CKPC (AM)


CKPC is a radio station in Brantford, Ontario. Owned by Evanov Radio Group, it broadcasts a full service country music format, also including John Tesh's syndicated Intelligence for Your Life, the Casey Clarke Country Countdown on weekends, and a weeknight Christian radio program. The station also broadcasts a folk music program on weekend evenings.

History

CKPC went on the air in 1923. Its original city of licence was Preston, Ontario. The station first started out as an amateur radio station, but the founder quickly applied for a broadcast licence after a few trial broadcasts. His licence was granted, and he started broadcasting from his home in Preston at a power of just 5 watts. After Russ sold the station to his friend Cyrus Dolph, he still remained active with the station, and watched it grow throughout its early years. Its power would later increase to 25 watts in 1927, doubling in power and moving to 1010 kHz at 50 watts in 1930, and to 880 kHz. The station's main content was local news, and local artists and talents from Kitchener, Hamilton, and Brantford. In 1933, Cyrus Dolph purchased the station, which was soon moved from Preston to Brantford.
In 1934, the station moved to Brantford and to 930 kHz on the AM dial; it would move to 1380 kHz, also its current location on the band, in 1947. The company added an FM station in 1949, CKPC-FM, operating at 250 watts and simulcasting the AM signal. In 1951, Florence Buchanan assumed full control of Telephone City Broadcast Limited, including CKPC-FM and CKPC-AM, from her father Cyrus. The AM station then had a 1,000 watt signal. She became the first woman in Canada to own and/or operate a radio station.
In 1959, CKPC built a new transmitter and increased power to 10,000 watts. In 1972, Richard Buchanan purchased Telephone City Broadcast Ltd. from his mother Florence.
On March 15, 1999, Telephone City Broadcast Ltd. was denied a licence to add an FM rebroadcast transmitter at Simcoe to operate on 98.9 MHz with an effective radiated power of 1,090 watts. The proposed transmitter was intended to correct coverage inadequacies in CKPC's AM service to the Simcoe, Port Dover and Delhi area.
On June 1, 2004 CKPC-AM switched formats from adult contemporary to oldies. Its power increased from 10,000 watts to 25,000 watts in 2007.
In 2009, after the death of then owner Richard Buchanan, the CRTC approved the sale of Telephone City Broadcast Limited from the Estate of R.D. Buchanan to William Vasil Evanov, Evanov Communications, through the transfer of all issued and outstanding shares. Telephone City was the licensee of CKPC-AM and CKPC-FM.
On June 24, 2010, the station flipped to its current country format.
In February 2020, the CRTC approved a request by Evanov to move sister station CFWC-FM's Christian format to CKPC, so that it can move the country format to FM.