CFWH was launched in 1951 as a local community station on 1340 kHz. On November 10, 1958 it was taken over by the CBC as the first station of the newly formed CBC Northern Radio Service. CFWH received CBC news and topical programs by picking up CBXEdmonton and relaying the broadcast. Tapes recorded in Montreal, Quebec were also flown in on regular airline flights. Eventually the station was linked into the primary CBC network feed. In 1960, the frequency was changed to 1240 and then to 570 in 1964. On May 21, 2009, the CBC applied to the CRTC to convert CFWH to 94.5 MHz. The station received approval on October 27, 2009. The FM frequency was launched on June 1, 2009, and the AM frequency was shut down on August 31, 2012. On September 12, 2012, the CBC received CRTC approval to add a new FM transmitter in Whitehorse to rebroadcast CFWH on 95.3 MHz, due to the area's mountainous terrain causing signal deficiencies in part of the station's broadcast area. The callsign is CFWH-FM-1.
Local programming
CFWH produces all of CBC Radio's local programs in the Yukon, including A New Day on weekday mornings, the noon-hour program Midday Cafe, Airplay in the afternoons, and The Weekender on weekend mornings. The station also produces Rencontres, a weekly French language program for the Franco-Yukonnais community which airs in the network's Saturday afternoon block for local cultural programming. Although Whitehorse itself is served by a community-owned rebroadcaster of the Première station from Vancouver, that network does not originate any French programming in the Yukon.
Rebroadcasters
CFWH has the following rebroadcasters: CBDN was a radio station which operated from the 1940s to the 1960s as CFYT. On December 21, 2012, the CBC filed an application to convert CBDC 1230 to 104.9 MHz. The application was approved on May 8, 2013. The CBC used to operate low-power rebroadcasters CBDD 560 Elsa and CBDX 970 Swift River; these rebroadcasters were closed at the CBC's request by the CRTC on October 25, 2013.
Community-owned rebroadcasters
The following rebroadcasters are not owned by the CBC, but by independent community groups. On June 22, 2017, the CRTC approved the application by Noah Gehmair, in his capacity as Manager, Technology Infrastructure, Government of Yukon. The RDU will rebroadcast the signal of CFWH to the community of Mount Jubilee in order to provide Radio One programming to that community. The undertaking will distribute the programming service of CFWH at 103.1 MHz with an average effective radiated power of 340 watts. Manager, Technology Infrastructure, Government of Yukon reapplied to operate an FM transmitter at 103.1 MHz in Mount Jubilee on November 13, 2019. The proposed stations' call sign will be CKZV. This application to add an FM transmitter at Mount Jubilee was approved on June 3, 2020.
