CKCK-FM is a radio station in Regina,

Saskatchewan Saskatchewan ( ; ) is a province in western Canada, bordered on the west by Alberta, on the north by the Northwest Territories, on the east by Manitoba, to the northeast by Nunavut, and on the south by the U.S. states of Montana and North ...

. Owned by

Rawlco Communications Rawlco Radio Ltd. is a media company based in Saskatoon, Saskatchewan, Canada. The company is the sole proprietor of seven radio stations in the provinces of Alberta and Saskatchewan. The Rawlco Radio Corporate Office is just south of Downtown Sa ...

, it broadcasts an adult hits format branded as '' Jack 94.5''. CKCK's studios and offices are located at 2401 Saskatchewan Drive in Regina, along with sister stations CJME and CIZL-FM.

History

In 1922, the Leader Publishing Company, owner of Regina's two major newspapers, ''The Leader'' and the ''Regina Evening Post'', hired Bert Hooper to run a new radio station. In the beginning, Hooper was the station's only employee, but he soon hired a second announcer, Pete Parker. In 1923, Parker called a

Regina Capitals The Regina Capitals were a professional ice hockey team originally based in the city of Regina, Saskatchewan in the Western Canada Hockey League (WCHL), founded in 1921. Western Canada Hockey League Capitals (1921–1926) 1921 was the Regina Cap ...

hockey Hockey is a term used to denote a family of various types of both summer and winter team sports which originated on either an outdoor field, sheet of ice, or dry floor such as in a gymnasium. While these sports vary in specific rules, numbers o ...

game on the station - the world's first complete broadcast of a professional hockey game. Around the same time, the station conducted the British Empire's first live remote broadcast of a church service. The Sifton family bought the newspapers and the radio station in 1927, merging the newspapers into '' The Leader-Post'' in 1930. CKCK was an affiliate of the

Canadian Radio Broadcasting Commission The Canadian Radio Broadcasting Commission (CRBC), also referred to as the Canadian Radio Commission (CRC), was Canada's first public broadcaster and the immediate precursor to the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation. Origins The CRBC was establi ...

from 1933 to 1936 when it affiliated with the newly formed

Canadian Broadcasting Corporation The Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (french: Société Radio-Canada), branded as CBC/Radio-Canada, is a Canadian public broadcaster for both radio and television. It is a federal Crown corporation that receives funding from the governme ...

. It remained a CBC affiliate until 1962 when the Trans-Canada Network was dissolved into

CBC Radio CBC Radio is the English-language radio operations of the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation. The CBC operates a number of radio networks serving different audiences and programming niches, all of which (regardless of language) are outlined below ...

. The Siftons obtained a television station licence, and signed CKCK-TV on the air in 1954. The 1960s saw CKCK at its commercial peak, dominating the broadcast market in Regina and southeast Saskatchewan. By then, it had boosted its power to 5,000 watts. Due to its location near the bottom of the AM dial and Saskatchewan's mostly flat land (with near-perfect soil conductivity), this was enough to provide at least secondary coverage of all of Saskatchewan's densely populated area. Its signal also reached across the border into portions of

North Dakota North Dakota () is a U.S. state in the Upper Midwest, named after the indigenous Dakota Sioux. North Dakota is bordered by the Canadian provinces of Saskatchewan and Manitoba to the north and by the U.S. states of Minnesota to the east, S ...

and

Montana Montana () is a U.S. state, state in the Mountain states, Mountain West List of regions of the United States#Census Bureau-designated regions and divisions, division of the Western United States. It is bordered by Idaho to the west, North ...

. But its massive market share started to erode in the early 1960s as rival CJME came under the ownership of the Rawlinson family, forerunner of

, and switched from a "

beautiful music Beautiful music (sometimes abbreviated as BM, B/EZ or BM/EZ for "beautiful music/easy listening") is a mostly instrumental music format that was prominent in North American radio from the late 1950s through the 1980s. Easy listening, elevator m ...

" format to

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 ...

rock. CKCK cut back on its promotional arm in the belief that its ratings could not fall. Another rival, CKRM, switched from a middle-of-the-road (MOR) format to country music in 1971 and

belatedly began building up CBK's local news and current affairs staff. In 1976, CKCK-TV was sold, forcing members of the joint newsroom to "choose sides." CKCK "spun off" an FM station, CKIT-FM, but it pursued a

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 * ...

format. By 1977, CKCK doubled its power to 10,000 watts, but this was not enough to stem the decline. It lost further ground when CKRM increased its sports programming, notably winning the rights to the CFL's

Saskatchewan Roughriders The Saskatchewan Roughriders are a professional Canadian football team based in Regina, Saskatchewan. The Roughriders compete in the Canadian Football League (CFL) as a member club of the league's West Division. The Roughriders were founded i ...

. In the fall of 1991, CKCK switched from 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, quiet ...

format to

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 ...

using the branding ''CK-62''. Most evening programming was delivered by

satellite A satellite or artificial satellite is an object intentionally placed into orbit in outer space. Except for passive satellites, most satellites have an electricity generation system for equipment on board, such as solar panels or radioiso ...

. Local programming was progressively cut back until by 1996, the only local program left was the morning show. All other programming was delivered by satellite from

Toronto Toronto ( ; or ) is the capital city of the Provinces and territories of Canada, Canadian province of Ontario. With a recorded population of 2,794,356 in 2021, it is the List of the largest municipalities in Canada by population, most pop ...

. CKCK was acquired by Craig Media in 1996. In 1998, Craig signed a local management agreement with Harvard Communications, owner of CKRM, in which Harvard took over the station's operations. Finally, as a result of a complex ownership transaction between Craig, Harvard and

, Harvard took over ownership of CKCK and shut it down. Harvard then sold CKCK's assets to Rawlco, who announced plans to relaunch CKCK as an FM station. Harvard's CKRM took over CKCK's former AM frequency and Rawlco's CJME took over CKRM's former frequency. CKCK's old AM signal signed off the air at 11:59 pm on November 30, 2001. The final song played on "Kool" was " Last Song" by

Edward Bear Edward Bear was a Toronto-based Canadians, Canadian pop music, pop-rock music, rock musical ensemble, group. The band is best known for its chart-topping singles, "You, Me and Mexico", "Last Song (Edward Bear song), Last Song", and "Close Your Ey ...

. Rawlco relaunched CKCK on 94.5 FM with test broadcasts in June 2002. It formally relaunched on August 9 with the branding ''Rock 94''. On July 29, 2005, the station was rebranded as ''94.5

Jack FM Jack FM is a radio network brand, licensed by Sparknet Communications, with the exception of the European Union where it is licensed by Oxis Media. It plays an adult hits format, in most cases not using DJs. Format characteristics Stations ...

'', becoming the first Canadian radio station not owned by

Rogers Communications Rogers Communications Inc. is a Telecommunications in Canada, Canadian communications and media company operating primarily in the fields of mobile phone operator, wireless communications, cable television, telephony and Internet access, Intern ...

to adopt that brand identity.

Notable former announcers

Bob Arnold Bob Arnold was an actor who played the part of Tom Forrest in the long running BBC radio series The Archers ''The Archers'' is a BBC radio drama on BBC Radio 4, the corporation's main spoken-word channel. Broadcast since 1951, it was famous ...

* John Badham * Johnny Sandison *

Lloyd Saunders Lloyd Saunders (23 September 1897 – 8 March 1984) was a New Zealand cricketer. He played one first-class match for Auckland in 1925/26. See also * List of Auckland representative cricketers This is a list of all cricketers who have p ...

References

External links

*
Collection of CKCK music surveys
*
CKCK-AM history
* {{DEFAULTSORT:Ckck-Fm Kck Jack FM stations Kck Kck Radio stations established in 1922 1922 establishments in Saskatchewan CNR Radio Canadian Radio Broadcasting Commission