| Fate | shut down by Cogeco |
|---|---|
| Founded | 1977 |
| Defunct | 1989 |
| Headquarters | Toronto, Ontario |
| Key people | David Ruskin, president and CEO |
| Industry | Media |
| Products | radio news network |
CKO was a Canadian radio news network which operated from 1977 to 1989. The CKO call sign was shared by twelve network-owned stations, as listed below.
The network was owned by Canada All-News Radio Ltd. AGRA Industries was originally a 45 per cent partner in the network, but by 1988 it was the sole owner. David Ruskin was the network's founding president.
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On July 12, 1976, the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission (CRTC) approved a licence for CKO to Canada All News Radio Limited. [1] Twelve transmitters were required to be in place across the country and ready for broadcast by the fall of 1979.
With a recorded message from Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau to launch it, the CKO radio network started broadcasting on July 1, 1977 with stations in Ottawa and Toronto. Power problems delayed the start of the Ottawa station by an hour. Stories included much American content, plus two features about prostitutes.[2] One announcer mispronounced Arkansas several times in one newscast and was reputedly dismissed.[3]
Later that year, stations were added in Montreal (by acquisition of AM station CFOX), [4] London, Vancouver and Calgary. The Vancouver station began with a news staff of ten, including news director Cam Scott, Gerry Gifford, Richard Dettman, Stan Crossley, Bill Rodger, Norm Bright and Joanna Piros. Scott was replaced in 1978 by Peter Ray, who had been transferred from the Montreal station. After Ray's departure that year, Tom Spear was hired from CHWK Chilliwack in December 1978 until most local programming was curtailed in August 1980.
The news network began live broadcasts of the Canadian government's Question Period in late 1977; for nearly all Canadians, it was the first regular, live access to House proceedings as it would be well over two years before CPAC's precedecessor began nationwide video distribution to most cable systems.[5]
In November 1977, the Calgary station was opened with Bob Quinn as its first news director. He expanded coverage in Alberta and was instrumental in the network's coverage of the Cosmos 954 satelitte crash in the Northwest Territories in January 1978 and the crash of a Pacific Western Airlines 737 in Cranbrook, BC a few weeks later. Calgary coverage centered on local news and the booming Alberta energy sector.
In 1978, a station was added in Edmonton under station manager/news director Garfield Chesson. He made CKO Edmonton a key supplier of national news reportage in the era of the Trudeau government's National Energy Program. Edmonton journalists Cliff Oginski, Ian Kinsey, Karen Brown and Bob Unger balanced a perceived Toronto slant to national issues.
CKO closed the London studio that year due to poor ad sales.
After its first anniversary, the network faced low ratings and higher financial losses than expected. However, it was hoped that a planned advertising campaign would help boost awareness of the station. The Toronto transmitter power was also to be increased to 100 000 watts in by the end of 1978.[6]
CKO began live sports broadcasts for Toronto Maple Leafs hockey and National Football League football in late 1978. CKFH previously carried the Maple Leafs games and attempted to have the CRTC stop CKO's hockey broadcasts. The CRTC rejected CKFH's complaint, on the rationale that sports broadcasts were within CKO's programming commitments.[7]
In 1985, CKO added a station in Halifax.
Maclean-Hunter sold its Newsradio broadcast syndication division to CKO in August 1987.[8]
Montreal's CKO applied to convert from the AM dial to the FM dial to operate on the frequency 95.1 MHz. That application was denied on March 19, 1987. [9] On June 20, 1989, the commission approved an application by changing the frequency from 1470 kHz to 650 kHz. CKO's frequency change proposal was never implemented. [10]
In 1988, CKO filed an application with the CRTC to trade frequencies with Toronto AM station CKEY. The transaction would have included a payment of $4 million to CKO which the network would have used to launch three more stations (Regina, Saint John and St. John's) for which it already held licences, but had not been financially able to establish. However, the CRTC denied the application on April 25, 1988.[11] Later the same year, AGRA transferred its 99% ownership in CKO to its majority-owned media division, Cybermedix.[12] In March 1989, the network under its restructured ownership declared to the CRTC that it would no longer have financial losses by 1993.[13]
Later that year, CKO established a station in Winnipeg, which became the network's final new station before its closure.
Montreal-based Ted Tevan briefly hosted a weekday sports talk show on the network. But CKO's Montreal station did not have a suitable studio for the program, therefore Tevan was required to commute to Toronto. Tevan quit CKO after the network rejected his offer to set up a studio in his home city.[14]
In 1989, AGRA sold Cybermedix to Cogeco. However, the CKO network had always struggled to turn a profit, and on November 10 of that year, suddenly terminated all broadcasting during the newscast at noon (Eastern time). Cogeco only wanted Cybermedix's cable properties, and the network lost a reported $55 million during its existence. The broadcast licences were surrendered to the CRTC, which formally revoked them on August 15, 1990.[15]
Anchors and reporters associated with the network included:
| City of licence | Call sign | Frequency | Reassigned to |
|---|---|---|---|
| Ottawa, Ontario | CKO-FM-1 | FM 106.9 | CKQB-FM |
| Toronto, Ontario | CKO-FM-2 | FM 99.1 | CBLA-FM |
| London, Ontario | CKO-FM-3 | FM 97.5 | CIQM-FM |
| Vancouver, British Columbia | CKO-FM-4 | FM 96.1 | CHKG-FM |
| Calgary, Alberta | CKO-FM-5 | FM 103.1 | CFXL-FM |
| Edmonton, Alberta | CKO-FM-6 | FM 101.9 | CKER-FM (moved to 101.7) |
| Winnipeg, Manitoba | CKO-FM-7 | FM 99.1 | CJGV-FM |
| † Regina, Saskatchewan | CKO-FM-8 | FM 100.7 | CILG-FM |
| Halifax, Nova Scotia | CKO-FM-9 | FM 103.5 | CKHZ-FM |
| † Saint John, New Brunswick | CKO-FM-10 | FM 99.7 | never reassigned |
| † St. John's, Newfoundland and Labrador | CKO-FM-11 | FM 101.9 | CBAX-FM-2 |
| Pointe-Claire / Montreal, Quebec | CKO | AM 1470 | never reassigned |
† The stations in Regina, Saint John and St. John's were licensed by the CRTC but had not been launched by the network before its shutdown.
   | Canadian Communications Foundation article on news radio - Canadian Communications Foundation - Fondation Des Communications Canadiennes |
| | Canadian Communications Foundation article on CKO - Canadian Communications Foundation - Fondation Des Communications Canadiennes |
| | Rock Radio Heaven - Rock Radio Scrapbook: Rock Radio Heaven (G) |
| | Canadian Communications Foundation article on CFOX - Canadian Communications Foundation - Fondation Des Communications Canadiennes |
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