CBEW-FM

CBEW-FM, Radio One, Windsor

Canadian Broadcasting Corp.

StationYearFreq.PowerOwner/Info
CBEW-FM201197.53,200Canadian Broadcasting Corp.
CBE-AM1935155010,000Canadian Broadcasting Corp.

1935

The Canadian Radio Broadcasting Commission opened CRCW in Windsor on February 14, at 8:00 p.m. The station broadcast on 600 kHz with a power of 1,000 watts day and 500 watts night. CRCW was partially owned by Western Ontario Broadcasting Co., licensee of CKLW. 

1936

The Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (CBC) replaced the CRBC in November.

1937

CRCW became CBW on October 3, at 4:00 p.m.

1938

CKLW was scheduled to replace CBW Windsor as a basic commercial CBC station in February. CBW was to become an outlet for sustaining CBC programs and possibly be reduced to 100 watts of power. The CBC was working on the disposal of CRCW, the former 1,000 watt station at Windsor which was no longer in use.

On February 5 at 6:00 p.m., CBW left the air. CBC programs aired on CKLW. 

1939

A 1,000 watt CBC outlet was being planned for Windsor. The CBC said that if this station did not adequately serve surrounding Canadian areas, there may be an exchange of frequencies or an increase in the power of 50,000 watt CBL in Toronto. A short time later, the CBC confirmed that it would build a new station at Windsor if there were no financial complications. It could be on the air by late autumn or at latest by January 1. It would likely be named CBW and use the 1,000 watt equipment of the former CBW which was closed about a year earlier at the behest of CKLW. The CBC said it was re-opening the station to supply the area with more CBC sustaining programs, but CBW would also handle commercial programs. 

1946

The CBC was still making plans for a new station in Windsor.

1948

The CBC announced plans for power increases and new stations at four locations. CBM Montreal and CBR Vancouver would increase power from 5,000 to 50,000 watts. New stations would be established at Windsor (10,000 watts) and Sydney (1,000 watts). Sydney should be operational this fall. The other changes would not be in place until late 1949.

1950

CBE began broadcasting on July 1. It operated on a frequency of 1550 kHz with a power of 10,000 watts (same directional pattern for day and night operation), using two towers in  Sandwich South Township, Essex County. CBE was a CBC Trans-Canada station. 

John Moore was CBE’s first program director. He came to Windsor from CBO in Ottawa. He would later be involved with the ownership of CJSP (CHYR) Leamington and CHLO St. Thomas.

1953

Harry Boyle was named director of programs for CBC Ontario – radio and television. He had been program director of the Trans-Canada network for eight years.

1954 

John Moore left the CBC in December to become station manager and part owner of the soon to open CJSP in Leamington.

1958

Ad slogan: In Canada’s Mid-Easter Region CBC Radio gives you a total daily circulation of 970,000 radio homes (Elliott-Haynes, 1957) with stations CBM Montreal, CBO Ottawa, CBL Toronto, CBE Windsor. 

H.G. Walker was named director for Ontario and for English networks, succeeding Ira Dilworth who became director of program evaluation.

1959

Ken Murray was station manager. 

1960

Ad: CBE Windsor has an adult audience! Your advertising dollar on CBE gives you the highest per-centage of adult audience in the area, plus a loyal Detroit audience that can be motivated to Buy Canadian! 

1962

The Trans-Canada and Dominion networks were consolidated into a single service. CBE had been the Trans-Canada station while CKLW-FM was the Dominion station with CKLW-AM acting as a supplementary B Dominion affiliate. Followint the network merger, the CKLW stations became independent and CBE carried on as the single CBC network station in the market.

1963

CBC Radio added an all-night service in June. 

1968

CBC Radio’s all-night service, started in 1963, came to an end on March 1. When the service started it was primarily intended as a national information and warning system to be used in emergencies. Even though the service had now ended, the CBC said it would maintain a stand-by procedure through the night and broadcasts would begin immediately in the event of an emergency.

1970

French-language Radio-Canada service came to Windsor with the opening of CBEF 540.

1975

On September 1, CBE gained a sister television station when the CBC acquired 100% of CKLW-TV and changed the call letters to CBET. The CBC had acquired  a 25% interest in the station in 1970.

1976

The CBC was authorized to add transmitters at Chatham (95.1 MHz with effective radiated power of 35,500 watts) and Sarnia (106.3 MHz with ERP of 50,000 watts).

1977

On November 27, CBEE-FM Chatham and CBEG-FM Sarnia, signed on the air.

1978

CBC FM Stereo service came to Windsor with the launch of CBE-FM 89.9, October 15.

1986

On March 10, the CRTC approved the application to amend the licence for CBEE-FM Chatham by changing the frequency from 95.1 MHz (channel 236B) to 88.1 MHz (channel 201A) and by decreasing the effective radiated power from 35,500 watts to 1,430 watts. The Commission also approved the application to amend the licence for CBEG-FM Sarnia by changing the frequency from 106.3 MHz (channel 292B) to 90.3 MHz (channel 212A) and by decreasing the effective radiated power from 50,000 watts to 1,800 watts. The CBC indicated that the changes of frequency were required as the result of revisions to the CBC Long Range Radio Plan and that areas concerned would continue to be adequately served. 

Evan Purchase, radio manager for CBC Windsor, left for CBC Regina to be director of Television.

1995

CBC Radio added overnight programming to its schedule on May 1, with “CBC Radio Overnight”. The programming started out on certain CBC stations and was expanded to all of its stations by September. The program aired between 1:00 and 6:00 a.m. (local time) and offered reports from public broadcasters in 25 countries, with Canadian news on the hour. The program service was provided by the World Radio Network in London, England.

1997

The CBC Radio network (CBC Radio) was renamed CBC Radio One on September 1.

In September, the CBE noon-hour show was replaced by a new provincial noon-hour show Ontario Today, hosted by Dave Stephens from CBO in Ottawa. Susan Little would be the Windsor correspondent for the show. 

1999

Ontario Region director of CBC Radio was Miriam Fry in Ottawa.

2001

By this time, CBE operated two rebroadcast transmitters: CBEE-FM Chatham and CBEG-FM Sarnia. CBE broadcast approximately 25 hours of local programming each week from Windsor.

2002

On December 11, the CBC was granted transitional digital radio undertaking licences for CBE-AM and CBE-FM. The CBC co-sited and shared the existing DRB facilities at the site of CHUM’s FM stations at Windsor, using the EUREKA-147 DAB system in the frequency band 1452 MHz-1492 MHz (L-Band). The transmitter operated on frequency 1484.208 MHz (channel 19) with an effective isotropic radiated power of 4,369 watts. 

2009

The CRTC renewed the licence for CBE, CBE-DR-2 (Windsor), CBEE-FM Chatham and CBEG-FM Sarnia.

On June 16 the CRTC approved the conversion of CBE to the FM band. The new station would operate on 97.5 MHz with an average effective radiated power of 3,200 watts (maximum ERP of 19,000 watts). Effective height of the antenna above average terrain would be 130.1 metres. The station would retain the existing program format, including programming received from CBC Radio One and local programming. The CBC had originally proposed to operate a new FM transmitter at Leamington on 91.5 MHz. That frequency could not be used at Leamington so the CBC filed an amended application for the use of 91.9 MHz, with an average ERP of 5,300 watts (maximum ERP of 10,450 watts). Effective height of antenna above average terrain would be 73.6 metres. Approval of the Leamington application was also approved on this date. The Commission noted that the transmitters CBEE-FM Chatham and CBEG-FM Sarnia, presently authorized as transmitters of CBE, would be part of the new FM licence. 

2010

On August 9, the CRTC administratively renewed the licence of CBE-DR-2, CBE (and its transmitters) to August 31, 2011.

CBEW-FM 97.5 (CBE 1550’s replacement) Windsor and CBEW-FM-1 (91.9) Leamington began on-air tests in November.

Gary Cunliffe, formerly the Managing Editor of Radio and TV at CBC Windsor, moved to CBC Edmonton where he was now News Director.

Donald Nelson, the Senior Broadcast Technologist at CBC Yellowknife, transferred to CBC Windsor as of June 1 in the same capacity.

2011

In 2010, the CBC had the licenses for its Montreal digital radio transmitters revoked. On January 21, 2011, the CRTC revoked the licenses for the rest of the CBC’s digital radio transmitters across the country – at the Corporation’s request. The revocations included CBE-DR-1 and CBE-DR-2 in Windsor. There had been a total lack of interest in digital radio by all parties involved.

Louis Saint-Cyr was the new Regional Operations Manager at CBC Windsor, responsible for stations at London and Kitchener-Waterloo. The 28-year CBC vet had been with CBC Toronto where he was Supervisor for Post Production at CBC Media Post Production Services. He began in Windsor on September 24.

CBE 1550 made the official switch to CBEW 97.5 on July 1. CBE AM 1550 was expected to simulcast the new FM signal until the end of September.

Following the conversion to the FM band approved in CBE Windsor – Conversion to FM band and new transmitter in Leamington, Broadcasting Decision CRTC 2009-349, 16 June 2009, the licence for CBE Windsor was renewed from September 1 to September 30, 2011.

CBE 1550 left the air just after midnight on October 1. The AM outlet had been replaced by CBEW 97.5 Windsor and CBEW-1 91.9 in Leamington. October 1 also marked the 61st birthday of CBE-AM.

Kalyan Chilkamarri became manager of media operations & technology at CBC Windsor. Chilkamarri transferred from Toronto to succeed the retired Joanne Hoppe.

2013

On February 22, the CRTC administratively renewed the licences for CBEW-FM Windsor and its transmitters to August 31, 2013.

On May 28, the CRTC renewed the licence of CBEW and its transmitters for a five year term, to August 31, 2018. 

2014

In May, the CRTC approved an ERP increase for CBEW from 2,300 to 3,200 watts (13,800 to 19,000 max). 

The CBC sold its 32,000 square-foot building on Riverside Drive. The broadcaster would lease 13,000 square feet from the new owner and maintain its operations there. 

2017

CBC Radio Windsor’s afternoon show relocated to CBC London in the spring. The move coincided with the opening of the CBC’s new station in London. Three of four jobs associated with the show moved to London while a reporter remained in Windsor.

Bob Steele, the host of afternoon drive at CBC Radio Windsor stepped away from the microphone after 29 years with the public broadcaster. His decision to retire coincided with the program’s move to London in June.

The story continues elsewhere…
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