Gary Mercer, 960 CKWS Kingston, Ont. | 1971

One of the hallmarks of a true museum is collecting rare artifacts of things that no longer exist. Such is the case with some radio stations, such as this one. AM 960 in Kingston, Ontario, Canada went off the air for good on January 15, 2008. The call letters at the time were CFFX. The station did not go away, instead, the Canadian government allowed it to move to FM.

This goes back to 1971 and there are a few noteworthy things about it. First, there had to be a small-market sounding station like this in nearly every medium sized city in North America at one time in the 70s. This is very local… a couple of agency ads, a few local rip-and-read commercials and a morning jock with a good voice, but sounding like he’s just getting through the commercial log, getting songs and PSAs (Public Service Announcements) and such. Its also worth noting, how much Canadian music is being played. There was only time in this to hear 3 parts of songs, but they are all Canadian artists, none are recognizable hits from an American point of view. Our Canadian friends may remember the songs right off.

The jingles have a familiar ring to them, not sure what jingle company sang them but they sound much like versions of WNBC New York’s 70s jingle package. Do any of you know?

I would consider this aircheck, ‘typical’ of how many AM stations sounded during the 1970s.

960 Kingston Ontario CKWS


Aircheck #1,351 since May 2, 2002!