The following is a timeline of CKPC’s history:
1923 – CKPC signs on the air. It was one of the earliest stations in Canada and the first to have a female owner in 1951. The station started as an amateur radio station, but founder Wallace Russ quickly applied for a broadcast license after a few trial transmissions. His license was granted, and he started broadcasting from his home in Preston at a power of just five watts.
1927 – The station’s power increases to 25 watts. The station’s main content was local news and local artists and talent from Kitchener, Hamilton and Brantford.
1933 – Cyrus Dolph purchases the station, which is soon moved from Preston to Brantford. In 1934, the station moved from to 930 kHz.
1947 – CKPC moves to the 1380 AM location on the band.
1949 – The company adds an FM station, CKPC-FM, operating at 250 watts and simulcasting the AM signal. The stations continue to mostly air the same programming until 1976, when the FM station’s power increased to 50,000 watts.
1951 – Florence Buchanan assumed full control of Telephone City Broadcast Ltd., including CKPC-FM and CKPC, from her father, Cyrus. She became the first woman in Canada to own and operate a radio station. In 1959, CKPC increases power to 10,000 watts. In 1972, Richard (RD) Buchanan purchased Telephone City Broadcast Ltd. from his mother, Florence.
1999 – Telephone City Broadcast Ltd. is denied a license to add an FM translator at Simcoe, which would have corrected inadequacies of CKPC’s AM signal to Simcoe, Port Dover, and Delhi area.
2004 – CKPC switches formats from adult contemporary to oldies. Its power increased from 10,000 watts to 25,000 watts in 2007.
2009 – After the death of then owner Richard Buchanan, the new station owner becomes William Vasil Evanov of Evanov Communications.
2010 – The station flips to a country format.
2020 – The CRTC approves a request by Evanov to move sister station, CFWC-FM’s Christian format to CKPC. Evanov felt the country format would be more profitable on an FM signal. The switch took effect on-air on Sept. 4, 2020, with Arise moving to 1380 and CFWC flipping to country as Hot Country 93.9.
Aug. 4, 2023 – Evanov Communications shuts down CKPC AM 1380 at midnight.