Branding 101.5 EZ Rock First air date 1985 | Frequency 101.5 MHz (FM) Format Adult contemporary | |
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City Kelowna, British Columbia Slogan Kelowna's At Work Music Station | ||
CILK-FM is a Canadian radio station located in Kelowna, British Columbia. Broadcasting at 101.5 FM, the station airs an adult contemporary format branded as 101.5 EZ Rock. The station is owned by Bell Media.
History
The station traces its origins to December 21, 1984 when the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission awarded a new FM license for the Kelowna market to Silk FM Broadcasting, a company two-thirds controlled by veteran radio broadcaster Nick Frost.
CILK-FM signed on for the first time at 101.5 MHz with a soft adult contemporary format at 10 AM on June 21, 1985, with an average effective radiated power of 11,000 watts. The transmitter had a northward-directed pattern from the 3,200 foot level of Okanagan Mountain, 7 kilometres south of Kelowna city centre.
On May 7, 1993, Silk FM Broadcasting applied to amend its broadcasting licence by relocating the transmitter site on Okanagan Mountain approximately three kilometers to the south and by decreasing the effective radiated power from 11,000 to 10,300 watts. The applicant indicated these changes would improve service to the Central Okanagan area. On July 19 of the same year, the CRTC approved the application.
In 1995, Frost hired a single employee, David E. Fowler, whose mandate was to start up an internet service provider: Silk Internet. The workplace, and all the associated equipment, was set up in the lobby of the radio station. A systems administrator, Stephen Hawtree, was hired soon afterwards to assist with the technical operations. By the end of the first week of operation there were five brand new Internet subscribers and within two years it became Kelowna's largest internet providers. Within five years the subscriber list was up to about 6,000. In 2000, the Silk Internet was sold to Pacific Coast Net, which itself was subsequently sold to Uniserve Communications. That same year, Silk FM Broadcasting launched an online news and local information web portal Castanet.net.
In 2004, the station adopted an adult hits format. On October 5, the CRTC announced that Silk FM Broadcasting had applied to add rebroadcast transmitters in the nearby Okanagan cities of Vernon and Penticton, in addition to its owned and operated rebroadcast transmitters at Big White Mountain and Magna Bay. On February 28, 2005, the CRTC denied the application to add the transmitters into Vernon and Penticton on the grounds that it would result in a significant increase to the coverage of CILK-FM into the adjacent radio markets.
On May 3, 2006, several years after Frost bought out minority shareholders of Silk FM Broadcasting and became sole owner of the company, he announced the sale of CILK-FM and its two broadcast transmitters to Standard Radio for a total purchase price of $9.25 million CAD. The sale was approved unconditionally by the CRTC in December 2006.
In the summer of 2007, Silk FM modified its format to adult contemporary, playing contemporary and modern hits. In October 2007, Astral Media acquired Standard's terrestrial radio and television assets, including CILK-FM. By January 2011, the station became 101.5 EZ Rock, keeping the adult contemporary format. By March 2011, the station was added at the Canadian hot AC panel per Mediabase status, joining sister contemporary hit radio station CHSU-FM, but later moved to the Canadian AC panel the following week.