Broadcast area Metro Vancouver Slogan Modern Rock First air date 1923 | Branding 102.7 The Peak Frequency 102.7 MHz (FM) | |
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City Vancouver, British Columbia | ||
CKPK-FM is a radio station in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada. It broadcasts at 102.7 MHz on the FM dial. As of 2012, the station is owned by the Jim Pattison Group and airs an alternative rock format branded as "102.7 The Peak". Founded in 1923, in the past the station has broadcast numerous formats on other frequencies, under the call signs CFXC, CJOR, CHRX and CKBD. CKPK's studios are located on West 8th Avenue in the Fairview neighbourhood of Vancouver, while its transmitter is located atop Mount Seymour.
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History
CKPK-FM was originally launched by electrical store Hume and Rumble in 1923 as experimental station CFXC, broadcasting on 440 metres with power at 10 watts. It adopted the 1030 AM frequency in 1925. The station was acquired by George Chandler the following year; under Canadian broadcast policy at the time, CFXC was shut down and a new license was issued to Chandler for CJOR. The station subsequently increased power to 50 watts in 1928 and shared time with CNRV, then moved frequencies to 1210 AM and its studios to 840 Howe Street (with another boost in power to 500 watts) in 1930, and then to 600 AM in 1933.
CJOR increased its transmission power to 1,000 watts in 1941, moving its transmitter site to Lulu Island, where it is located to this day (making it the oldest broadcast site in the vicinity in continuous operation). In 1944, it became the Vancouver affiliate of Canadian Broadcasting Corporation's (CBC) Dominion Network, then increased power again to 5,000 watts in 1947 with two 280-foot towers at a site in Richmond; that same year, Chandler established CJOR Ltd. to run the station.
In 1961, CJOR further increased power to 10,000 watts (and three towers), and became an independent station the following year after CBC ceased the Dominion Network's operations. Following Chandler's death in 1964, Pattison acquired the station the following year after the Board of Broadcast Governors (predecessor of the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission, or CRTC) decided not to allow station parent CJOR Ltd. (by then owned by Chandler's widow Marie) to renew the licence, but requested that it find a new buyer for CJOR. By the 1970s, the station shifted its focus away from music to talk radio.
On October 31, 1983, with the pending demolition of the Grosvenor Hotel on Howe Street, CJOR relocated from the Hotel's basement to its present studios at 1401 West 8th Avenue. On September 2, 1988, at Noon, CJOR dropped its talk radio format, adopting a classic rock format with the new call sign CHRX, and the first song being Bob Seger's "Old Time Rock & Roll." (The former CJOR callsign currently belongs to a radio station in Osoyoos.) The station was very popular during the late 1980s, but started experiencing declining ratings by the early 1990s. To remedy this, in 1993, the station added sports talk shows to its programming. However, this did not boost their ratings, and on January 7, 1994, at 6 PM, after signing off with Led Zeppelin's "Stairway to Heaven", the station began stunting with ocean waves; on January 9 at Noon, it switched formats and call signs again, adopting the CKBD calls and the on-air brand The Bridge for Canada's first contemporary Christian music station. The first song on "The Bridge" was "Awesome God" by Rich Mullins. On July 31, 1998, the station changed to the adult standards format as "600 AM" with the slogan "Unforgettable Adult Favourites."
Switch to FM
On May 30, 2008, CKBD was given approval by the CRTC to move to 100.5 MHz on the FM dial. As part of its move to FM, CKBD planned to switch from adult standards to adult album alternative with a new call sign, CKPK-FM. On October 23, 2008, the station signed on for testing. 600 AM signed off on November 13, 2008 with a 25-minute summary of the station's 84-year history on the AM band, followed by "Thanks for the Memory" by Bob Hope. The adult standards format moved to Astral Media's CISL (formerly oldies) days before. At 7:20 that same evening, at a live party at Vancouver's Seasons in the Park restaurant, "100.5 The Peak" launched with U2's "Elevation."
CKPK stopped simulcasting programming and shut down the AM 600 transmitter on December 31, 2008.
CKPK-FM got a new competitor, CHHR-FM, on Canada Day, 2009, airing a AAA format. CHHR (since recalled as CHLG-FM) changed formats to classic hits on June 20, 2014.
CKPK-FM, like competing active rock station CFOX-FM, leans very alternative rock, although CKPK-FM serves as the de facto alternative rock station in Vancouver due to its report on the Mediabase Canadian alternative rock panel. There are no classic rock artists at the station, unlike CHHR.
On December 9, 2010, Jim Pattison applied to exchange frequencies with CFRO-FM which then operated at 102.7 MHz. This application was approved on September 9, 2011. The swap took place almost a year later on September 10, 2012.
During the summer of 2015, CKPK began evolving towards a more modern rock format. By August 2016, CKPK completed its shift to the format, and changed their slogan to "Vancouver's Modern Rock", while retaining the "Peak" moniker. The station now competes more closely with CFOX.