It is truly amazing to see a list of just how many Canadian radio stations there actually were way back in 1927, when the industry was just getting started. But what struck me from the nationwide list, as published in a hobby magazine called "Radio Age," was just how many call letters from back then exist in another form today. 

I had no idea that there was once a CJCL (now the Fan590) located in Montreal. CKCO, now a Kitchener TV station, once occupied space on the Ottawa AM dial. Northern Electric owned a Toronto radio station at the time. Its call letters? CHIC. 

CHUC, which for years has been a Coburg fixture, once occupied space on the radio in Saskatoon. 

And in those days when there wasn't even a CFRB, some call signs have stayed amazingly consistent. A radio station owned by Wentworth Radio Supply in Hamilton is still around. You knew it then and now as CKOC. 

CKAC in Montreal and CKY in Manitoba are still with us. 

And CFRC is a radio station out of Queen's University in Kingston. It was there back then, too, with the same call letters, although not on the FM dial. I'm guessing that must make it the oldest college station in the country, originally signing on in 1922, making it an astounding 103 years old!

There likely wasn't much in the way of programming as we know it today, but wouldn't it be amazing if DX receivers could not only get distant stations, but distant past stations? Impossible, of course, but that would be incredible to hear. Now where did I put that flux capacitor?