CBK is a Canadian

public In public relations and communication science, publics are groups of individual people, and the public (a.k.a. the general public) is the totality of such groupings. This is a different concept to the sociological concept of the ''Öffentlichkei ...

radio station Radio broadcasting is transmission of audio (sound), sometimes with related metadata, by radio waves to radio receivers belonging to a public audience. In terrestrial radio broadcasting the radio waves are broadcast by a land-based radio ...

licensed A license (or licence) is an official permission or permit to do, use, or own something (as well as the document of that permission or permit). A license is granted by a party (licensor) to another party (licensee) as an element of an agreeme ...

to Watrous,

Saskatchewan Saskatchewan ( ; ) is a Provinces and territories of Canada, province in Western Canada, western Canada, bordered on the west by Alberta, on the north by the Northwest Territories, on the east by Manitoba, to the northeast by Nunavut, and on t ...

. It broadcasts the

CBC Radio One CBC Radio One is the English-language news and information radio network of the publicly owned Canadian Broadcasting Corporation. It is commercial-free and offers local and national programming. It is available on AM and FM to 98 percent of Ca ...

network on an assigned frequency of 540

kHz The hertz (symbol: Hz) is the unit of frequency in the International System of Units (SI), equivalent to one event (or cycle) per second. The hertz is an SI derived unit whose expression in terms of SI base units is s−1, meaning that on ...

to most of southern and central Saskatchewan. Its studios are located at the CBC's broadcast centre at 2440 Broad Street in Regina, with an additional bureau in the

Saskatoon Co-op Saskatoon Co-operative Association Limited (commonly referred to as Saskatoon Co-op) is a retail cooperative. A member of Federated Co-operatives, it is headquartered in Saskatoon and has operations in the city and surrounding municipalities Pres ...

building on 4th Avenue South in

Saskatoon Saskatoon () is the largest city in the Provinces and territories of Canada, Canadian province of Saskatchewan. It straddles a bend in the South Saskatchewan River in the central region of the province. It is located along the Trans-Canada Hig ...

. The Regina facility also houses

CBK-FM CBK-FM is a Canadian radio station, which broadcasts the programming of the CBC Music network at 96.9 FM in Regina, Saskatchewan Saskatchewan ( ; ) is a province in western Canada, bordered on the west by Alberta, on the north by the Nort ...

and CBKT-DT.

Transmitter and signal

When the CBC established CBK, it located the

transmitter In electronics and telecommunications, a radio transmitter or just transmitter is an electronic device which produces radio waves with an antenna (radio), antenna. The transmitter itself generates a radio frequency alternating current, which i ...

in Watrous, about 150 kilometres (90 miles) northwest of Regina and about 100 kilometres (60 miles) southeast of Saskatoon. The site, off Agnes Street, was chosen to provide the best possible AM broadcast signal to the densely populated portion of Saskatchewan, including both cities. CBK operates as a Class A

clear-channel station A clear-channel station is an AM broadcasting, AM radio station in North America that has the highest protection from Interference (communication), interference from other stations, particularly concerning night-time skywave propagation. The syste ...

, operating at 50,000

watt The watt (symbol: W) is the unit of power or radiant flux in the International System of Units (SI), equal to 1 joule per second or 1 kg⋅m2⋅s−3. It is used to quantify the rate of energy transfer. The watt is named after James Wa ...

s around the clock from a non-directional transmitter in Watrous. Due to its location near the bottom of the AM dial, high transmitter power and Saskatchewan's mostly flat land (with near-perfect soil conductivity), CBK's daytime signal reaches most of the southern two-thirds of the province, including Regina, Saskatoon,

Yorkton Yorkton is a city located in south-eastern Saskatchewan, Canada. It is about 450 kilometres north-west of Winnipeg and 300 kilometres south-east of Saskatoon and is the sixth largest city in the province. As of 2017 the census population of the ...

Swift Current Swift Current is the fifth largest city in the Canadian province of Saskatchewan. It is situated along the Trans Canada Highway west of Moose Jaw, and east of Medicine Hat, Alberta. Swift Current grew 6.8% between 2011 and 2016, ending up at ...

Lloydminster Lloydminster is a city in Canada which has the unusual geographic distinction of straddling the provincial border between Alberta and Saskatchewan. The city is incorporated by both provinces as a single city with a single municipal administrati ...

Moose Jaw Moose Jaw is the fourth largest city in Saskatchewan, Canada. Lying on the Moose Jaw River in the south-central part of the province, it is situated on the Trans-Canada Highway, west of Regina. Residents of Moose Jaw are known as Moose Javians ...

and Prince Albert. It also provides grade B coverage as far west as

Calgary Calgary ( ) is the largest city in the western Canadian province of Alberta and the largest metro area of the three Prairie Provinces. As of 2021, the city proper had a population of 1,306,784 and a metropolitan population of 1,481,806, makin ...

and as far east as

Winnipeg Winnipeg () is the capital and largest city of the province of Manitoba in Canada. It is centred on the confluence of the Red and Assiniboine rivers, near the longitudinal centre of North America. , Winnipeg had a city population of 749,6 ...

, and reaches across the border into

North Dakota North Dakota () is a U.S. state in the Upper Midwest, named after the Native Americans in the United States, indigenous Dakota people, Dakota Sioux. North Dakota is bordered by the Canadian provinces of Saskatchewan and Manitoba to the north a ...

and

Montana Montana () is a state in the Mountain West division of the Western United States. It is bordered by Idaho to the west, North Dakota and South Dakota to the east, Wyoming to the south, and the Canadian provinces of Alberta, British Columbi ...

History

CBK was launched by the CBC in 1939, serving most of Saskatchewan from the single transmitter site. It was originally intended as the CBC's clear-channel station for the

Prairies Prairies are ecosystems considered part of the temperate grasslands, savannas, and shrublands biome by ecologists, based on similar temperate climates, moderate rainfall, and a composition of grasses, herbs, and shrubs, rather than trees, as the ...

. (CKY in Winnipeg, now CBW, was also a clear-channel, but was a privately-owned CBC

Network affiliate In the broadcasting industry (particularly in North America, and even more in the United States), a network affiliate or affiliated station is a local broadcaster, owned by a company other than the owner of the network, which carries some or a ...

at the time.) At first, CBK aired no local shows. All programming was initially fed from

Toronto Toronto ( ; or ) is the capital city of the Canadian province of Ontario. With a recorded population of 2,794,356 in 2021, it is the most populous city in Canada and the fourth most populous city in North America. The city is the ancho ...

, then after 1948 from Winnipeg. A local studio didn't open until 1954, on Broad Street in Regina. For most of

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...

, CBK aired programming in both English and French. CBK was almost forced to move its dial location in 1947, when the International Telecommunications Conference considered designating 540 for low-powered stations. Eventually, the ITC agreed to allow CBK to stay on 540 until an alternate location could be found. In 1975 the original tube powered transmitter built by

RCA The RCA Corporation was a major American electronics company, which was founded as the Radio Corporation of America in 1919. It was initially a patent trust owned by General Electric (GE), Westinghouse, AT&T Corporation and United Fruit Comp ...

was replaced by a solid state transmitter. The following year on June 4, 1976 CBK's transmitting tower was toppled by strong winds during a thunderstorm. CBK's staff went back on the air in the cities of Regina and Saskatoon by temporarily taking over CBC's low powered FM transmitters normally used to air French language programming. Within a few days, the 540 kHz signal was restored using a temporary tower while a new permanent one was built. One of the station's distinctive features was its

Art Deco Art Deco, short for the French ''Arts Décoratifs'', and sometimes just called Deco, is a style of visual arts, architecture, and product design, that first appeared in France in the 1910s (just before World War I), and flourished in the Unite ...

style transmitter building in Watrous. It featured a studio to keep the station on the air in the event of an emergency, living quarters for station staff, a map of Canada showing CBC stations and private affiliates, and an underground fallout shelter with a studio to broadcast news in the event of a nuclear attack. In 2007 the transmitting equipment was moved from the original transmitter building to a steel shed next to the tower. There was an effort by the town of Watrous to designate the transmitter a historic site. In recent years the original transmitter building has been vacant and has fallen into disrepair. Due to the cost to high cost of removing dangerous materials such as asbestos and lead paint, CBC Saskatchewan decided to demolish the transmitter building in August 2015, rather than restore it.

Local programming

CBK and its repeater stations air several local shows, in addition to CBC network programming. Weekdays begin with ''The Morning Edition''. At noon, ''Blue Sky'' is heard and in afternoon

drive time Drive time is the daypart in which radio broadcasters can reach the most people who listen to car radios while driving, usually to and from work, or on public transportation. Drive-time periods are when the number of radio listeners in this c ...

, ''Afternoon Edition'' is broadcast. Saturday and Sunday mornings, ''Saskatchewan Weekend'' airs. In Saskatoon, CBK-1-FM 94.1 has carried its own local morning program, ''Saskatoon Morning'', in place of the Regina-based wake up show ''The Morning Edition'', since 2013. It airs from the CBC's Saskatoon bureau in the Affinity Building at 100-128 4th Avenue South in downtown Saskatoon. ''Saskatoon Morning'' began streaming online on April 29, and began airing on 94.1 in September after the CBC won

Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission The Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission (CRTC; french: Conseil de la radiodiffusion et des télécommunications canadiennes, links=) is a public organization in Canada with mandate as a regulatory agency for broadcasti ...

approval to move the program over-the-air. For the rest of its broadcasting day, CBK-FM-1 carries the same programming as CBK.

Rebroadcasters

In 2000, the CBC opened a local FM repeater of CBK in Regina, CBKR-FM 102.5. In 2006, a Saskatoon repeater was added, CBK-1-FM 94.1. Both cities had been plagued with reception problems of the main 540 AM signal. CBK has the following rebroadcasters. Except for its Regina, Saskatoon and Meadow Lake transmitters, all are officially part of the licence of

CBKA-FM CBKA-FM is a Canadian radio station, broadcasting the CBC Radio One network at 105.9 FM in La Ronge, Saskatchewan Saskatchewan ( ; ) is a Provinces and territories of Canada, province in Western Canada, western Canada, bordered on the west ...

La Ronge La Ronge is a northern town in the boreal forest of central Saskatchewan, Canada. Its location is approximately north of Prince Albert where Highway 2 becomes Highway 102. La Ronge lies on the western shore of Lac la Ronge, is adjacent to ...

(see below):

Community-owned rebroadcasters

Though separately licensed, CBKA-FM in La Ronge is a full-time satellite of CBK. Until 2009, that station produced its own noon-hour show and regional news updates, although it aired both ''The Morning Edition'' and ''The Afternoon Edition''."Radio operation in La Ronge falls victim to CBC budget cuts"
CBC.ca, March 26, 2009.

References

External links

Radio locator info on CBKCBC Saskatchewan
* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Cbk (Am) BK BK BK Radio stations established in 1939 1939 establishments in Saskatchewan Clear-channel radio stations