 British Columbia, Vancouver Island  CHTT-FM, Victoria, Rogers Broadcasting Ltd. 1923 On April 1, Dr. Clem Davies of the Centennial Methodist Church opened CFCL on 410 meters with 500 watts of power. 1924 CFCL's studios moved from the church to the Fletcher Brothers store on Douglas Street.
1925
1928
1931
1933
1935 Listing: CFCT 1450 kHz 50 watts. 1939 Around this time, David M. Armstrong joined the CFCT staff as technician and announcer. 1941 On March 29, CFCT moved from 1450 to 1480 kHz with 500 watts. The Victoria Colonist purchased CFCT on October 1, then sold 50% to Taylor, Person & Carson Ltd., thereby forming The Island Broadcasting Co. The Colonist was owned by Jim Matson and family. TP&C managed the station. CFCT became CJVI. The "VI" in the calls: Victoria, or Vancouver Island. 1942 M.V. "Ches" Chestnut became CJVI's manager. He left the east on March 31, where he had been the former manager of CKOC Hamilton and latterly in All Canada's Toronto office. 1944 George Walton, June Beavan, Vern Groves, Bob Willet and Dick Batey worked in CJVI's news department. Sheila Graves had a program on the station.
Barry Wood left CJVI as production manager to become a freelance announcer-actor-scripter in Toronto. Isabel Stewart was appointed promotion manager, succeeding R.C. "Rob" Willet who left for CFPR in Prince Rupert.
1945
CJVI changed frequency from 1480 to 900 kHz in May. To mark the change the station aired a special program - "Farewell to 1480".
Like so many other stations, CJVI had been suffering a floor space shortage. The station obtained a few hundred square feet in another building. A 12-station inter office communication system was set up between the two CJVI buildings.
CJVI was planning the construction of two 250 foot towers at a new transmitter site with the view of increasing night-time power to 1,000 watts. The station now had 1,000 watts during the daytime, but to avoid interference at night with CKBI Prince Albert (SK) and Mexican border stations, power was reduced to 1,000 watts. The directional antenna was expected to provide better reception on Vancouver Island besides protecting other stations. Ted Reynolds joined CJVI as announcer/operator from CFJC Kamloops. Jack Kyle left CJVI's production department for the announce staff at CKWX.
1951
1952 CJVI 900 applied to increase power from 5,000 watts full-time to 10,000 watts day and night.
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1981
1983 On July 21, approval was granted for the transfer of 200 Class B voting shares of Selkirk Communications Ltd. from Southam Inc. to John T. Ferguson, and subsequently, the transfer of these shares from Mr. Ferguson, together with 200 Class B shares from each of seven other individual shareholders, to the Canada Trust Co., pursuant to a voting trust agreement. Southam held 20% of the voting shares and approximately 28% of the non-voting shares of Selkirk Communications. Selkirk owned the following broadcast companies: Selkirk Broadcasting Ltd.(12 radio stations), Lethbridge Television Ltd., Calgary Television Ltd., and Niagara Television Ltd. 1984 CJVI began broadcasting in stereo in January. CJVI dropped its long-time country format for a mix of adult contemporary and nostalgia. News and talk pioneer Walter Rutherford retired. 1984-85 Kim Hesketh became news director at CJVI. 1985 Kim Hesketh was named program director and Haydn Thomas became news director. A full-time adult-contemporary format was adopted. 1986 Barry Fontayne joined CJVI as general sales manager. He had been at C-FAX. 1987 John Ansell retired as general manager. He was succeeded by Kim Hesketh, who had been in broadcasting since 1972 and has been news director, program director and operations manager at CJVI. Jeff Hamilton was CJVI's program director. He had been with Selkirk's CKKS-FM in Vancouver. 1987-88 Ken Geiger became CJVI's program direcotr. He had been with CFGP Grande Prairie. 1989 On September 28, the CRTC approved Maclean-Hunter Ltd.'s purchase of Selkirk Communications and for the transfer of CJVI and several other stations from MH Acquisition Inc. to Rogers Broadcasting Ltd. 1990-91 CJVI received approval to end its affiliation with the CBC, even though the network was not ready to open its own station in Victoria. Because of budget cuts, the CBC shelved its plans for a local outlet in the city. CJVI had been carrying only 1.5 hours a week of network programs when it applied to drop its affiliation. CBC programming could still be heard in Victoria via CBU 690 from Vancouver. CJVI and Rogers Broadcasting presented a $50,000 grant to the Camosun College Foundation. The grant was to be used to help in the start-up of a low power FM station at the college. The cheque was presented to Camosun president Dan Cornish by Gary Miles, executive vice president of Rogers, and Kim Hesketh, vice president of CJVI. 1991 CJVI dropped its long-time affiliation with the CBC. 1992 Dick Batey, who began in radio in 1939 at CJVI when it was still CFCT, passed away in September. At CFCT he did hockey play-by-play, news commentaries, and was also a member of the B.C. press gallery. He later became program director and assistant manager. Batey left the industry in 1967. 1997 Barry Bowman announced he was leaving CFAX after 28 years and heading to CJVI. His replacement at CFAX was Steve Ivings. Kim Hesketh, VP and GM of CJVI/The Ocean, said the FM station had done so well in its first year that the company could put some resources into the AM operation. B.J. Bennett will move from mornings to another shift with the arrival of Bowman. CJVI became known as "AM 900 - Victoria's Information Superstation" on April 1 - it's 74th birthday. The program format changed from oldies to news-talk. Kim Hesketh was general manager. Robin Adair moved from CHEK-TV to host a two-hour talk show following morning host Barry Bowman. CJVI would now simulcast sister station CKWX Vancouver between midnight and six a.m. Other programs now on the CJVI schedule: syndicated Rhona Raskin, Dr. Laura, Joan Rivers, Dr. Dean Edell and Prime Time Sports. Weekends feature local and network programs, including car and garden shows. 2000 On June 30 the CRTC announced approval of an application by Rogers Broadcasting to replace AM station CJVI with a new FM station to serve Victoria. The station was licensed to operate on the frequency of 103.1 MHz with an average effective radiated power of 9,400 watts (20,000 watts peak). The Commission had previously denied the application because Rogers had proposed the same frequency (107.3) as one approved for use by Seacoast Communications, which made the proposal technically mutually exclusive. Subsequently, Rogers and CKMO Radio Society (CKMO Radio) agreed that, subject to Commission approval, they would exchange the frequencies currently used by CJVI and CKMO-FM Victoria. CJVI operated on the frequency of 900 kHz with 10,000 watts, while CKMO-FM had operated on 103.1 MHz as a low-powered station with 50 watts. On September 2 CJVI AM 900 signed off the air at 5:05 p.m. after over 78 years of continuous broadcasting. Minutes later, CHTT-FM "Hot 103 - Today's Hit Music" signed on with 'N Sync's "Bye, Bye, Bye"
2004
2008 Written by Gord Lansdell, Bill Dulmage - Updated February, 2010 |
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