City London, Ontario Frequency 980 AM Format news/talk | Branding AM980 First air date 1922 | |
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Slogan London's Breaking News Leader | ||
CFPL, or AM980, is a radio station owned by Corus Entertainment and based in London, Ontario, Canada. Transmitter power is 10,000 watts daytime, 5,000 watts nighttime. Broadcast frequency is 980 kHz on the AM dial. CFPL uses a four-tower directional antenna with differing patterns during the day and night. The station primarily airs news and talk programming.
History
Originally CJGC, the station first went on the air at approximately 698 kHz, at a time when wavelength was usually used rather than frequency. It later changed to 910 kHz, then, to avoid interference from a Mexican station at 909, moved to 595 kHz, which it maintained until it merged with CKOK Windsor to become CKLW in April 1933. During the 1920s and early 1930s, CJGC airtime was used from time to time by CNRL, a phantom station of the Canadian National Railways.
In September 1933, the merger was dissolved and a new transmitter at 730 kHz went on the air with the call sign CFPL. The station was an affiliate of the Canadian Radio Broadcasting Commission from 1933 to 1936 when it became an affiliate of the new Canadian Broadcasting Corporation. It was an affiliate of the CBC's Dominion Network from 1944 to 1962 before that network was integrated into CBC Radio. The station changed frequency in 1941 to 1570 kHz, and in February 1949 it changed to 980 kHz. Like many other stations, it had to reduce transmitter power during the night.
The station aired mostly music geared to older generations, and during the 1970s and early 1980s, used holiday weekends to play "the unforgettables" - music from bygone eras, and the Saturday Night Dance Party (three, later four, hours) aired big band music. Newscasts were major for CFPL, including the prime weekday coverage of Noonwatch from 12 to 1, with local, national and agricultural coverage. The station carried CBC newscasts at 8 am and 6 pm, and CBC network programs from 6:30 to 10 pm, plus a limited amount of weekend programming, some of it delayed to a later hour. A significant program feature during the 1960s and 1970s was the Open Line each weekday morning from 6 am to 10 am, mostly hosted by Bill Brady, allowing listeners to call in about nearly anything, and which served as a community bulletin board during winter storms, carrying information about cancellation of school classes and other events.
The CBC affiliation continued until 1978, when CBC established CBCL-FM on 93.5 MHz, a rebroadcast transmitter of CBL in Toronto. The station played middle of the road and adult contemporary music into the late 1990s (and featured Top 40 music in some dayparts during the 1960s), but has since transitioned to 100% news/talk/sports.