CHMJ
CHMJ (identified on air as AM 730) is a Canadian radio station in the Metro Vancouver region of British Columbia currently owned by Corus Entertainment. It broadcasts on 730 kHz, with a power of 50,000 watts from a transmitter in Delta. Studios are located in the TD Tower in Downtown Vancouver. CKAC in Montreal, Quebec is the dominant Class A Canadian station on 730 AM.
 | |
| City | Vancouver, British Columbia |
|---|---|
| Broadcast area | Metro Vancouver |
| Frequency | 730 kHz (AM) 101.1 MHz HD3 |
| Branding | AM730 |
| Slogan | Vancouver's 24-Hour Traffic and Information Station |
| Programming | |
| Format | Highway advisory radio |
| Ownership | |
| Owner | Corus Entertainment (Corus Premium Television Ltd.) |
| Sister stations | Radio: CKNW, CFOX-FM, CFMI-FM TV: CHAN-DT, Global News: BC 1 |
| History | |
| First air date | February 3, 1955 |
| Former call signs | CKLG (1955–2001) CJNW (2001–2002) |
| Former frequencies | 1070 kHz (1955–1961) |
| Call sign meaning | C H MoJo (former station name) |
| Technical information | |
| Class | B |
| Power | 50,000 watts |
| Transmitter coordinates | 49.1335°N 123.004587°W |
| Links | |
| Webcast | Listen live |
| Website | www.am730.ca |
Format
In November 2006, CHMJ adopted an all-day, every day "all traffic" format, becoming the first station in North America to do so. The station dropped rebroadcasts of Corus Network talk shows, and terminated its programming of university sports and Seattle Seahawks coverage. AM730 only interrupts traffic reporting for news, weather, and commercials.
History
CKLG
On February 3, 1955, Vancouver AM radio station CKLG, owned by Lions Gate Broadcasting Ltd., began transmitting at 1070 kHz on the AM band with a 1,000 watt transmitter. Originally, studios and transmitter were both located in North Vancouver. The radio station was controlled by the Gordon Gibson family, better known in logging circles (Gordon Gibson, Sr, "The Bull of the Woods.") In 1958, the station changed frequencies from 1070 kHz to 730 kHz and increased power to 10,000 watts. The transmitter site was moved at this time from North Vancouver to Delta. The station was sold to Moffat Broadcasting Ltd. in 1961, and in 1964 launched an FM sister station, the original CKLG-FM (now CFOX-FM), at 99.3 MHz. Throughout the 1960s, 1970s, and 1980s, CKLG (also known as "LG73") played a variety of contemporary music, at times ranking as one of the most popular radio stations in the Vancouver market. In 1975, the station once again increased its transmitted power, raising it to the current 50,000 watts.
The station's popularity declined in the 1980s and 1990s, as many music stations moved from AM to FM broadcasting, and in 1992, the Corus Radio Company (now Corus Entertainment) purchased Moffat's Vancouver radio properties. After a brief and unsuccessful attempt at a talk radio format from September 1993 to February 1994,[1] the station returned to a hit music format, which would last for the next seven years, despite new competition from FM station CKZZ, which originally began as a dance music station in 1991 before moving towards a more mainstream Top 40/CHR format in 1996.
CJNW
On February 1, 2001, at Midnight, after playing "I Will Remember You" by Sarah McLachlan,[2] Corus changed the station's call letters to CJNW (the CKLG call sign was later transferred to Rogers Communications' CKLG-FM), and adopted a 24-hour news format referred to on-air as "NW2, all news radio, powered by CKNW". The hope was to leverage the Vancouver market dominance of sister station CKNW, in light of the success of Rogers' all-news station News 1130. CJNW's all-news format lasted for approximately 14 months, and was abandoned in light of lower than expected ratings.
Mojo Radio
On May 28, 2002, at 5 a.m., CJNW discontinued their all-news format and began a nearly 2 1/2 month-long stunt of modern rock music, which also included a month of down time for a transmitter site upgrade. On August 6, at 6 a.m., the station changed call letters once again to the current CHMJ, and flipped to a hot talk format branded as "MOJO 730, Talk Radio for Guys", which was based on sister station CFMJ in Toronto. When that format failed to attract a large enough audience, the station changed to an all-sports format in February 2004, identified as "MOJO Sports Radio, AM 730". It was the radio home of the Vancouver Giants, Vancouver Whitecaps, and various other local sports events including UBC Thunderbirds and SFU Clansmen football and basketball games. It also carried Seattle Seahawks games from Seattle's 710 KIRO. It was an ESPN Radio affiliate and also shared some sports content with CKNW.
Its main talk personalities were morning host John McKeachie and afternoon host Bob "The Moj" Marjanovich, both former hosts at CKST "The TEAM 1040", a Vancouver all-sports station owned by CHUM Limited. MOJO competed heavily with The TEAM for ratings, personnel, and broadcast contracts, but continued to rank at the bottom of the BBM ratings, placing 17th of 17 stations surveyed in April 2006 with a 0.9 percent market share.
AM 730
On May 30, 2006, CHMJ terminated its all-sports format, switching to a stunt of a series of promotional content. The station re-launched at 7:30 a.m. on June 5, 2006 with a new format described as "continuous drive-time traffic and the best of talk". Programming consisted of continuous traffic reports during the morning and afternoon peak periods and rebroadcasts of talk radio programming from CKNW. CHMJ also continued to provide play-by-play coverage of Vancouver Giants WHL hockey, Vancouver Whitecaps, and Seattle Seahawks NFL football.
On November 26, 2006, the station dropped the talk show aspect of the format and became "All Traffic...All The Time"; it would also later discontinue the remaining sports coverage it carried over from its sports format. The station now carries virtually nothing but traffic reports and weather, making it a commercial highway advisory radio station.
On July 3, 2016, CHMJ was knocked off the air temporarily by a fire that broke out in Burns Bog, where the station's transmitter site is located.[3] The station was broadcast temporarily on the HD3 digital signal of sister station CFMI-FM.[4]
See also
References
- Leung, Wendy. "Mojo Sports Radio shuts down; 14 staff let go: Broadcasters McKeachie, McConnell leaving as radio station turns to traffic format," The Vancouver Sun, May 31, 2006.
- McLellan, Wendy. "Vancouver loses its MOJO: Station never took off with sports; hopes listeners want traffic reports," The Vancouver Province, May 31, 2006.
- Pap, Elliot. "Sports radio stations brimming with hockey coverage," The Vancouver Sun, September 23, 2005.
- Schecter, Brian. "Radio's Jock Talk Wars," The Tyee, April 19, 2004.
- Yu, Karl. "Jock Talk," Vancouver Courier, April 14, 2005.
External links
- AM730
- Corus Entertainment Radio Stations
- CHMJ AM history – Canadian Communications Foundation
- CHMJ on Radio-Locator
- CHMJ in the REC Canadian station database