CKMX

CKMX is a radio station, broadcasting at 1060 AM in Calgary, Alberta, and owned by Bell Media. Its comedy format is branded on-air as "Funny 1060AM". CKMX's studios are located on Centre Street in Eau Claire, and its transmitter site is near Southeast Calgary. At night CFMX can be heard as far west as Battle Ground and Snohomish, Washington. It can also be heard on shortwave on 6030 kilohertz via its repeater CFVP, reaching western North America.

CKMX
CityCalgary, Alberta
Frequency1060 kHz (AM)
BrandingFunny 1060AM
Slogan"The Best Stand-Up Comedy 24/7"
Programming
FormatComedy
Affiliations24/7 Comedy
Ownership
OwnerBell Media
(Bell Media Radio)
Sister stationsCIBK-FM, CJAY-FM
History
First air dateMay 18, 1922 (experimental 1921–1922)
Former call signsCFCN (1922-1994)
Former frequencies440 metres (1922-1925)
690 kHz (1925-1931)
985 kHz (1931-1933)
1030 kHz (1933-1937)
1010 kHz (1937-1947)
Technical information
ClassB
Power50,000 watts
Transmitter coordinates50.9006°N 113.875°W / 50.9006; -113.875
Repeater(s)CFVP
Links
Websitewww.funny1060.com

History

CKMX was first licensed as a broadcasting station, with the original call sign CFCN, to W. W. Grant Radio, Ltd. of Calgary, Alberta in May 1922. However, the station's founder, William Walter Westover Grant, already had extensive experience with radio development,[1] and a 1923 company advertisement credited him with 13 years of work designing and building radio apparatus, as well as "The construction and installation of the greater portion of Radio-telephone apparatus used by the Royal Air Force during the war", in addition to "The construction of seven commercial and government Radio Stations, including the famous 'High River' Station".[2]

Grant served in the British Royal Air in France during World War I, where he gained experience installing and maintaining radio equipment.[3] After the war ended, he returned to Canada where reportedly in May 1919 he "constructed a small station in Halifax, Nova Scotia, over which voice and music were broadcast in probably the first scheduled programs in Canada".[4]

In 1920 Grant began working for the Canadian Air Board's Forestry patrol, developing air-to-ground communication for the spotter aircraft used to report forest fires, initially using radiotelegraphy. The original base was located at Morley, Alberta, where Grant constructed station CYAA.[5] In January 1921 operations moved to the High River Air Station in southern Alberta,[6] where Grant established station VAW, which was capable of audio transmissions. In addition to the forestry work Grant began making a series of experimental entertainment broadcasts, believed to be the first in western Canada. In early April 1922 the Calgary Herald reported that "Residents of High River have enjoyed several concerts 'out of the atmosphere' during the past few months",[7] with VAW maintaining a regular broadcasting schedule on Tuesday and Friday evenings, on a wavelength of 360 meters (833 kHz.)[8] A March 31, 1922 musical program from High River was reported heard in Hawaii, about 2,800 miles (4,500 kilometers) away.[9]

1923 advertisement for W. W. Grant Radio, Ltd. and radio station CFCN[10]

In Canada there was no formal category for stations making entertainment broadcasts intended for the general public until April 1922, so the earliest stations making broadcasts operated under a mixture of Experimental, Amateur, and, as was the case with VAW, governmental authorizations. In 1922 federal regulators added a new licence classification of "Private Commercial Broadcasting station",[11] and in late April 1922 an initial group of twenty-three station assignments was announced, including two in Calgary: CFAC, licensed to George M. Bell on a wavelength of 430 meters (698 kHz), and CHCQ, licensed to the Calgary Herald newspaper on 400 meters (750 kHz).[12] Grant, from his base in High River, provided some technical assistance to the newspaper when it was setting up CHCQ.[13][14]

Grant left the forestry project and established the W. W. Grant Radio, Ltd. in Calgary, which on May 18 was issued the city's third commercial broadcasting station license, with the randomly assigned call letters CFCN, operating on 440 meters (682 kHz).[15] In 1923 the station's transmitter was upgraded from 100 to 1,000 watts, as part of a reconstruction following "a devastating fire which destroyed the plant of the W. W. Grant Radio Ltd."[16] A few months later CFCN, now using the slogan "The Voice of the Prairie", had a further upgrade to 8,500 watts, a very high power for the time period.[17]

In addition to operating the radio station, Grant's company sold a line of "Voice of the Prairie" brand receivers,[18] however the Westinghouse corporation sued him for infringing certain of its patents. On July 3, 1926 the Exchequer Court ruled in Grant's favor, but on appeal the Supreme Court of Canada on October 4, 1927 reversed the decision.[3] To pay his outstanding legal fees, Grant arranged to sell CFCN to H. Gordon Love.[5]

The station became a phantom station affiliate of the Canadian National Railway radio network and later of the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation's Dominion Network.[15] In 1947, CFCN moved to the station's current AM frequency at 1060 kHz. The call letters were changed to CKMX in the fall of 1994 when Maclean-Hunter sold it to Standard Broadcasting while retaining ownership of sister station CFCN-TV,[15] and switched the format to hot adult contemporary. The format was shifted to alternative rock in mid-1993 under the name "Mix 1060" from contemporary hit radio as "AM106". On December 1, 1995, the station adopted an adult standards format.

Former logo as Classic Country AM 1060

In 2005, the station adopted a classic country music format. CKMX had the distinction of being the last radio station in Canada to broadcast a continuous classic country format (other Canadian classic country stations, such as CJDL and CFCW, were more accurately "traditional country," as these stations also carried contemporary hits). According to the Fall 2011 PPM data report, released by BBM Canada, Classic Country AM 1060 was ranked #15 for the Calgary market.[19] Standard Broadcasting was acquired by Astral Media in 2007, and in turn by Bell Media in 2013. The Bell purchase reunited CKMX with its former television sister.

On September 12, 2013, at 6 a.m., the station flipped from classic country to an all-comedy format as "Funny 1060AM", which features stand-up comedy bits performed by major stand-up and improvisational comedians.[20] The station is one of several Bell-owned stations to air programming from the U.S. syndicated radio network 24/7 Comedy—which was first launched in Canada by sister station CKSL in London, Ontario by Astral Media's syndication arm Orbyt Media (now a part of Bell) in 2012.[21]

Funny 1060AM Shows & Hosts

Current Hosts & Shows

All of these shows are shared with the sister station Funny 820.

  • Late Night Laughs with Dane Cook and Jim Gaffigan - Monday-Friday midnight-5am
  • Wake Up & Laugh with Trevor Noah and Amy Schuber - Monday-Friday 5-9am
  • Laugh at Work with Bill Rurr and Weird al Yankovic - Monday-Friday 9am-3pm
  • Ride Home Laughs with Jim Jefferies and Jay Leno - Monday-Friday 3-7pm
  • Laughs at Night with Brian Regan and Iliza Shlesinger - Monday-Friday 7pm-midnight
  • Funny Weekends with Ellen DeGeneres and Chris D'Elia - Saturday & Sunday
gollark: THINGS.
gollark: I am not voting logos. I do not trust them as owner. They would do things.
gollark: Can we run it for at least 2 days?
gollark: The election should be at least 3.
gollark: Wait, *only* a day?

References
  1. "Timeline of W.W. Grant's contribution to radio in Canada" (1914-1935), Museum of the Highwood Archives 989-078-001 (virtualmuseum.ca)
  2. "W. W. Grant Radio, Ltd." (advertisement), Calgary Daily Herald, April 28, 1923, page 6.
  3. "'The Voice of the Prairie' A Brief History of W. W. Grant (1892-1968)" by Robert P. Murray, The Early Development of Radio in Canada, 1901-1930, pages 103-108.
  4. "Noted Engineer Pioneered CFCN", The Canadian Broadcaster, April 1943, page 17.
  5. "W.W.W. 'Bill' Grant (1892-1968)" by J. Lyman Potts, Canadian Communications Foundation, March 1997 (broadcasting-history.ca)
  6. "Forest Fire Air Patrols Observe Million Sq. Miles" by Chester A. Bloom, Calgary Daily Herald, October 29, 1921, page 26.
  7. "Radio Telephone Concert For the Canadian Club, Calgary Daily Herald, April 6, 1922, page 9.
  8. "Forest Fires: A Radio Observer Tells of His Work" by M. V. Chesnut, The Wireless Age, August 1922 pages 62-64.
  9. "High River Music Enjoyed in Hawaii", Calgary Daily Herald, April 12, 1922, page 11.
  10. W. W. Grant, Ltd. and CFCN (advertisement), Radio, June 1923, page 62.
  11. "Fees For Examinations and Licenses", Report of the Department of the Naval Service for the Fiscal Year Ending March 31, 1922 (June 30, 1922), page 27.
  12. "Radio Department: Broadcasting Stations", Winnipeg Evening Tribune, April 25, 1922, page 5. (In this list, CKCE Toronto should be 450 instead of 45 meters, and for Winnipeg, "CHCE" should be CHCF and "CKbC" should be CKZC.)
  13. "Herald's Radio Receiving Set in Use", Calgary Daily Herald, April 28, 1922, page 1.
  14. "Board of Trade President Formally Opens the Herald Radio Broadcasting Station", Calgary Daily Herald, May 3, 1922, page 1, continued on page 8.
  15. "CKMX-AM" Canadian Communication Foundation (broadcasting-history.ca)
  16. "A Two-Way Conversation Over 2,000 Miles" by Jeffrey J. Dingman, Radio World, April 14, 1923, page 20.
  17. "Reconstruction of CFCN", Wireless Age, January 1924, page 36.
  18. "History of the manufacturer Grant Radio, Ltd., W.W. ; Calgary" (radiomuseum.org)
  19. "Fall 2011 Calgary PPM Ratings". Archived from the original on 2012-05-06. Retrieved 2011-12-12.
  20. Ryan White. "New comedy format for Calgary's classic country radio station". CTV News. Retrieved 8 October 2019.
  21. The Canadian Press. "That's FUNNY: London, Ont., radio station to go all-comedy". CTV News. Retrieved 8 October 2019.
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