CKGB-FM is a Canadian radio station that broadcasts a
hot adult contemporary
Adult contemporary music (AC) is a form of radio-played popular music, ranging from 1960s vocal and 1970s soft rock music to predominantly ballad-heavy music of the present day, with varying degrees of easy listening, pop, soul, R&B, quiet ...
Timmins
Timmins ( ) is a city in northeastern Ontario, Canada, located on the Mattagami River. The city is the fourth-largest city in the Northeastern Ontario region with a population of 41,145 (2021). The city's economy is based on natural resource ext ...
,
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 ...
. The station uses the on-air brand ''KiSS 99.3'' and is owned by
Rogers Sports & Media
Rogers Media Inc., operating as Rogers Sports & Media, is a Canadian subsidiary of Rogers Communications that owns the company's mass media and sports properties, such as the Citytv and Omni Television terrestrial television stations, Sportsnet, ...
.
History
The station was launched in late 1933 by young
Northern Ontario
Northern Ontario is a primary geographic and quasi-administrative region of the Canadian province of Ontario, the other primary region being Southern Ontario. Most of the core geographic region is located on part of the Superior Geological Pro ...
media entrepreneur Roy Thomson, who would later become the owner of ''
The Times
''The Times'' is a British daily national newspaper based in London. It began in 1785 under the title ''The Daily Universal Register'', adopting its current name on 1 January 1788. ''The Times'' and its sister paper '' The Sunday Times'' ( ...
'' of
London
London is the capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary dow ...
. Thomson acquired the '' Timmins Daily Press'' in 1934, and the newspaper and radio station shared a building and ownership for many years. In the 1940s and 1950s, CKGB was operating on 94.5 FM as CKRT-FM, until it was shut down. The station broadcast on AM from its inception, periodically changing frequencies until its last AM home at 750 in 1984, and adopting a
country
A country is a distinct part of the world, such as a state, nation, or other political entity. It may be a sovereign state or make up one part of a larger state. For example, the country of Japan is an independent, sovereign state, whi ...
format in 1990. Coincidentally, Thompson hired
Jack Kent Cooke
Jack Kent Cooke (October 25, 1912 – April 6, 1997) was a Canadian-American businessman in broadcasting and professional sports. Starting in sales, Cooke was very successful, eventually becoming a partner in a network of radio stations and news ...
to be a sales rep in the hungry 1930s. He went on to own the Los Angeles Kings hockey franchise. The station was an affiliate of
CBC Radio
CBC Radio is the English-language radio operations of the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation. The CBC operates a number of radio networks serving different audiences and programming niches, all of which (regardless of language) are outlined belo ...
's
Trans-Canada Network
The Trans-Canada Network was the name assigned to the main English-language radio network of the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation to distinguish it from the CBC's second network, the Dominion Network. Today, it is known as CBC Radio One. The Tra ...
until 1962 and then the CBC Radio network. In 1984, CKGB was authorized to drop its CBC affiliation as network service was now available in the area from CBC-owned CBCJ-FM.
In 2001, the station 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 to the FM dial, retaining its legendary
call letter
In broadcasting and radio communications, a call sign (also known as a call name or call letters—and historically as a call signal—or abbreviated as a call) is a unique identifier for a transmitter station. A call sign can be formally assigne ...
s as CKGB-FM but taking on the "
EZ Rock
EZ Rock was a brand of adult contemporary radio stations heard primarily in Canada. The branding was originally created by Telemedia in the mid-1990s for its AC stations, and based on the call sign of its former Toronto flagship CJEZ-FM (now ...
" brand and
adult contemporary
Adult contemporary music (AC) is a form of radio-played popular music, ranging from 1960s vocal and 1970s soft rock music to predominantly ballad-heavy music of the present day, with varying degrees of easy listening, pop, soul, R&B, quie ...
format, giving the small Timmins radio market its first direct competition, as the
Haliburton Broadcasting Group
The Haliburton Broadcasting Group was a Canadian group of FM radio stations, located primarily in smaller markets in Ontario. The company was purchased by Vista Broadcast Group in 2012.CHMT-FM had launched as AC/ CHR hybrid just a few months before. Less than a year after EZ Rock's Timmins launch, CHMT flipped to fill the void in country radio as ''Moose FM''.
In July 2011, the station altered its musical format to present a more contemporary version of its AC Mainstream Plus blend. With this shift, the station cancelled ''The '80s Lunch'' program and ''Sunday at the '70s'' ''Solid Gold Saturday Night'' was replaced by ''The Saturday Night Show'', a program featuring music from the 1970s to present. Scott Turnbull remains as host. The station also adopted a new logo as well as the positioning statement, "Today's Best Music".
CKGB was one of four EZ Rock-branded stations owned and operated by Rogers Media, all of which are located in Northern Ontario (the others being
CJMX-FM
CJMX-FM is a Canadian radio station, which broadcasts an adult contemporary format at 105.3 FM in Sudbury, Ontario. The station uses the on-air brand ''KiSS 105.3''. The station is owned by Rogers Sports & Media.
History
CJMX was established in ...
Sudbury Sudbury may refer to:
Places Australia
* Sudbury Reef, Queensland
Canada
* Greater Sudbury, Ontario (official name; the city continues to be known simply as Sudbury for most purposes)
** Sudbury (electoral district), one of the city's federal el ...
,
CHUR-FM
CHUR-FM is a Canadian radio station, which broadcasts a hot adult contemporary format at 100.5 FM in North Bay, Ontario. The station uses the on-air brand ''KiSS 100.5''.
History
The station was launched in 1984 by Gateway City Broadcasting, a ...
CHAS-FM
CHAS-FM (100.5 MHz) is a radio station licensed to and serving Sault Ste. Marie, Ontario, Canada. Owned and operated by Rogers Sports & Media, the station broadcasts a hot adult contemporary format branded as ''Kiss 100.5''.
History
The st ...
Sault Ste. Marie); as of July 2013, Rogers is in the process of rebranding all 4 stations, and is entertaining listener input through surveys on the stations' websites and through social media."Rogers Preparing To Rebrand Four Ontario EZRock's," from Radio Insight, 7/8/2013 On August 29, 2013, all "EZ Rock" stations rebranded to "
Kiss
A kiss is the touch or pressing of one's lips against another person or an object. Cultural connotations of kissing vary widely. Depending on the culture and context, a kiss can express sentiments of love, passion, romance, sexual attraction, ...
", discarding the "EZ Rock" branding now owned by
Bell Media
Bell Media Inc. (French: ) is a Canadian company formed by the amalgamation of several companies.
Establishment (2011–13)
On December 9, 2011, the Ontario Teachers' Pension Plan announced the sale of its majority stake in Maple Leaf Sports ...
.
In 2020, CKGB changed its moniker to "The New KiSS 99.3", but kept the same slogan and format. The station began carrying the ''Roz and Mocha Show'' from
CKIS-FM
CKIS-FM is a Canadian radio station, broadcasting at 92.5 MHz in Toronto, Ontario. Owned by Rogers Sports & Media, the station broadcasts a Top 40/CHR format branded as ''KiSS 92.5''.
The station was founded on January 26, 1993 as CISS-FM ...
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 anch ...
which also airs on other Rogers-owned "Kiss" stations across Canada.
Contributions to Canadian Music
Canadian country musician
Stompin' Tom Connors
Charles Thomas "Stompin' Tom" Connors, OC (February 9, 1936 – March 6, 2013) was a Canadian country and folk singer-songwriter. Focusing his career exclusively on his native Canada, he is credited with writing more than 300 songs and has re ...
recorded his first 45-RPM singles at the CKGB radio station in the mid-1960s. They were pressed by Quality Records in
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 anch ...
, and paid for (and sold) by Tom personally. Each of these singles features the CKGB logo.
Logos
File:Ez rock timmins.svg, EZ Rock Timmins logo used from 2001-2011.