Why would a newspaper want to start a radio station in this current climate when both industries seem to be in such trouble? The question comes up after I read that a newspaper in Kelowna, B.C. plans to sign on a 24/7 all digital radio outlet on Monday. Okanagan Valley Radio.com boasts that it's "your home for original oldies, cool jazz and hot blues." 

I suppose in a smaller town like that area of B.C. maybe there's room for such a newcomer. And because it's digital, it likely won't cost too much - and it bypasses any needed CRTC permissions. Still, I find it odd they would consider this a moneymaker. 

But it reminds me of a time when the two unlikely twains did meet. 

In 1922, The Toronto Star started its own radio station, CFCA, when the broadcast industry was still in its infancy. But it only lasted until 1933. 

WQXR AM & FM in The Big Apple famously ID'd itself with a deep voiced announcer proudly proclaiming both as "The Radio Stations Of The New York Times." 

And closer to home, The Buffalo Evening News' one-time ownership can still be seen in the call letters of WBEN AM 930, even though it hasn't been in the radio biz for eons. (Its one time rival, WEBR 970, now an all religious format with different call letters, was owned for a while by arch-rival publication The Buffalo Courier Express.)  

Were there others? And why did newspapers get out of the business when radio was at its peak? It's a bizarre match between the two in some ways, but it also made sense in others. I wonder if the Star ever regretted the decision to abandon its station, which for a time was the only one in Toronto.