last link on the left

Word that the station once known as Cool 880 was flipping to an all news format was in the wind for months, even long before the official announcement was made.

CHQT originally signed on the air on August 19th, 1965 at 1110 khz, playing "Beautiful Music" – with a paused syllable emphasis on "Beaut" – or high-class elevator Muzak. The station later introduced a "Sounds Familiar" format – also known as "Your favourite songs performed by people you've never heard of."

In 1985 CHQT got approval to slide down the dial to 880 khz, and after numerous ownership changes it was sold to the Corus Radio Company in 1999. It was then that fellow Corus station CHED inherited CHQT's long-established and respected newsroom (QT billed itself as "Alberta's Major News Station" and "Edmonton's Authorative News Source").

Under Corus management, the CHQT property suffered a series of format changes, flipping in 2001 from Familiar Favourites "AM-880-CHQT" to Cool-880 "Good Times and Great Oldies." In late October 2003, CHQT Cool 880 became JOE AM, playing a variety of music from the 80s, 70s and 60s.

In early 2004 CHQT returned to Oldies Cool 880 and the JOE format was moved to sister station CKNG-FM. It has long been thought the short-lived JOE imprint on CHQT was to prevent the moniker from being adopted by rival stations (and there's word that a few boxes of JOE AM coffee mugs that were inadvertently ordered filled the Corus building for quite some time afterwards).

In September 2007 CHQT fashioned itself into "Boss Radio," a format popular in the sixties when Top 40 was king of the airwaves. While ratings were respectable but modest, Corus bosses had other plans.

Not unlike the 2004 adoption of the JOE format to claim it for the Edmonton market, on March 14th, 2008 Corus announced that Cool 880 would flip to all news two months later on May 20th. The move was seen by many as a way to head off an application by Rogers Broadcasting Limited for an all news station at CRTC hearings to be held a week later on May 27th.

While CHQT was to air the Cool 880 sound up until the switch to all news, the format's last live words were heard on May 8th.

First came radio veteran Chuck Chandler signing off at 9:00 a.m. Then came self-proclaimed weather chick Roxie Malone giving her last forecast at 3:00 p.m., offering a heart-felt tribute to Gord Robson, a popular Cool 880 personality who was discovered dead on March 21st, 2008.

Through the efforts of the folks at RadioWest.ca, the start of Chuck's last shift can be heard here. In the aircheck, Chandler tells his audience that he's not sure of where his future lies – see update at bottom of page.

A scoped recording of the last moments of Chuck's show can be heard here. Featured is Ed Mason's last 20/20 News 88-second report with the subject of Charles P. Rodney Chandler as the lead and sole news story. Chuck's last throw was to Cool 880's most requested song: Al Wilson's "The Snake." Then came the last airings of a couple of Chuck's promo liners.

Roxie Malone's last words on air can be heard here (note: all links on this page open as .mp3 files).

Cool 880's last live spin was Edward Bear's "Last Song." The station then switched over to automated programming, beginning with Three Dog Night's "Liar."

Meanwhile, beginning May 5th, preparations began for the flip to all news. Equipment was brought in, walls were moved and a raft of new voices were heard in off-air rehearsals and on fringe shifts at 630 CHED.

Of note was the arrival of news veteran Sheila Gardner, whose track record includes stints at CIRK-FM and CJCA in the early eighties, CFRN in 1986 and 1987, and at various stations in Vancouver over the past two decades.

On May 15th, 630 CHED news director Bob Layton dropped by the Global Edmonton studios for a feature piece highlighting his recent Radio & Television News Director Association (RTNDA) award for Best Editorial.

He also brought along his puppet Rodney who he described as a nasty little boy. Rodney is one of eight puppets the newsman uses as part of his www.laytonent.ca sideline.

Global then afforded Bob the opportunity to preview the launch of iNews 880. Global showed footage of staff performing off-air rehearsals.

"This radio station is going to be so much fun. This is the only radio station of its kind anywhere – it's married to the internet," Layton boasted.

"It's going to be married to the iNews 880 web site which means if there is something going on in your neighbourhood, you take a picture with your cell phone, you send it to us, we'll put it up on the site, we'll credit it to you, we'll phone you, we'll do an interview.

"Maybe you're on the other side of the world when a tsunami hits – same thing.

"When you hear a story on iNews you should be able to go to the site and see the long form of it and be totally meshed with that internet story," Layton said.

Bob also revealed he was writing a book about what radio is really like in small towns.

"All the little things that go on, the little politics that go on ... and the funny things that happen when you're just beginning as a broadcaster.

"The mistakes you make that you hope nobody knows about ... I'm just gonna put them right out there," Layton said.

No doubt the announcement of the storyteller's intentions sent shivers down the spines of rookie iNews 880 reporters fearing that instances of their pending debut may make their way into the book.

Over the long weekend before the debut of iNews 880, Cool 880 played back-to-back instalments of the syndicated program The History Of Rock And Roll. And as 6:00 a.m. on May 20th rolled around, Don McLean's "American Pie" played up to the top of the hour (with its ironic line "The day the music died").

However, for reasons yet unexplained, iNews 880 didn't launch for another half hour despite the promise of a 6:00 a.m. launch. The music continued, and Loggins and Messina's "Your Mama Don't Dance" closed out the Cool 880 era a half hour later.

At 6:30, after a final Cool 880 ID, Monty Python's Eric Idle introduced Corus general manager Doug Rutherford with "And now for something completely different."

Rutherford spoke of his excitement over the launch of iNews 880, comparing it to December 1993 when 630 CHED became "Alberta's Information Superstation."

According to Rutherford, CHED quickly established itself as the "station of record" for news coverage. While extolling how iNews 880 would cater to a time-constrained radio listenership, Rutherford said the new station would also bring something "totally unqiue."

He was referring to www.iNews880.com, the source of the station's internet-powered hyper-local content (aka citizen journalists, or bloggers).

Rutherford's entire pitch for the "on radio, on line, on demand" station can be heard here (audio file courtesy of www.brilliantidea.ca).

Those wondering about CHQT's AM stereo status could rest easy as the indicator light stayed on. Behind the announcer's voices could be a heard a low level but deep digital echo, adding a little sizzle to the AM band sound.

The stereo signal helped the station's imaging package stand out, supplied by Juggernaut Plus by Jones TM, an American news/talk jingle service.

Voicing the station's logo is thought to be Ross McIntyre, imaging director at the Jim Pattison Broadcast Group station 100.3 The Q! in Victoria, British Columbia.

All news radio first came to Edmonton in March 1978 when CKO-FM6 signed on, first at 105.9 mhz and later at 101.9 mhz. CKO was a network that received CRTC approval to operate twelve stations across Canada. Unable to escape an ever-accumulating operating deficit, several of the stations never made it to air and the entire network shut down on November 10th, 1989.

iNews 880's introduction of the city's second "newswheel" station was based on a proven model already used by Rogers Broadcasting Limited in markets across Canada. Contrast and compare the programming clocks: iNews 880 vs Rogers' 660 News Calgary (and should Rogers enter the Edmonton market, they'd be tasked with having to re-invent their own wheel).

The rehearsals paid off and iNews 880 hit the air with a less than expected number of hitches. The all news format is labour intensive, pulling together diverse elements at a rapid clip.

The lead story for most of the day was the station's own launch. Less than modest soundbites from Bob Layton and Doug Rutherford were heard in abundance.

Those wanting to avoid the hair that roars, Bryan Hall, were out of luck. However, the local sports icon has but two minutes twice an hour during the drive shifts, limiting the amount of divergent chatter Hallsy is known for.

One has to wonder about the claim of "exclusive iNews 880 weather and traffic." Chopper traffic reports, weather permitting, are provided by the Canadian Traffic Network who also service JOE-FM, CHED, CISN and Global Television.

The drive shift traffic reports come from the Robinson helicopter using a LTR (Logic Trunked Radio) which is fine for basic ground-to-air communication but poor when it is used for broadcast radio. Skywords, servicing the Newcap stations, uses a wideband FM UHF system and sounds much better.

The Canadian Traffic Network folk now work full shifts; outside the drive shifts they update conditions from the ground every ten minutes. The additional spots add to CTN's bottom line, who sell commercial plugs in exchange for time bought from stations airing their reports.

Weather is provided by telephone link from CTV Edmonton's Josh Classen (Rogers' 660 News in Calgary has a similar arrangement). It sounds like Josh phones in several variations of his forecasts which iNews 880 then cycles through their newswheel. It won't be long before listeners wonder why a high quality line isn't set up to wherever Josh voices his reports from.

So with shared traffic reports and weather forecasts from a television meteorologist, "exclusive iNews 880 weather and traffic" seems to be a bit of a stretch.

Business reports from National Bank Financial (a feature also shared with CHED) suffers the same audio quality – and they're not sitting in a helicopter. If Global Television can wire a camera into an accountant's office ...

Also borrowed from the Rogers format (and from CKO years before) are the on air credits heard for news and assignment editors just prior to the half hour marks.

One adjustment made early on was the reduction in frequency of newsreader name mentions in exchange for time checks. However, overnight programming is devoid of the time checks, indicating pre-recording.

With regard to the news content, iNews 880 stories seem to come up a little short. True newshounds would likely stay with CHED (whose stories sound like documentaries in comparison) or drift to the CBC for a more relaxed approach to news reading.

To be fair, the day iNews 880 debuted was slow for local news and that afforded the station little opportunity to flex its promised quick-to-repond muscle.

Recent fires threatening towns north of Edmonton were all but extinguished and from City Hall the only drama was provided by a councillor's demands for removal the 107th Avenue traffic circle.

While a crime story involving one local teen charged with killing another in Fort St. John, B.C. had little local to offer, the biggest Edmonton story of national interest came from the pages of the Edmonton Sun: convicted pedophile Karl Toft's first-ever interview.

Ironically, the story was developed by former Corus/CHED newsman Byron Christopher.

Much of the fanfare preceding the station's launch was their use of the internet. In clips that peppered the inaugural broadcast day, Corus honcho Doug Rutherford was heard to say iNews880.com was a "new concept to Canada" and a "cutting edge web site." Some would wonder if Rutherford ever checked out www.630ched.com – whose content is virtually identical to the iNews 880 site.

In recent months, both Global and CTV Edmonton have ramped up their sites with on-demand download features and Facebook pages. And along with the CBC's site, venues are provided for reader comments.

"iComments" on the iNews 880 site are not an on line/on page function but instead open a web surfer's own e-mail application. And instead of using the station's own domain account to handle e-mail, iNews 880 uses Google's gmail application. One could say a bill of goods were sold under false pretences if this was presented as cutting edge.

In an interview with the Edmonton Sun's Graham Hicks, Rutherford envisioned iNews 880's "sophisticated" web site running in the background on office computers and BlackBerries, with "little beeps" announcing breaking news. Perhaps they could use the dial-up modem sounds heard when iNews 880 introduces its blog featurettes.

While that beeping feature wasn't apparent when the site was launched, there was an RSS feed that linked to all of three stories even after a day of operation. Growing pains, no doubt ... at least the station launched a Facebook application after a few days.

Also interesting is the use of "millibars" on the station's weather pages. In Canada, and in other countries observing the metric system, barometric pressure is measured in terms of kilopascals. So much for local content ...

Speaking of local, much was also made of the station being "internet-driven," using the resources of "citizen journalists." A check of content in the site's early days indicated only occasional posts by several of the bloggers, with one contributor displaying "Coming Soon ..."

Heading the station's web efforts are Jeremy Lye and Chris Gardner (who provided a gallery of station construction photographs). Lye and Gardner seemed challenged to fill their early twice-hourly obligations with breaking developments on the internet front.

It remains to be seen whether the half-dozen resident bloggers are up to the challenge of driving the station's content. In the old days, radio stations would offer cash rewards for tips called in. At present Global Edmonton offers $100 per item through its Hot Shots initiative. Time will tell if an interview with Bob Layton about tsunamis seen is enough to spark public participation.

While the concept of an all news station is fresh to the Edmonton market, the format has been time-tested. To their credit, Corus has adopted the best of the formula, borrowing "on radio, on line, on demand" from stations such as 1010 WINS in New York (check the title bar of the station's site in your browser).

And the phrase "Give us 17 minutes and we'll give you the world" harkens back to claims made by CNN's Headline News in its early days and even dusty old CKO before them.

Missing from the iNews 880 formula is a generated tone signal marking the top of the hour. While a daily time-punch is offered by CBC Radio One at 11:00 a.m., an hourly one-second 1000 hz beep hasn't been heard locally since CJCA went silent in the early 1990s.

CHQT's switch to all news came during the middle of a BBM ratings period (April 14th to June 8th, with results to be released July 14th). The earliest true indication of the format's success won't come until summer results are released on October 6th.

But by then the true test of Corus' decision to add all news to their four-station line up will be apparent ... when the CRTC announces their decision to award a new licence or two in the Edmonton market – and if one of those winning applications is from Rogers Broadcasting Limited.

While Edmonton now has two major news outlets with CHED and iNews, it is essentially the same editorial voice heard twice as loud.

Whatever Corus may lose financially in mounting iNews 880 as a hedge, it would certainly be less than what a keen competitor could incur if the CRTC lives up to its recent mandate of fostering diversity of journalistic voice.

Finally, a touch of irony.

Before launching as all news, CHQT was an oldies station. And before Rogers launched 660 News in Calgary, CFFR was also an oldies station.

Out with the oldies and in with the news. Something borrowed and something new.

Update: deposed Cool 880 morning man Chuck Chandler thought he found a new home at 96.3 Capital FM.

The Chucker was first heard "auditioning" at the station that took advantage of Corus deserting the oldies format on May 24th, 2008. The legendary local radio personality hoped to validate the Newcap station's slogan of being home to "Edmonton's Greatest Hits."

However, in early July 2008, 96.3 Capital FM said it was still looking for a "name" morning man ... which means Chuck was still looking for a job.

On May 28th, 2008 the Edmonton Journal's vox populi forum Venting indicated the reaction of some.

radio - edmonton radio news 2008 - out with the oldies and in with the news