It doesn’t happen often – a radio station going off the air, never to be heard again. But there are a few examples I can think of in Toronto-Buffalo’s recent history.
 
CKEY
 
Probably the most famous for me is the demise of CKEY. It went from being a very successful station – including a period as a rock challenger to CHUM – to a variety of formats, including MOR, country and oldies. For a while in the 70s, it gave ratings leader CFRB a run for its money, with a similar music playlist, some great personalities and a huge newsroom.

It began life as 'EY in 1945 and was gone by 1991, when what is now the Fan 590 saw CJCL move over from its old 1430 perch.


 
CKEY was the place I got my first professional job in radio and I have very fond memories of it for that reason. The people there were real pros and it’s a shame what happened to it.



CKO
 
CKO’s history also plays a part in CKEY’s demise. In 1987, the struggling all news network at 99.1 in Toronto tried to swap frequencies with CKEY. But the CRTC turned them down. You can only wonder if CKEY would still be around today if the trade had been approved. CKO was not financially viable in the long run, lost millions during its brief existence across the country and finally pulled the plug on November 10, 1989. The CBC would eventually take over the valuable frequency and Radio One remains at 99.1.



And there’s one last CKO-CKEY tie that’s tremendously ironic. When the all-news network left the air for good that day, they aired one last newscast at noon, leading with the fact it would be their last. But somehow CKEY got wind of what was happening and broke the story on their own noon newscast, which aired right before CKO was able to make the announcement.

It was such a terribly run place, that its very last story about its own demise – and what should have been a final exclusive – was broken by somebody else!




CKFH

Speaking of 1430, of all the lost stations, this may be the one I miss the most. Technically, you can trace its heritage back through CJCL. But the original Foster Hewitt (hence the "FH") station is long since gone. It was one of the few that took on CHUM in the late 60s and early 70s for Top 40 prominence, and despite a great line-up, a looser playlist and even its own chart (that's the first one ever issued, below), it finally gave up chasing 1050. 


There's an odd story behind how I came to own this first-ever FH chart. When they announced on the air they were putting them in record stores, I rushed over to Record World in Yorkdale to get mine. But by the time I heard about, it was already in its second week. I picked up chart #2 (fittingly because they called themselves "#2 radio") and buried in the back, a bit crumpled, was a single copy of chart #1. It's the one pictured above. Somehow it got mixed up and left behind when they changed them, or my FH Chart collection would have started at #2.

When CKFH was sold to Telemedia in 1981, the call letters and the format both changed. But those of us who grew up looking for an alternative to the Drake format on CHUM were happy to tune to 1430. It wasn't a ratings killer, but it sure was fun while it lasted. 


(From left to right - Duff Roman, Mike Williams, John Donabie, Mal Faris and Tom Fulton.) 

 
 CJRN
 
After years as a mainstream radio station, they had a ridiculous “tourist radio” format subjected on them. It was accompanied by restrictions so severe, that they couldn’t even report out of town sports scores, because it was strictly about Niagara Falls. After being a one time pioneer in the area with hosts like John Michael and the Motts, the CRTC pulled the licence in 2012 and the 710 AM frequency has been vacant ever since.
 
CHSC
 
Another Niagara area pioneer, CHSC St. Catharines was a very successful music station for many years. I didn’t realize it had only been around since 1967, but it managed to find an audience fairly quickly. But it didn’t last. It fell victim to a terrible signal, especially at night, and the migration of music listeners to FM. By 1994, the station filed for bankruptcy, and got into trouble with the feds for not paying taxes.
 
Even the sale of the place to a new owner didn’t help, as it became more foreign language oriented and targeted at Toronto’s Italian audience – well outside its original market purview. The CRTC started coming down on the new owner for repeated violations, finally revoking the licence altogether. It went off the air for good on October 1, 2010.
 
A new owner, a new format and new call letters remain on the 1220 frequency – CFAJ has been on and “testing” since 2020, but more than two years later, it’s yet to become a “full service” radio station, airing no commercials, news, or having any announcers. How this latest entity is making any money or when it will finally become what it’s supposed to be beyond “testing” remains to be seen – or at least heard.
 
WEBR
 
The oldest station on this list, WEBR had been on the air in Buffalo using various formats since 1924. It was a huge outlet in its day, as the local affiliate of the Mutual Broadcasting Network. It lasted until 1975, when the owners of WNED bought it and changed it into an educational and all news format and used the calls WNED-AM.
 
But the station that helped bring NPR programming and another all-news format into Toronto’s reach via AM wasn’t to last, either. It went off the air Nov. 30, 2012, only to return under yet another owner, this time as an AM version of all-religious WDCX with the call letters WDCZ. 

The WEBR call sign took the place of WJJL and is now being used by the Niagara Falls, N.Y. outlet at 1440 AM.