CKWW

CKWW is a Canadian radio station, broadcasting at 580 AM in Windsor, Ontario. The station plays an oldies format targeted to the Windsor/Detroit market. The station broadcasts on a directional antenna to the northeast, to protect other nearby stations broadcasting on 580 AM: WTCM Traverse City, Michigan; CFRA Ottawa; WHP Harrisburg, Pennsylvania; and WILL Urbana, Illinois.

The original applicant for the CKWW licence was Royce Frith (later to be a Canadian Senator), but he sold the station to Geoff Stirling before it went to air. The station was launched by Stirling on March 29, 1964, with the official first day of broadcasting on March 30, 1964 [1]. Initially CKWW featured a strictly MOR or "good" music format with a heavy news and information commitment, making it the Windsor equivalent of Detroit's WJR. In 1967, sister station CKWW-FM was launched (later CJOM and now CIMX).

Stirling sold the stations in 1984, and the station dropped its MOR/adult contemporary music programming to adopt a news-talk format in 1989.

In 1993, CHUM acquired CKLW and CKLW-FM as well. CKLW (by then a Music of Your Life station) and CKWW swapped formats, with CKLW becoming the news-talk station and CKWW adopting the adult standards format.

In 2005, CKWW changed its on-air moniker from "580 Memories" to "AM 580 Motor City Favorites," dropped all jingles, and added more music from the 1960s through 1990s plus some AC chart recurrents while dropping most of its pre-1960 titles in an attempt to appeal to a younger audience. The change in the music proved largely unpopular with fans of the old standards format.

In October 2006, in response to WOMC eliminating the word "oldies" from its on-air positioning, CKWW revamped its playlist once more to focus primarily on music from the late 1950s through the late 1970s while dropping all post-1980 material. CKWW now plays many of the oldies hits originally heard on the Big 8. Although still known as "AM 580, Motor City Favorites," the station has returned jingles to its on-air presentation and added the taglines "Great Fun! Great Oldies!" and "All Oldies, All the Time" to its positioners.

CKWW streams its live programming on its website.

AM 580 plays up its connections to Windsor/Detroit's Top 40 radio past on the air, as the station's top-of-the-hour identification mentions that the station "broadcasts from the legendary studios of the Big 8" (at 1640 Ouellette Avenue in Windsor) and also features the widely recognized instrumental signature from CKLW-AM's glory years.

In 2007 CKWW along with the other CHUM stations were sold to CTVglobemedia.

In June 2012, CKWW began airing the syndicated American Top 40 - The 70s with Casey Kasem from 7-10 p.m. on Sunday and Tuesday evenings, but scaled it back in mid-2013 to a once-weekly broadcast in the Sunday evening time slot. Other weekend specialty programming includes Breakfast with The Beatles, Money Matters, Elvis Only!, Shake, Rattle, Showtime and the Sunday Oldies Show.

CKWW is the last remaining Bell Media AM station playing music as of 2010, when Winnipeg, Manitoba's CFRW went from oldies to sports.