CKCY was a Canadian radio station, which signed on May 25, 1955 and broadcast until August 30, 1992 in Sault Ste. Marie,

Ontario Ontario ( ; ) is one of the thirteen provinces and territories of Canada.Ontario is located in the geographic eastern half of Canada, but it has historically and politically been considered to be part of Central Canada. Located in Central Ca ...

History

The station was originally launched by Algonquin Radio, a local business consortium led by Carmen Greco, with a 250

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 ...

signal at 1400 on the AM dial. In 1961, the station moved to 920 AM, and increased its signal to 10,000 watts daytime and 5,000 watts nighttime. Well known program announcers in the early and mid 1960s included morning man, Dave Carter, Art Christmas, country music specialist Bill Haight, Johnny Meadows (who for a period of time was also the program director of the station) and host of the evening rock show, Barry Sarazin. News announcers included Karl Sepkowski (news director), Russ Hilderley and on the weekends Norm Fera. In 1964, Algonquin launched

CKCY-FM CJQM-FM (''Country 104.3'') is an FM radio station in Sault Ste. Marie, Ontario. The station is owned and operated by Rogers Sports & Media and broadcasts a country format. With 100,000 watts power, CJQM's signal is one of the strongest in th ...

. The station operated on a frequency of 104.3 MHz with an effective radiated power of 6,760 watts. The program director and principal announcer for the FM station was Richard ("Dick") Gasparini. In contrast to the station's 'AM' programming, CKCY-FM focussed on a diet of

easy listening Easy listening (including mood music) is a popular music genre and radio format that was most popular during the 1950s to 1970s. It is related to middle-of-the-road (MOR) music and encompasses instrumental recordings of standards, hit songs, n ...

music during the day and

classical music Classical music generally refers to the art music of the Western world, considered to be distinct from Western folk music or popular music traditions. It is sometimes distinguished as Western classical music, as the term "classical music" also ...

in the evenings. In the 1960s and 1970s, Harry Wolfe, the play-by-play voice of the

Ontario Hockey League The Ontario Hockey League (OHL; french: Ligue de hockey de l'Ontario (LHO)) is one of the three major junior ice hockey leagues which constitute the Canadian Hockey League. The league is for players aged 16–19. There are exceptions for overag ...

Sault Ste. Marie Greyhounds The Sault Ste. Marie Greyhounds (often shortened to Soo Greyhounds) are a Junior ice hockey#Major junior, major junior ice hockey team in the Ontario Hockey League. The Greyhounds play home games at the GFL Memorial Gardens. The present team was ...

, hosted a daily call-in talk show called ''Open Mike''. By then, CKCY had become the principal

Top 40 In the music industry, the Top 40 is the current, 40 most-popular songs in a particular genre. It is the best-selling or most frequently broadcast popular music. Record charts have traditionally consisted of a total of 40 songs. "Top 40" or " con ...

music station in the Twin Saults. Among the station's alumni is current Hamilton City Councillor

Bob Bratina Robert Bratina (born 1944) is a Canadian politician and former broadcaster who was the 56th mayor of Hamilton from 2010 to 2014. Previously, he sat on the Hamilton City Council from 2004 until 2010. He went on to be the Liberal member of Parli ...

. In 1976, the stations were acquired by

Huron Broadcasting Huron Broadcasting was a Canadian radio and television broadcasting company, active in Sault Ste. Marie from 1976 to 1990. The company first entered the broadcasting business in 1976, when it acquired the assets of the city's prior Hyland Broadcas ...

, who also launched CKCY-TV in 1978. Huron subsequently sold the radio stations to a new business consortium, CKCY 920 Ltd., in 1985. That group subsequently sold them to

Mid-Canada Radio Mid-Canada Communications was a Canadian media company, which operated from 1980 to 1990. The company, a division of Northern Cable, had television and radio holdings in Northeastern Ontario. MCTV Mid-Canada Television, or MCTV, was created in 1 ...

in 1988, and Mid-Canada in turn was acquired by the

Pelmorex Radio Network The Pelmorex Radio Network was a system of Canadian radio stations in Northern Ontario, owned and operated by Pelmorex. History In 1989, Pierre Morrissette founded his own communications company, Pelmorex Media Inc., and acquired several French ...

in 1990. In 1984, CKCY received

CRTC 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 from 920 kHz to 540 kHz. The change to AM 540 was never implemented. CKCY remained at AM 920 until its permanent sign-off in 1992. Due to the economic circumstances of the Sault Ste. Marie market, with competition from stations in

Sault Ste. Marie, Michigan Sault Ste. Marie ( ') is the only city in, and county seat of, Chippewa County, Michigan, Chippewa County in the U.S. state of Michigan. With a population of 13,337 at the 2020 United States census, 2020 census, it is the second-most populated ...

severely curtailing the profitability of the Ontario stations, Pelmorex shut down the AM station in 1992. The FM station is still operating as CJQM-FM.Decision CRTC 93-51
/ref> The final song to be played by CKCY was Sweeney Todd's 1975 single "Roxy Roller" at approximately 11:56 pm on August 30, 1992. Once the song was completed, an automated, repeating farewell message was broadcast past midnight and continued for several days. The actual date when CKCY ceased transmitting is not known.

References

External links

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Ckcy (Am) Kcy Kcy Radio stations established in 1955 Radio stations disestablished in 1992 1955 establishments in Ontario 1992 disestablishments in Ontario KCY (AM)