CJVB (1470 kHz) is a
radio station
Radio broadcasting is the broadcasting 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 rad ...
in
Vancouver
Vancouver is a major city in Western Canada, located in the Lower Mainland region of British Columbia. As the List of cities in British Columbia, most populous city in the province, the 2021 Canadian census recorded 662,248 people in the cit ...
,
British Columbia
British Columbia is the westernmost Provinces and territories of Canada, province of Canada. Situated in the Pacific Northwest between the Pacific Ocean and the Rocky Mountains, the province has a diverse geography, with rugged landscapes that ...
, Canada, which broadcasts multilingual programming. Owned by the
Fairchild Group, the station with a power of 50,000 watts, using two different directional patterns for daytime and nighttime operation. CJVB's studios and transmitter are located in
Richmond
Richmond most often refers to:
* Richmond, British Columbia, a city in Canada
* Richmond, California, a city in the United States
* Richmond, London, a town in the London Borough of Richmond upon Thames, England
* Richmond, North Yorkshire, a town ...
.
Operation began as a 10,000-watt station at the same transmitter site in 1972, with a power increase to 50 kW in 1979. The station was originally licensed to Jan van Bruchem, whose initials give CJVB its call letters. CJVB was the third multicultural radio station in Canada, following
CHIN
The chin is the forward pointed part of the anterior mandible (List_of_human_anatomical_regions#Regions, mental region) below the lower lip. A fully developed human skull has a chin of between 0.7 cm and 1.1 cm.
Evolution
The presence of a we ...
in Toronto and
CFMB in Montreal. It was also the first radio station in the Vancouver area to broadcast in
AM stereo
AM stereo is a term given to a series of mutually incompatible techniques for radio broadcasting stereo audio in the AM band in a manner that is compatible with standard AM receivers. There are two main classes of systems: independent sideban ...
.
CJVB airs primarily Chinese (
Cantonese
Cantonese is the traditional prestige variety of Yue Chinese, a Sinitic language belonging to the Sino-Tibetan language family. It originated in the city of Guangzhou (formerly known as Canton) and its surrounding Pearl River Delta. While th ...
and
Mandarin
Mandarin or The Mandarin may refer to:
Language
* Mandarin Chinese, branch of Chinese originally spoken in northern parts of the country
** Standard Chinese or Modern Standard Mandarin, the official language of China
** Taiwanese Mandarin, Stand ...
) programming from Monday through Saturday. On Sunday, the station airs a selection of programs in other languages.
History
Van Bruchem ownership
Jan van Bruchem immigrated from the Netherlands to the Toronto area in the 1960s and began working part-time at a 250-watt radio station in
Barrie
Barrie is a city in Central Ontario, Canada, about north of Toronto. The city is within Simcoe County and located along the shores of Kempenfelt Bay. Although it is physically in the county, Barrie is politically independent. The city is part ...
.
The owner of that station needed someone to do a Dutch-language program to thank farmers that had cleared marsh land in the area. Van Bruchem agreed, and at the petition of the community, a Dutch-language show became a regular fixture on the station and was syndicated to others; by the late 1960s, 124 stations aired his show.
At the end of the 1960s, van Bruchem turned his attention to starting a multicultural radio station somewhere in Canada. However, stations were already set up in Toronto and Montreal, and only one market looked remotely large enough to support such a station under the rules of the
Canadian Radio and Television Commission
The Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission (CRTC; ) is a public organization in Canada tasked with the mandate as a regulatory agency tribunal for various electronic communications, covering broadcasting and telecommunic ...
(CRTC). His first CRTC application was rejected on the grounds that Vancouver did not have the requisite 150,000 people for such a licence to be granted.
The main reason was a lack of statistics on new arrivals to Canada; as a result, van Bruchem hit the streets, documenting ethnic restaurants and Sikh temples.
These figures and updated data from
Statistics Canada
Statistics Canada (StatCan; ), formed in 1971, is the agency of the Government of Canada commissioned with producing statistics to help better understand Canada, its population, resources, economy, society, and culture. It is headquartered in ...
accompanied Van Bruchem's 1971 bid for an ethnic station in Vancouver, under the corporate aegis of Great Pacific Broadcasting Ltd.
Another reason given was that stations on the U.S. side of the border were airing 23 hours a week of foreign-language programming, most of it organized by Vancouver residents who could not get air time on Canadian stations.
In late November 1971, the CRTC awarded the licence to van Bruchem, who sold his house in
Thornhill, Ontario
Thornhill is a suburban district in the Regional Municipality of York in Ontario, Canada. The western portion of Thornhill is within the City of Vaughan and its eastern portion is within the City of Markham, Ontario, Markham, with Yonge Street ...
, and moved to Vancouver to start the station.
From studios at 814 Richards, CJVB went on the air on June 18, 1972,
broadcasting in English and 17 foreign languages; it also aired a daily newscast from the
Dutch international radio service.
The young CJVB produced more than 98 percent of its own programming, 90 percent of which was live.
It took advertisers several years to be convinced of the efficacy of advertising on an ethnic station, with van Bruchem noting in 1992 that the station had a "meagre beginning" as a result.
However, the station eventually prospered. After a 1974 application to add a
rebroadcaster
A broadcast relay station, also known as a satellite station, relay transmitter, broadcast translator (U.S.), re-broadcaster (Canada), repeater ( two-way radio) or complementary station (Mexico), is a broadcast transmitter which repeats (or tr ...
in the
Fraser Valley
The Fraser Valley is a geographical region in southwestern British Columbia, Canada and northwestern Washington State. It starts just west of Hope in a narrow valley encompassing the Fraser River and ends at the Pacific Ocean stretching from th ...
was denied,
in December 1979, it boosted its power from 10,000 to 50,000 watts.
The station's English-language output also included such specialties as
big band
A big band or jazz orchestra is a type of musical ensemble of jazz music that usually consists of ten or more musicians with four sections: saxophones, trumpets, trombones, and a rhythm section. Big bands originated during the early 1910s and ...
music.

Two months after going on the air, a new program started on CJVB, one that would remain a fixture for 20 years: ''Overseas Chinese Voice''.
Chinese programming came to dominate CJVB as the Chinese population on the
Lower Mainland
The Lower Mainland is a geographic and cultural region of the mainland coast of British Columbia that generally comprises the regional districts of Metro Vancouver and the Fraser Valley. Home to approximately 3.05million people as of the 2021 ...
grew rapidly; by the late 1980s, Overseas Chinese Voice was broadcasting for twelve hours a day;
Indian, Greek, and Italian programming was also extensively featured.
In 1983, CJVB was the first station in town to begin broadcasting in
AM stereo
AM stereo is a term given to a series of mutually incompatible techniques for radio broadcasting stereo audio in the AM band in a manner that is compatible with standard AM receivers. There are two main classes of systems: independent sideban ...
using the
C-QUAM
C-QUAM (Compatible QUadrature Amplitude Modulation) is the method of AM stereo broadcasting used in Canada, the United States and most other countries. It was invented in 1977 by Norman Parker, Francis Hilbert, and Yoshio Sakaie, and published in ...
system,
beating out
CKWX
CKWX (1130 AM broadcasting, AM) is a commercial radio, commercial radio station in Vancouver, Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada. Owned by Rogers Radio, a division of Rogers Sports & Media, it broadcasts an all-news radio, news/talk radio, talk ...
by six days though behind
CKOV in
Kelowna
Kelowna ( ) is a city on Okanagan Lake in the Okanagan, Okanagan Valley in the British Columbia Interior, southern interior of British Columbia, Canada. It serves as the head office of the Regional District of Central Okanagan. The name Kelowna ...
.
In 1992, the daytime coverage pattern of the AM transmitter was altered to improve service to the south.
Fairchild ownership
In 1992, a 63-year-old van Bruchem opted to plan for his retirement. He reached a deal to sell CJVB for $5.1 million to Y.B.C. Holdings Ltd., a consortium of five mostly Chinese Canadian interests: Wardley Canada, a subsidiary of
Hongkong Bank of Canada; 1320 Communications Ltd., owned by
CHQM-AM-
FM founder Jack Stark; Fairchild Media; Oakbridge Investments; and Anson Holdings. The
Chinese Canadian National Council
The Chinese Canadian National Council (CCNC) (), known in the Chinese-Canadian community as Equal Rights Council (平權會), is an organization whose purpose is to promote equity, social justice, inclusive civic participation, and respect for d ...
protested the proposed buyer over concerns that there would be changes in programming.
The sale closed in January 1993, and at that time, there were major changes in Chinese-language programming. Overseas Chinese Voice, having programmed half of the station under contract for two decades, was out, and Canadian Chinese Radio (Vancouver) Corp. was in.
The main face of the new Chinese-language programming was Michael Ng, a former anchor for
Radio Television Hong Kong
Radio Television Hong Kong (RTHK) is the public broadcasting service of Hong Kong. GOW, the predecessor to RTHK, was established in 1928 as the first broadcasting service in Hong Kong. As a government department under the Commerce and Economic ...
.
(Overseas Chinese Voice then started Vancouver's second multicultural station,
CHMB
CHMB is a Canadian AM radio station, broadcasting from Vancouver, British Columbia on 1320 kHz. The station broadcasts a Multilingual language programming. CHMB's studios and transmitter towers are located in Richmond.
CHMB and CJMR (no r ...
(1320 AM).
) The last edition of van Bruchem's ''Dutch Treat'' program aired in late March.
In 1995, Fairchild and Roger Charest, owner of
CKER in
Edmonton
Edmonton is the capital city of the Provinces and territories of Canada, Canadian province of Alberta. It is situated on the North Saskatchewan River and is the centre of the Edmonton Metropolitan Region, which is surrounded by Central Alberta ...
, made a joint bid to the CRTC to establish FM world music stations in Vancouver and Calgary.
The application was approved in 1996,
and in 1997,
CHKG-FM 96.1 began broadcasting.
Programming
Six days a week, CJVB devotes 21 hours of its air time to assorted Chinese-language news, talk, and music programming, followed by additional Cantonese- and Mandarin-language religious programs, as well as an Italian-language program and the
Putumayo World Music
Putumayo World Music is a New Orleans-based record label that specializes in compilations of world music, jazz and blues.
History
Dan Storper founded Putumayo in 1975 as a retail store in New York City featuring handicrafts from around the wor ...
Hour. On Sundays, the station turns over to blocks of other programs, including shows in
Filipino,
German
German(s) may refer to:
* Germany, the country of the Germans and German things
**Germania (Roman era)
* Germans, citizens of Germany, people of German ancestry, or native speakers of the German language
** For citizenship in Germany, see also Ge ...
,
Hungarian,
Japanese
Japanese may refer to:
* Something from or related to Japan, an island country in East Asia
* Japanese language, spoken mainly in Japan
* Japanese people, the ethnic group that identifies with Japan through ancestry or culture
** Japanese diaspor ...
,
Khmer,
Korean
Korean may refer to:
People and culture
* Koreans, people from the Korean peninsula or of Korean descent
* Korean culture
* Korean language
**Korean alphabet, known as Hangul or Korean
**Korean dialects
**See also: North–South differences in t ...
,
Lao,
Macedonian
Macedonian most often refers to someone or something from or related to Macedonia.
Macedonian(s) may refer to:
People Modern
* Macedonians (ethnic group), a nation and a South Slavic ethnic group primarily associated with North Macedonia
* Mac ...
,
Polish
Polish may refer to:
* Anything from or related to Poland, a country in Europe
* Polish language
* Polish people, people from Poland or of Polish descent
* Polish chicken
* Polish brothers (Mark Polish and Michael Polish, born 1970), American twin ...
,
Thai, and
Vietnamese
Vietnamese may refer to:
* Something of, from, or related to Vietnam, a country in Southeast Asia
* Vietnamese people, or Kinh people, a Southeast Asian ethnic group native to Vietnam
** Overseas Vietnamese, Vietnamese people living outside Vietna ...
, as well as the indigenous program ''Turtle Island Radio'' and shows spotlighting Celtic and world music.
References
External links
Fairchild RadioCJVBat The History of Canadian Broadcasting by the
Canadian Communications Foundation
The Canadian Communications Foundation (CCF) was a Canadian nonprofit organization which documented the history of broadcasting in Canada, particularly radio and television networks, programs and broadcasters. The organization was established in ...
*
{{Chinese-language radio in Canada
JVB
JVB
Chinese-language mass media in Canada
Cantonese-language radio stations
Radio stations established in 1972
1972 establishments in British Columbia