City | Kelowna, British Columbia |
---|---|
Branding | Q103•1 |
Slogan | "Kelowna's Hottest Hits" |
Frequency | 103.1 MHz (FM) |
First air date | 1928 |
Format | Hot AC/CHR |
ERP | 7,600 watts average 35,000 watts peak horizontal polarization only |
HAAT | 116.1 meters (381 ft) |
Class | B |
Callsign meaning | C Kelowna Q Q |
Former callsigns | CKOV-FM (2007-2010) CKOV-AM (1928-2007) |
Owner | Jim Pattison Group |
Sister stations | CKLZ-FM |
Webcast | Listen Live |
Website | Q103•1 |
CKQQ-FM is a Canadian radio station that broadcasts a hot adult contemporary format at 103. 1 FM in Kelowna, British Columbia. The station is owned by Jim Pattison Group.
The station's origins are actually that of an amateur radio station with the call letters 10AY owned by the Kelowna Amateur Radio Club, whose founding members in 1928 were George Dunn, Bobby Johnston, Harry Blakeborough and James William Bromley Browne. The club was formed with the sole purpose of obtaining a non-commercial radio license from the federal radio and telecommunications regulator of the day. 10AY broadcast church services, theatre shows and concert performances by the Ogopogo Concert Club. Its initial operating power was 50 watts.
Two 90-foot poles were erected for antennas for the new CKOV-AM (the call letters naturally stood for Canada Kelowna Okanagan Valley), and studios and offices were built on Mill Avenue. Browne used his own money to get the station going and then "sold shares" for $2.00 each. Okanagan Broadcasters was incorporated on July 27, 1931. On November 4, 1931, as a condition of Jim Browne being awarded a commercial radio license the non-commercial license had to be terminated and 10AY went off the air on this date. Following this, Browne flipped a switch and CKOV-AM was born. He announced the station as, "This is CKOV, The Voice of the Okanagan". Its 60-watt transmitter was converted to 100 watts and CKOV-AM operated on a frequency of 1230 kHz.
The station continued as a community effort. Listeners sent in donations to keep the station going. Among them was hardware merchant W.A.C. Bennett, later to become Premier of British Columbia. At one of the licence renewal hearings years later, Browne was told by the regulator to "clean up" the ownership. It took him several years, and even then, they could not find some of the people who had "donated" to the resources of CKOV.
In 1933, CKOV moved to 1210 kHz and decreased power to 50 watts. Following this move a year later, in 1934, the frequency changed to 630 kHz and power returned to 100 watts. It was an affiliate of the Canadian Radio Broadcasting Commission from 1933 to 1936 and was then an affiliate of the new Canadian Broadcasting Corporation. In 1938, they purchased property on Lakeshore Road and built a new transmitter on the new site, with an increased power of 1000 watts. Okanagan Broadcasters obtained licenses for CKCQ Quesnel in 1957, CKWL Williams Lake in 1960 and CKBX 100 Mile House in 1971, which made history as Canada’s first licensed private radio network.