Kitchener’s oldest radio station began in Brantford
Brantford to Waterloo to Kitchener. That’s the route Kitchener-Waterloo’s last remaining AM radio station took in its earliest years. Today’s 570 News traces itself back to mid-1920s Brant County but before delving into its nomadic story, let’s examine K-W’s very first radio station.
Canadian broadcasting licence No. 39, issued in spring 1922 to the Kitchener Daily Record, approved station CJCF to broadcast on 420 metres with a radius of 60 miles. Listeners fine-tuned their crystal sets for opening night Thursday, July 28, 1922. The equipment was set up in Oscar Rumpel’s mansion, Forest Hill, (site of 2020s Cameron Heights Collegiate) and he was the first announcer. Oscar and son Carl had been tinkering with wireless broadcasting since the early 1920s as had Father Lawrence Kuntz of St. Jerome’s College; George Hainsworth, the soon-to-be NHL star; and 17-year-old Carl Pollock, future Electrohome head. These, among others, had already created experimental broadcasting stations in K-W.
At Forest Hill mansion, Kitchener performers gathered for opening night: Krug’s Orchestra, pianist H. Leslie Staebler and the Trinity Methodist Choir Quartet. Contralto Ruth Betzner sang “Roumanian Love Song” and there were violin and saxophone soloists, fire chief Harry Guerin’s safety tips plus stock reports and baseball scores. In week two’s hour-long broadcast, Waterloo musicians including Harold Wagner, Lorraine Conrad and Alma Smith were featured.
For five years, CJCF, a.k.a. 9BC, had an informal, off-andon-the-air schedule, sometimes featuring large bands and touring stars of the 1920s entertainment world, sometimes spotlighting area performers. One 1926 highlight was an evening long broadcast of Richard Wagner’s music live from the Lyric Theatre featuring the Waterloo Musical Society (WMS) band.
Other “pop-up” stations appeared fleetingly, such as David Forsyth’s CKKC broadcasting from his 31 Margaret Ave. home. With CJCF’s intermittent schedule, Preston’s CKPC became the more dependable station-of-choice for late-1920s’ K-W listeners. It featured many Kitchener musicians such as the early Hawaiian music star Professor F.C. Awai, a.k.a. Clarke Russell.
Then came the Daily Record’s June 29, 1929 headline: “New Broadcasting Station will be Opened July 20.”
Brantford’s CKCR began in the mid-1920s but owner John Patterson had difficulty raising interest (and advertising). In 1929, Twin City funeral director Art Sandrock approached Patterson hoping to buy air time on CKCR for St. Matthew’s Lutheran Church in Kitchener. During their talk, Patterson admitted he’d move to K-W for $5,000. Sandrock hustled back, rounded up the funds and got Professor C.F. Thiele of the WMS band interested. Thiele had broadcast numerous times over CJCF and leapt at the chance to join the ownership team along with two other partners, Clyde Mitchell (who’d worked with Patterson in Brantford) and WW1 veteran Gib Liddle. Thiele helped secure studio space on the third floor of the Weichel Hardware building at 24 King St. S., Waterloo. What had been the WMS practice rooms became radio studios.
CKCR, now with 50 watts of power at 1010 kilohertz, had transmitter towers atop the building. Opening night, July 20, 1929, featured MPP W.G. Weichel, MP W.D. Euler bringing greetings from Prime Minister Mackenzie King plus the WMS band. The Waterloo Chronicle’s welcoming editorial said the station would “... assist in promoting the best interests of the community.”
Which it did ... even though the station always promoted itself as being in Kitchener ... which, soon enough it was!
The studios switched to a suite at Kitchener’s Walper Hotel around 1932, broadcasting at 645 kilocycles. After a switch to 1510, CKCR and its stronger 100watt signal moved to new studios at the corner of King and Ontario in 1936. Following the Second World War, another move took the station to the Arcade Building at 125 King W., now blasting 250 watts from the 1490 frequency. In the 1960s, CKCR became CHYMAM with a move to King and Water. Later, following a flipflop of CHYM-AM and CHYMFM, the AM operation eventually became 570 News with studios currently at the Boardwalk in Kitchener.
We’ll leave the more modern radio era for another time ... but next week, let’s unravel how Preston’s radio station, CKPC, filled the radio vacuum in Brantford.