BY RICK PUSIAK
CKSO is back on the radio airwaves. ItÂ?s now on the FM band at 101.1 FM and features what is described as family oriented music.
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Timmins-based owner David Jackson picked the CKSO Â?call lettersÂ? because they are fondly remembered by thousands of radio listeners and TV viewers.
He lived in Sudbury at one time and remembers the days when CKSO was THE station.
Â?I also looked at all the other call letters I could have had, and I just didnÂ?t have any comfortable feeling about any others,Â? said Jackson.
Â?I thought (the call letters) would be familiar to people in the Sudbury area.Â?
The station will promote family values with an upbeat rock-pop contemporary style of music. Modern Christian music will also be played.
Â?I thought there would be a market here,Â? said Jackson.
Â?Basically weÂ?re looking to reach a large segment of the under 30s crowd.Â?
SundayÂ?s playlist will be toned down but the rest of the week will feature a lively selection of songs.
Â?We want to reach people that arenÂ?t used to this kind of music,Â? said Jackson.
There are no plans to Â?take onÂ? CJTK (Christ Jesus the King), the Christian radio station on Notre Dame Avenue that signed on in the late 1990s.
Jackson said his station is trying to reach a younger crowd.
But he thinks there will be radio listeners that will tune in to both 101.1 FM and CJTK at 95.5 FM.
The CKSO studio is being built slowly according to Jackson. He didnÂ?t wish to disclose the location just yet because of what he described as possible security concerns.
The official sign on date has yet to be announced, but the station is in a testing phase.
It may be hard for some radio fans to tune in because of the low wattage of the transmission Â? around the range of 50 watts.
But Jackson said believe it or not that 50-Watt transmission is enough to cover 90 per cent of the city.
A big problem with radio broadcasting in this city is the rock outcrops that interfere with transmission signals.
The new CKSO plans to be on the air 24 hours a day, seven days a week.
Â?We thought parents would appreciate our station because weÂ?re not going to have anything offensive,Â? said Jackson.
Â?ThereÂ?s a little bit of offensive music out there as you know. WeÂ?re trying to keep that off the air (and) promote positive family values.Â?
Jackson is a professional engineer who taught at Cambrian College for three years in the late 1960s and early 70s. He also worked as a consultant for people trying to get radio stations on the air.
It takes money to set up a radio station.
Estimates for some large broadcasting operations in this part of the province are around $1 million a year.
Jackson said his small shop wonÂ?t carry that size of price tag, but is hiring salespeople to bring in some advertising revenue.
More information can be obtained at [email protected].
The CKSO Â?call lettersÂ? went up for dibs in the 1990s following a Â?flipÂ? with sister station CIGM. CKSO became CJRQ (Q 92) and took up CIGMÂ?s frequency at 92.7 on the FM dial.
CIGM transferred over to CKSOÂ?s frequency at 790 on the AM dial. CIGM is the last radio station in Sudbury on the AM band.
Call letters often tell a story.
Broadcasting legend has it the Â?SOÂ? in CKSO stands for Sudbury, Ontario.
The Â?GMÂ? in CIGM stands for George Miller, one of the early partners in the Sudbury radio station business.
Ironically the sign on of the new CKSO comes at a time when Sudbury is about to celebrate a major broadcasting anniversary.
CKSO was the first private television station in Canada signing on Oct. 25, 1953.
Anyone with roots in Sudbury remembers CKSO TV and the big broadcasting station at the top of the Beatty Street Hill.
People who were there describe it as a magical place, full of on-air characters.
The TV station was constructed with the help of many announcers and staff who worked at the old CKSO radio building located on Elgin Street behind the old Nickel Range Hotel and across from the Grand Theatre.
