CKTB

CKTB (610 AM, "610 CKTB") is a radio station licensed to St. Catharines, Ontario. Owned by Whiteoaks Communications Group, it broadcasts a talk radio format serving the Niagara Region.

Its studios are on Yates Street in downtown St. Catharines, in the former mansion of William Hamilton Merritt, the main promoter of the first Welland Canal. CKTB is a Class B AM station. By day, it is powered at 10,000 watts; at night, to protect other stations on 610 AM from interference, it reduces power to 5,000 watts. It uses a directional antenna with a five-tower array.FCCdata.org/CKTB
/REF> The transmitter is on Grassy Brook Road east of Port Robinson.

History

CKTB signed on the air in . It was founded by Edward T. Sandell, originally at 1120 kilocycles, as a phantom station of CKOC in Hamilton. As with most early AM radio stations (see Canadian allocations changes under NARBA), the station changed frequencies a number of times in its early years, moving to 1200 in 1933, 1230 in 1941, 1550 in 1946, 620 in 1950 and its current 610 in 1959.

In 1936, the station became a founding network affiliate of CBC Radio, as a privately-owned station. In 1944, CKTB affiliated with CBC's Dominion Network. The affiliation remained until the Dominion Network was dissolved in 1962. Sandell died in 1943, and the station was acquired by Niagara District Broadcasting the following year.

Niagara District Broadcasting launched an FM sister station in 1949. At first, CKTB-FM largely simulcast its AM counterpart. That station today is CHTZ-FM 97.7 MHz.

The stations were acquired by Standard Broadcasting in 1980. Standard sold CKTB to Affinity Radio Group in 1997. Affinity was in turn acquired by Telemedia in 2000. Standard reacquired the station when it purchased Telemedia in 2002. In October 2007, Astral Media acquired Standard Broadcasting's terrestrial radio and television assets, including CKTB.

Ownership changed hands again in July 2013 when most of Astral Media's broadcasting properties including CKTB were sold to Bell Media, a subsidiary of Bell Canada Enterprises (BCE).

On February 8, 2024, Bell Media announced the sale of several of its stations to Whiteoaks Communications Group. The CRTC approved the purchase on December 19, 2024. On June 16, 2025, Whiteoaks took ownership of CKTB, the company stated that there would be no major changes to CKTB’s programming; concurrently the station added a new local morning program hosted by veteran Toronto radio personality Gene Valaitis.

Programming

CKTB's programming is a mix of locally-produced and nationally syndicated Canadian talk shows. Weekdays begin with "Niagara in the Morning with Steph Vivier." In afternoon drive time, "The Drive" is heard, with three rotating hosts: former St Catharines mayor Walter Sendzik, CKTB News Director Bonnie Heslop and Jon "Gonzo" Mark. Late nights are repeats of weekday shows.

Past hosts of locally produced programming include Tim Denis, Joe Cahill, Kevin Jack, Stephanie Sabourin, Rob McConnell, Larry Fedoruk, Chris Biggs, John Michael, Shelby Knox and Tom McConnell. Following Golden Horseshoe's takeover, CFRB 1010 AM Toronto, will continue to provide select programming through syndication, including "The Vassy Kapelos Show," and "Shane Hewitt and The Night Shift."

CKTB was the only affiliate in Canada to carry the controversial '' The Phil Hendrie Show'' until 2006, when Phil Hendrie retired for the first time. CKTB continued to air the best of Phil Hendrie on Saturdays from 6-10p.m. until April 2007. At that point, the show was replaced with other programming. With Hendrie's return to radio, however, CKTB returned him to the lineup on a daily basis. The show, however, was subsequently dropped and replaced by Dr. Joy Browne, another American show. Browne's program was also subsequently dropped in favour of two-hour-long 'best of' programming blocks, edited from the day's local programming.

While St. Catharines is sometimes considered a part of the Buffalo radio market when dealing with syndicated programming, CKTB does not usually show up in Buffalo's Nielsen Audio ratings. A lack of knowledge of the station, its distance from Buffalo (coupled with its presence on the AM dial), and its primarily Canadian content during the day contribute to this. However, BBM registers CKTB as a popular station in the St. Catharines market, with audience share comparable to that of CHML's audience share in nearby Hamilton.BBM Topline Radio Report
, Fall 2007

References

External links

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CKTB
at The History of Canadian Broadcasting by the Canadian Communications Foundation
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Radio stations established in 1930
1930 establishments in Ontario
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