CHMJ

CHMJ

City of license	Vancouver, British Columbia
Broadcast area	Metro Vancouver
Branding	AM730
Slogan	All Traffic, All The Time
Frequency	730 kHz (AM)
First air date	February 3, 1955
Format	Highway advisory radio
Power	50,000 watts
Class	B
Transmitter coordinates	49°08′01″N 123°00′17″W / 49.1335°N 123.004587°W / 49.1335; -123.004587 (CHMJ Tower)Coordinates: 49°08′01″N 123°00′17″W / 49.1335°N 123.004587°W / 49.1335; -123.004587 (CHMJ Tower)
Callsign meaning	C H MoJo
Former callsigns	CKLG (1955-2001) CJNW (2001-2002)
Former frequencies	1070 kHz (1955-1961)
Owner	Corus Entertainment (Corus Radio Company)
Sister stations	CKNW, CFOX-FM, CFMI-FM
Webcast	Listen live
Website	AM730

CHMJ (identified on air as AM 730) is a Canadian radio station in the Metro Vancouver region of British Columbia currently owned by Corus Entertainment. It broadcasts on 730 kHz, with an effective radiated power of 50,000 watts from a transmitter in Delta. Studios are located in the TD Tower in Downtown Vancouver.

Format

In November 2006, CHMJ adopted an all-day, every day "all traffic" format, becoming the first station in North America to do so. The station dropped rebroadcasts of Corus Network talk shows, and terminated its programming of university sports and Seattle Seahawks coverage.

History

CKLG

On February 3, 1955, Vancouver AM radio station CKLG, owned by Lions Gate Broadcasting Ltd., began transmitting at 1070 kHz on the AM band with a 1,000 watt transmitter. Originally, studios and transmitter were both located in North Vancouver. The radio station was controlled by the Gordon Gibson family, better known in logging circles (Gordon Gibson, Sr, "The Bull of the Woods." In 1958, the station changed frequencies from 1070 kHz to 730 kHz and increased power to 10,000 watts. The transmitter site was moved at this time from North Vancouver to Delta. The station was sold to Moffat Broadcasting Ltd. in 1961, and in 1964 launched an FM sister station, the original CKLG-FM (now CFOX-FM), at 99.3 MHz. Throughout the 1960s, 1970s, and 1980s, CKLG (also known as "LG73") played a variety of contemporary music, at times ranking as one of the most popular radio stations in the Vancouver market. In 1975, the station once again increased its transmitted power, raising it to the current 50,000 watts.

CJNW

The station's popularity declined in the 1980s and 1990s, as many music stations moved from AM to FM broadcasting, and in 1992 the Corus Radio Company (now Corus Entertainment) purchased Moffat's Vancouver radio properties. On February 1, 2001, Corus changed the station's call letters to CJNW (the CKLG call sign was later transferred to Rogers Communications' CKLG-FM), adopting a 24-hour news format referred to on-air as "NW2, all news radio, powered by CKNW". The hope was to leverage the Vancouver market dominance of sister station CKNW, in light of the success of Rogers' all-news station News 1130. CJNW's all-news format lasted for approximately 14 months, but was abandoned in light of lower than expected ratings.

Mojo Radio

MOJO Sports Radio

After several months of broadcasting a modern rock format, and over a month of down time for a transmitter site upgrade, in 2002 the station changed call letters once again to the current CHMJ, branded as "MOJO 730, Talk Radio for Guys". When that format failed to attract a large enough audience, the station changed to an all-sports format in early 2004, identified as "MOJO Sports Radio, AM 730". It was the radio home of the Vancouver Giants, Vancouver Whitecaps, and various other local sports events including UBC Thunderbirds and SFU Clansmen football and basketball games. It also carried Seattle Seahawks games from Seattle's 710 KIRO. It was an ESPN Radio affiliate and also shared some sports content with CKNW.

Its main talk personalities were morning host John McKeachie and afternoon host Bob "The Moj" Marjanovich, both former hosts at CKST "The TEAM 1040", a Vancouver all-sports station owned by CHUM Limited. MOJO competed heavily with The TEAM for ratings, personnel, and broadcast contracts, but continued to rank at the bottom of the BBM ratings, placing 17th of 17 stations surveyed in April 2006 with a 0.9 percent market share.

AM 730

On May 30, 2006, CHMJ terminated its all-sports format, switching to a continuous series of promotional content. The station re-launched on June 5, 2006 with a new format described as "continuous drive-time traffic and the best of talk". Programming consisted of continuous traffic reports during the morning and afternoon peak periods and rebroadcasts of talk radio programming from CKNW. CHMJ also continued to provide play-by-play coverage of Vancouver Giants WHL hockey, Vancouver Whitecaps, and Seattle Seahawks NFL football.

In late 2006, the station dropped the talk show aspect of the format and became "All traffic...All The Time"; it would also later discontinue the remaining sports coverage it carried over from its sports format. The station now carries virtually nothing but traffic reports and weather, making it a commercial highway advisory radio station.

See also

• CFMJ, a radio station in Toronto that also used the MOJO format.

References

• Houston, William. "Mojo says goodbye to all-sports format," The Globe and Mail, May 30, 2006.
• Leung, Wendy. "Mojo Sports Radio shuts down; 14 staff let go: Broadcasters McKeachie, McConnell leaving as radio station turns to traffic format," The Vancouver Sun, May 31, 2006.
• McLellan, Wendy. "Vancouver loses its MOJO: Station never took off with sports; hopes listeners want traffic reports," The Vancouver Province, May 31, 2006.
• Pap, Elliot. "Sports radio stations brimming with hockey coverage," The Vancouver Sun, September 23, 2005.
• Schecter, Brian. "Radio's Jock Talk Wars," The Tyee, April 19, 2004.
• Yu, Karl. "Jock Talk," Vancouver Courier, April 14, 2005.

External links

• AM730
• CHMJ history at Canadian Communications Foundation
• Query the REC's Canadian station database for CHMJ