CJNW-AM (PatrZDZ's vision)

**CJNW** (730 AM) is a all-news formatted radio station in Vancouver, British Columbia, owned by Corus Entertainment and calling itself NW2. Its radio studios and offices are in the TD Tower in Downtown Vancouver.

CJNW transmits with a power output of 50,000 watts, the maximum for Canadian AM stations. It uses a directional antenna at all times to protect other stations on 730 AM from interference. The transmitter is off British Columbia Highway 17 in Delta.

## History

### CKLG

On February 3, 1955, CKLG, owned by Lions Gate Broadcasting Ltd., began transmitting at 1070 kHz on the AM band with a 1,000-watt transmitter. Originally, studios and transmitter were both located in North Vancouver. The radio station was controlled by the Gordon Gibson family, who were involved in the logging business. (Gordon Gibson, Sr, was known as "The Bull of the Woods.")

In 1958, the station changed frequencies from 1070 kHz to 730 kHz and increased power to 10,000 watts. The transmitter site was moved from North Vancouver to Delta. The station was sold to Moffat Broadcasting Ltd. in 1961, and in 1964 launched an FM sister station, the original CKLG-FM (now CFOX-FM), at 99.3 MHz. Throughout the 1960s, 1970s, and 1980s, CKLG (also known as LG73) played a variety of contemporary music, at times ranking as one of the most popular radio stations in the Vancouver radio market. In 1975, the station once again increased power, raising it to the current 50,000 watts.

The station's popularity declined in the early 1990s, as listeners switched to FM radio for music listening. In 1992, the Corus Radio Company (now Corus Entertainment) purchased Moffat's Vancouver radio properties. Corus tried a brief and unsuccessful attempt at a talk format from September 1993 to February 1994. The station returned to a hit music format, which lasted for the next seven years, despite new competition from station CKZZ-FM. CKZZ originally began as a rhythmic contemporary station in 1991 before moving towards a more mainstream Top 40/CHR format in 1996.

### CJNW

On February 1, 2001, at Midnight, after playing "I Will Remember You" by Sarah McLachlan, Corus changed the station's call letters to CJNW. (The CKLG call sign was later transferred to Rogers Communications' CKLG-FM). CJNW adopted an all-news format referred to on-air as "NW2, all news radio, powered by CKNW". The station shares newsroom resources with CKNW, including several anchors and reporters.

## Programming

Like CKWX, CJNW programs a live rolling "news wheel" that begins with the news headlines at the top and bottom of each hour. Regular weather forecasts, provided by CHAN-DT are broadcast every ten minutes on the 3's (e.g., 03, 13, 23 past the hour), likewise the traffic reports air every ten minutes on the 7's (e.g., 07, 17, 27 past the hour). Additional features include business news twice an hour at :10 and :40, sports updates at :20 and :50 past the hour and regular commentary segment "The Extra" at :28 and :58 past the hour. This news wheel can be interrupted for breaking local or national news events that necessitate longer-form coverage. Local news is provided by both the station's own reporters and sister station CHAN-DT; national and international news is provided by CNN Radio.