. The CRTC's view is that CKOT establishing an FM-band translator, and then moving to the FM band completely is in the best public interest, as it will increase its audio quality, it will be able to broadcast its country music and news to Tillsonburg and area at night, and no stations will be adversely affected. It further assured Byrnes Broadcasting Inc. that the radio contours for 107.3 FM were smaller than the ones for 104.7 FM (which Byrnes had beaten Tillsonburg Broadcasting for to establish CIHR-FM in the first place). The commission had further stated that the impact would be minimal on CIHR-FM (an
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, quie ...
station), as CKOT is a
traditional country Classic country is a music radio format that specializes in playing mainstream country and western music hits from past decades. Repertoire The radio format specializes in hits from the 1950s through the early 1980s, and focus primarily on inno ...
music station, and a move to FM would help "repatriate" listeners who tune into out-of-market country music stations from London, Hamilton, and even across the lake in Erie, Pennsylvania. The CRTC had also stated they "usually" place a restriction as to how much simulcasting is normally given to an FM translator of an AM station, but they granted an exception in the case of CKOT, because of its limitations. In short, the CRTC has given approval for CKOT to convert to the FM band on 107.3 FM with an ERP of 4.5 kW, and allows for continued night-time (24/7) operation on 107.3 FM, but on the condition that it simulcasts on 1510 AM at all times during the daytime. The station is still technically licensed as CKOT on 1510, though its primary signal is now CJDL-FM. On August 1, 2007, at 5:00 a.m. CKOT made its move to 107.3 FM with the call letters CJDL-FM, to simulcast the AM 1510 signal. On February 17, 2013, CKOT signed off. It was one of Canada's last remaining daytime AM stations.


Acquisition by Rogers

On September 27, 2016, Tillsonburg Broadcasting Company announced that it had sold its stations to
Rogers Media Rogers Media Inc., operating as Rogers Sports & Media, is a Canadian subsidiary of Rogers Communications that owns the company's mass media and sports properties, such as the Citytv and Omni Television terrestrial television stations, Sportsnet, ...
pending CRTC approval. General manager Carolyn Lamers stated that her grandfather had personally met Ted Rogers when he was younger, and stated that they had "come full circle" with Rogers' purchase of the stations. The CRTC approved the transfer of ownership on July 13, 2017. There were no announced plans to change the formats of either CKOT or CJDL, and Lamers will remain in her position.Broadcasting Notice of Consultation CRTC 2017-251
CRTC, July 13, 2017


References


External links

* * * * ''(defunct)'' * ''(defunct)'' {{DEFAULTSORT:Cjdl (Fm) Radio stations established in 2007 Jdl Jdl Tillsonburg 2007 establishments in Ontario 1955 establishments in Ontario Radio stations established in 1955