Brantford’s CKPC AM 1380 signs off the air

Just shy of marking 100 years on the air, CKPC AM 1380 is no more.

Without any formal announcement broadcasting the shutdown, the Brantford radio station signed off just after midnight Friday, leaving just silence.

“I stayed up in my pajamas because I felt it was an historic event,” said Pete Byerlay, who began his 37-year career at CKPC AM in 1963. “They played O’Canada at midnight and that was it.”

It was a quiet end to a century of local radio broadcasting.

In a social media posting, Evanov Communications announced its decision to shut down AM 1380.

“The broadcasting sector today is operating in a challenging environment, from which no broadcaster is immune,” said the post. “After careful consideration and evaluation of ECI’s current situation, local market conditions, and changes to the radio industry more broadly, we have made the difficult but necessary decision to streamline our Brantford operations and focus on our two commercial FM stations in the market.”

When CKPC signed on the air in December 1923 it was one of the first stations in Canada. It began not in Brantford, but was founded by Wallace Russ, an amateur radio operator, who broadcast from his home in Preston at a power of just five watts.

In 1933, Cyrus Dolph purchased the station, which had been steadily increasing its reach to listeners with content that was mainly local news and talent from Kitchener, Hamilton and Brantford.

Dolph moved the station to Brantford in 1933 and, in 1947, it moved to 1380 AM on the band.

It was the Golden Age of Radio, with stations popping up all over the country. The company added an FM station in 1949, CKPC-FM, operating at 250 watts and simulcasting the AM signal.

In an article written for The Bay Observer, former CKPC new director John Best called the shutdown of 1380 AM “a sign of the times.”

In June, Bell Media announced it was closing stations in Vancouver, Calgary, Winnipeg, Edmonton and London and was putting Hamilton’s CKOC and CHAM up for sale.

“In its heyday, CKPC AM became well respected for its commitment to local news, always investing far above what would be required to fulfill its license commitments,” wrote Best.

When he managed the news operation in 1979, Best said there were 13 journalists in the newsroom in addition to legendary sports editor Arnold Anderson, and a farm reporter. He said the station provided live local newscasts daily from 6 am to midnight, seven days a week.

“Those were some good times,” said Ed McMahon who became known as Mayor of the Morning for his early-morning show on CKPC. He was there from 1987 until his retirement last year.

McMahon said then station manager Dick Buchanan was committed to playing music from the 1960s, ’70s and ’80s while other stations were “changing their formats left and right.”

Brantford native and local musician Jeff Harding lamented that the end of CKPC AM means “the soundtrack of my youth is now silent.”

“It was always on in my grandparents’ kitchen,” said Harding. “It’s how I discovered Gordon Lightfoot.”

Former Brantford MPP Phil Gillies remembers when CKPC was a “thriving station – an important part of everything that went on in the Brantford area.”

Peter Jackson, a former reporter for 1380 CKPC and 92.1 FM for more than 18 years, said reporters were assigned to cover city and county council meetings, school board meetings and a host of other beats.

One of the station’s most memorable events for employees happened in 1980 when then Prime Minister Joe Clark came into the station for a scheduled on-air interview, with the national media in tow. In the CKPC lobby, he announced to the world that Canada had help safely smuggle six US diplomats out of Iran.

Byerlay said employees had stuck a CKPC logo on the wall behind Clark.

“It was a mad scene of reporters. That night, our scoop became the lead story on every TV network and there was our little station logo.”

Brent Sleightholm, who retired as a CKPC newscaster in 2017, said “after years of featuring local news as a showcase and a reason to tune into the station and advertise on it, things changed” when it was bought, following the death of Buchanan, by Toronto-based Evanov Communications.

“They took a different tact, eliminating many Brantford newsroom jobs and drastically reducing newscasts and local coverage,” said Sleightholm, adding that they instead relied on music and entertainment programming as a means of attracting an audience.

In 2004, CKPC switched formats from adult contemporary to oldies. In 2010, the station flipped to a country format.

In 2020, the CRTC approved a request from Evanov to move sister station CFWC-FM’s Christian format to CKPC. “Arise” moved to 1380.

Despite the shutdown of Brantford’s AM station, McMahon believes radio has a bright future.

“Radio isn’t going anywhere,” he said. “It’s a media that doesn’t demand your attention. You can do the dishes, make breakfast. It’s the first thing you turn on when you get into your car. It’s going to different formats and making transitions, but it’s as strong as ever.”