CHNO-FM

Infobox Radio Station


name = CHNO-FM
airdate = 1947 (AM) 2000 (FM)
frequency = 103.9 MHz (FM)
area = Sudbury, Ontario
format = adult hits
owner = Newcap Broadcasting
erp = 11 kW
branding = Big Daddy 103.9
slogan = Playing Anything
class =
website = [http://www.bigdaddy1039.ca/ Big Daddy 103.9]
callsign_meaning = CH Northern Ontario

CHNO is a Canadian radio station, which broadcasts at 103.9 on the FM dial in Sudbury, Ontario. Airing an adult hits format, the station is branded as Big Daddy 103.9.

History of CHNO

The station began broadcasting on June 24, 1947 on AM 1440. It was a bilingual radio station, airing programming in both English and French, and was an affiliate of both CBC Radio's Dominion Network and Radio-Canada. It was operated by "Sudbury Broadcasting", a company owned by F. Baxter Ricard, and was the first bilingual radio station in Canada outside of Quebec.

On November 9, 1954, CHNO moved to AM 900.

In 1957, Ricard opened CFBR on AM 550 as a full-time French language station, and CHNO switched to full-time English. The licensing of CFBR, which took over the Radio-Canada affiliation from CHNO, made Ricard the first commercial broadcaster in Canada licensed to operate two AM radio stations in the same city. [ [http://www.broadcasting-history.ca/personalities/personalities.php?id=98] ] On December 31, 1969, CFBR and CHNO swapped frequencies, CHNO moving to 550 and CFBR taking over the 900 slot. In 1980, Baxter also launched the FM station CJMX.

In 1980, Ricard also became a major shareholder in Mid-Canada Communications. Sudbury Broadcasting continued to operate independently, although it was eventually merged into Mid-Canada Radio in 1985. [ [http://www.crtc.gc.ca/archive/ENG/Decisions/1985/DB85-146.HTM Decision CRTC 85-146 ] ] In 1990, Mid-Canada sold the stations to Pelmorex. [ [http://www.crtc.gc.ca/archive/ENG/Decisions/1990/DB90-676.HTM Decision CRTC 90-676 ] ] Following this sale, CFBR adopted the new call letters CHYC.

In the 1970s and 1980s, CHNO was Northern Ontario's most listened-to and most influential radio station, broadcasting a Top 40 format. However, the 1990 launch of CJRQ ended CHNO's dominance, and through most of the 1990s the station struggled through a variety of formats, including oldies, classic rock and talk radio. Former program director Scott Jackson, now the manager of CJLF-FM in Barrie, has stated that CHNO and CJMX were the most neglected stations in the entire Pelmorex corporate family during the time that he worked there, despite being the network's nominal flagships. [ [http://www.christianflamethrower.com/dial.html Recollections from former program director Scott Jackson] ]

In 1998, Pelmorex sold CJMX to Telemedia. The following year, Pelmorex sold CHNO and CHYC to Haliburton Broadcasting Group.

witch to FM

Haliburton applied to the CRTC to move the stations to FM, and on February 3, 2000, CHNO moved to 103.9, with a contemporary hit radio format as "Z103". Positioning slogans during the CHR period included "Sudbury's Best Music" and "Sudbury's #1 Hit Music Station." The FM and AM signals aired simultaneously for a few weeks, and on February 29, the AM signal was closed permanently ending 53 years of CHNO broadcasting on the AM dial. [ [http://www.crtc.gc.ca/archive/eng/Decisions/1999/DB99-404.HTM Decision CRTC 99-404 ] ] As a CHR station, Z103 hosted live-to-air programs from area nightclubs in the city, as well as syndicated shows such as the "Rick Dees Weekly Top 40" and "American Top 40".

The station was originally licensed to broadcast at 100 kilowatts, but because of transmitter interference to the Greater Sudbury Airport the station's license was permanently amended to 11 kilowatts. [ [http://www.crtc.gc.ca/archive/eng/Decisions/2001/DB2001-250.htm Decision CRTC 2001-250 ] ] [ [http://www.crtc.gc.ca/archive/ENG/Decisions/2001/DB2001-597.htm Decision CRTC 2001-597 ] ] [ [http://www.crtc.gc.ca/archive/ENG/Decisions/2002/db2002-294.htm Decision CRTC 2002-294 ] ]

On November 9, 2001, Haliburton sold CHNO to Newcap Broadcasting, although Haliburton continues to own CHYC. [ [http://www.crtc.gc.ca/archive/eng/Decisions/2001/DB2001-689.htm Decision CRTC 2001-689 ] ] Despite no longer having common ownership, however, as of 2008 CHYC and CHNO still operate from the same studio facility at 493 Barrydowne Road in Sudbury.

Newcap and Rogers Media soon entered into a joint sales agreement, under which Rogers held responsibility for advertising sales on CHNO as well as on its own CJRQ, CIGM and CJMX. In 2002, however, Friends of Canadian Broadcasting filed a brief with the CRTC opposing the station's license renewal — FCB took the position that in practice, the agreement was extending well beyond advertising sales and into both program production and news gathering, and thus constituted an illegal "de facto" local management agreement. [ [http://www.friends.ca/Resource/briefs/policy10300201.asp "Letter to CRTC re Legality of Business Arrangement between Rogers and Newcap in Sudbury"] , Friends of Canadian Broadcasting, October 30, 2002.] On January 31, 2005, the CRTC disallowed the agreement, ruling in its license renewals for the four stations that the agreement must be terminated no later than May 31 of that year. [ [http://www.crtc.gc.ca/archive/ENG/Decisions/2005/db2005-22.htm CRTC Decision 2005-22] ]

Big Daddy arrives

At 12:00 AM on January 1, 2006, with little or no warning, the station flipped to a variety hits format of 1980s, 1990s and current rock and pop music as Big Daddy 103.9, ending another era of Top 40 music in the Sudbury market. Prior to the change to variety hits, the very last song played on the old Top 40 format as Z103 was "Lose Yourself" by Eminem. After the flip, the first song of the new variety hits format was "Start Me Up", by the Rolling Stones. General manager Darlene Palmer said the station wanted to offer Sudbury "music you can dance to, sing to, date to, divorce to." Some promotional bumpers for the station feature a stiff-voiced character representing "Big Daddy" himself. The stiff-voiced character was replaced by a new one in May or early June 2008.

In the first quarter BBM ratings for 2006, CHNO's first ratings book under the Big Daddy format, the station regained the #1 status in the Sudbury market for the first time since 1990. However, the move was controversial with some of the station's prior listeners, and in July of 2006, just seven months after flipping CHNO to its current format, Newcap applied to the CRTC for a new contemporary hit radio station in the Sudbury market. In the application, Newcap stated that its market research found that a contemporary hit radio station could only be profitable in the market as one station within an ownership cluster, and not as a standalone entity. However, the application was denied by the CRTC on July 12, 2007 [ [http://www.crtc.gc.ca/archive/ENG/Decisions/2007/db2007-229.htm Broadcasting Decision CRTC 2007-229 ] ] .

The denial of the proposed contemporary hit radio station also became controversial, in part because the station that was licensed, CICS-FM, duplicated the format of an existing station in the market, Rogers' CIGM. In July 2008, however, Newcap announced a deal to acquire CIGM from Rogers in exchange for CFDR in Halifax. The transaction is pending CRTC approval. Both CIGM and CFDR are the sole remaining AM stations in their respective markets, and in both cases the current owner already has the maximum permitted number of FM stations in the applicable market, whereas the acquirer only has a single FM station. Both companies will be applying to move the stations to FM as part of the trade. [ [http://www.northernlife.ca/News/LocalNews/2008/07-24-08-radio.asp?NLStory=07-24-08-radio "Local country station will be converted to FM"] , "Northern Life", July 24, 2008.]

References

External links

* [http://www.bigdaddy1039.ca/ Big Daddy 103.9]
* [http://www.broadcasting-history.ca/listings_and_histories/radio/histories.php?id=285&historyID=92 CHNO history at Canadian communications foundation]
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