CKSL
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| City of license | London, Ontario |
|---|---|
| Branding | Funny 1410 |
| Slogan | "Comedy Radio" |
| Frequency | 1410 kHz (AM) |
| First air date | June 1956 |
| Format | Comedy |
| Audience share |  1.1% [1] |
| Power | 10,000 watts |
| Class | B |
| Owner | Bell Media (Bell Media Radio) |
| Sister stations | CJBX-FM, CIQM, CJBK |
| Webcast | Listen Live |
| Website | www.funny1410.ca |
CKSL is a Canadian radio station, broadcasting at 1410 AM in London, Ontario, Canada. The station airs a comedy radio format branded as Funny 1410. The station broadcasts with a power of 10,000 watts from its transmitter site located in South London.
CKSL is owned by Bell Media, along with CJBX, CIQM and CJBK.
The station was launched in June 1956 on AM 1290, and moved to its current frequency in 1964. The station later adopted a Top 40 format, and subsequently changed to news/talk in 1993 known as "AM 1410". It changed to an adult standards format under the same name in 1996, evolving into a soft adult contemporary format as "AM 1410, The River" in September 1997.
In 2000, the station was acquired by Telemedia, who changed it to an oldies format as "Oldies 1410" on December 1, 2000. Standard Broadcasting subsequently acquired Telemedia in 2002, and the format changed back to adult standards as "AM 1410" on February 16, 2004. By this point the station only broadcast live from 6-9 a.m. weekdays, with the rest of the time being automated. During the Oldies 1410 years, the station also broadcast various religious and ethnic programs in evenings, including Radio Maryja from Poland seven days a week from 8-9 p.m.
Due in part to the location of its transmitter site in South London, CKSL has been dogged by low listenership. The municipal landfill site is located just south of the transmitter site, causing increasing deterioration of the signal as the landfill has grown over the years. CKSL applied to move to the FM dial at 102.3 MHz in 1999, but the license for 102.3 MHz was awarded to CHUM who subsequently launched CHST-FM. CKSL presently has the lowest audience share in the London market, according to BBM Canada.
In 2007 Astral Media took control of CKSL as a result of a takeover of Standard Radio.
In fall 2009, CKSL moved back to an oldies format, again using the "Oldies 1410" as its moniker.
In November 2011, CKSL announced that it would change formats by January 2012 to become the first radio station in Canada devoted to comedy radio. The new format, "Funny 1410", consist of bits performed by major stand-up and improvisational comedians. The new format was originally programmed by Astral Media's syndication arm,[2] but would later pick up its programming from the American 24/7 Comedy network, of which Astral (and later, Bell Media) was the authorised Canadian distributor.
In early 2013, the station would add Astral's late night Humble & Fred show.[3] It was a short time after that that Bell Media would acquire many of Astral's radio stations, including CKSL.[4]
24/7 Comedy is set to cease terrestrial distribution in August 2014. A new format for the network's Canadian stations has not yet been announced.
References
- ↑ "Spring 2013 BBM Canada Survey"
- ↑ http://www.ctv.ca/CTVNews/Entertainment/20111124/london-radio-station-all-comedy-111124/
- ↑ "Humble And Fred Return To Radio Via Astral Media, CFRB". Mediabase, January 14, 2013.
- ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
External links
- Funny 1410
- CKSL history - Canadian Communications Foundation
- Query the REC's Canadian station database for CKSL
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