CKGL (570 AM) is a Canadian

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 ...

Kitchener, Ontario Kitchener is a city in the Canadian province of Ontario, about west of Toronto. It is one of three cities that make up the Regional Municipality of Waterloo and is the regional Administrative centre, seat. Kitchener was known as Berlin until a ...

. The station currently broadcasts a

news News is information about current events. This may be provided through many different Media (communication), media: word of mouth, printing, Mail, postal systems, broadcasting, Telecommunications, electronic communication, or through the te ...

/ talk format branded on-air as ''570 NewsRadio Kitchener'' (formerly ''

CityNews City''News'' is the title of news and current affairs programming on Rogers Sports & Media's Citytv network in Canada. The newscast division was founded on September 28, 1975 as City''Pulse'' as a standalone local newscast on the network's CITY- ...

570''). The station is owned by

Rogers Radio Rogers Radio is a division of Rogers Sports & Media (a subsidiary of Rogers Communications) that specializes in the radio broadcasting industry. Rogers Radio is Canada's fourth-largest commercial radio broadcaster after Stingray Radio, Vista Ra ...

, a division of

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. Operations Current television brands owned by Rogers include two television sy ...

, and is an affiliate of the Toronto Blue Jays Radio Network. CKGL is also the radio broadcaster for the

Kitchener Rangers The Kitchener Rangers are a major junior ice hockey team based in Kitchener, Ontario, Canada. They are members of the Midwest Division of the Western Conference of the Ontario Hockey League. The Rangers have won the J. Ross Robertson Cup as OHL ...

and an affiliate of the

Hamilton Tiger-Cats The Hamilton Tiger-Cats are a professional Canadian football team based in Hamilton, Ontario, Canada. They are currently members of the East Division (CFL), East Division of the Canadian Football League (CFL). The Tiger-Cats play their home game ...

Audio Network.

History

The station was originally launched in 1949 as FM 96.7 CKCR-FM, simulcasting the programming of CKCR. In 1965, the stations were acquired by Great Lakes Broadcasting, a consortium that included

Maclean-Hunter Maclean-Hunter (M-H) was a Canadian communications company, which had diversified holdings in radio, television, magazines, newspapers and cable television distribution. History The company began in 1887, when brothers John Bayne Maclean and H ...

. Both stations changed their callsigns to CHYM (pronounced as "chime") that year. Among the first disc jockeys on CHYM were Gene Scott, Vic Thomas, Sandy Hoyt, Keith Sterling, and Larry Shannon. Distinct programming was launched on CHYM for the first time in 1968. In 1972, the FM outlet's callsign was changed again, to the current CKGL (evidently for "Kitchener, Great Lakes"). In 1982, Maclean-Hunter took over full ownership of the stations. The CHYM and CKGL intellectual units (call signs, branding, and programming, but not the licences themselves) swapped frequencies on September 4, 1992 at 8:00 a.m, with CKGL moving to the AM band. (CRTC approval was required, but only as a format swap between the existing stations at 570 and 96.7, not a formal exchange of frequencies.) The stations became part of

Rogers Communications Rogers Communications Inc. is a Canadian communications and media company operating primarily in the fields of wireless communications, cable television, telephony and Internet, with significant additional telecommunications and mass media ass ...

in 1994 when that company acquired Maclean-Hunter. When CHYM and CKGL swapped frequencies, the CKGL

country A country is a distinct part of the world, such as a state, nation, or other political entity. When referring to a specific polity, the term "country" may refer to a sovereign state, state with limited recognition, constituent country, ...

format was moved to AM with CKGL. On June 19, 1997, this successful format was changed to

/ talk. In late 2005, CKGL adopted the popular

all-news All-news radio is a radio format devoted entirely to the discussion and broadcast of news. All-news radio is available in both local and radio syndication, syndicated forms, and is carried on both major US satellite radio networks. All-news sta ...

format for the morning and afternoon drive time slots. In 2007, CKGL won the RTNDA Edward R. Murrow Award for "Best Newscast". The winning newscast aired Friday October 6, 2006 at 7 AM and highlighted RIM co-CEO

Jim Balsillie James Laurence Balsillie (born February 3, 1961) is a Canadian businessman and philanthropist. He was the former chair and co-chief executive officer of the Canadian technology company Research In Motion (BlackBerry), which at its 2011 peak made ...

's intent to buy the

Pittsburgh Penguins The Pittsburgh Penguins (colloquially known as the Pens) are a professional ice hockey team based in Pittsburgh. The Penguins compete in the National Hockey League (NHL) as a member of the Metropolitan Division in the Eastern Conference (NHL), E ...

. CKGL had a reporter live in Pittsburgh when Balsillie made the announcement. In June 2021, Rogers announced that it would rebrand CKGL and its other

and

/ talk radio stations under the ''

'' brand beginning October 18, 2021. As with similarly-branded Ottawa sister station

CIWW } CIWW (1310 AM broadcasting, AM) was a radio station in Ottawa, Ottawa, Ontario owned by Rogers Radio. The station was the oldest radio station in Ottawa, first signing on in 1922. The station broadcast at 50,000 watts, the maximum for Canadian ...

, the broadcast signal of Citytv's Toronto flagship station reaches Waterloo Region and is also available on cable, satellite, and fibre TV services, but Citytv Toronto does not cover local news in the market.

References

External links

CityNews 570

CKGL-AM
at 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 ...

* {{coord, 43, 17, 25, N, 80, 21, 09, W, type:landmark_region:CA, display=title KGL KGL KGL Radio stations established in 1949 1949 establishments in Ontario