On March 25, 1975 CKJS (810 AM) first hit Winnipeg's airwaves.
CKJS was the brainchild of Polish-born Casimir Stanczykowski. After spending World War II in the Polish underground and a Nazi concentration camp, he settled in Montreal and worked in ethnic radio. In 1962 co-founded Montreal's CFMB, Canada's first full-time multicultural radio station. The first CKJS application was made in 1966 but was was turned down due to opposition from existing radio stations saying that there was no room for more competition. Stanczykowski and his consortium tried five more times before finally being granted a licence in July 1974.
The inaugural broadcast began with words from Mayor Stephen Juba, Archbishop Hacault, Liberal Leader Charlie Huband and, of course, owner C. G. Stanczykowski.
Juba was that he would mis-identify the station but was reminded by Stanczykowski to just look at the call letters written on the mic. He ribbed the mayor not to accidentally call it CJOB. When the broadcast got underway, however, it was the station's own announcer that welcomed people to "CGJS". (WFP Mar 26, 1975)
The station broadcast 24 hours a day, seven days a week in 15 languages, 60% in English or French and the rest in German, Ukrainian, Polish, Czech, Greek, Urdu, Portuguese, Filipino, Yiddish, Hungarian, Dutch and Russian. By the end of the year the lineup included Hindu, Italian, Caribbean and Romanian. There was some Italian programming from their Montréal station but, for the most part, the content was created locally.When asked if he had plans for more multicultural stations across Canada Stanczykowski told the Free Press "In Canada, anything is possible". Sadly, though, he would not get a chance to pursue them. On July 12, 1981 54 year-old Stanczykowski was killed in a car accident at Rawdon, Quebec.
Stanczykowsk was a Member of the Order of Canada (1973) and posthumously inducted into the Canadian Association of Broadcasters Hall of Fame (1986).
CKJS continued on. By 1984 they were in new premises on Corydon Avenue. In 1986 they increased their ethnic programming from 40% to 60%. (Here's the 2010 program schedule). In March 2006 the CRTC approved the sale of CKJS by C.G. Stanczykowski & Associates Ltd. to Nova Scotia-based Newcap Radio Inc.
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Winnipeg's Multilingual Press
3 comments:
Does anyone remember Bob Larson from about 20 years ago -- the U.S.-based fundamentalist talk show host who used to come on CKJS at 11 p.m. to rail against Satan and all the other ills of the world?
Some ultra-religious folk were going around Winnipeg handing out pamphlets promoting the show, no doubt hoping to win converts. I suspect most listeners simply found it strangely amusing or just plain bizarre.
Lol - yes I DO ! As a night owl it was one of few talk options at night back then. Heh ... he would always try to tie Clinton becoming President to bible prophesy about the apocolypse. Good times !
I was a listner of pastor Bob in the late 80's early 90's. His rhetoric was a glimpse into the disease that is sweeping through middle America today. His bigotry, mysogeny and racism while provocative at the time are tame by today's standards. I have to wonder how much was show and how much was real given his divorce from his wife and affair with his 20 year old secretary.
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