CKLG

Jim Bower of vancouvertop40radio.com writes: “On August 22 1964, a date that coincides closely with the much-heralded arrival of the Beatles in Vancouver, CKLG underwent a radical change and became the third station in Vancouver’s radio history to adopt the “Top Forty” format. CKLG had been born only 9 years earlier, in 1955, and was originally based in North Vancouver. (The ‘LG’ stood for “Lions Gate”.) In those early years, the station carried programming that appealed to the “middle-of-the-road” audience.

Now the station was going up against “Top Forty” giant CFUN and in doing so the station underwent many changes, including the adoption of a new slogan “Lion Radio” and the introduction of several new DJs,, referred to as “Top Cats”, which included Paul Arthur, Frank “Emperor” Malone, Russ Simpson, Dave Palmer, Roy Hennessy, and Jerry Landa.

And, of course, it introduced it’s own survey, often referred to on air by the DJs as the “Fabulous Forty” or “Fab Forty”, although neither of these titles appeared on the actual printed survey. Rather, the banner at the top of each chart read “SILVER DOLLAR SURVEY”.

The station gained popularity and, over the next few years, gradually lured over DJs from C-FUN including Jerry Landa, Fred Latremouille, Daryl ‘B’ and later John Tanner. By the latter part of of 1966 LG had adopted the new slogan “Boss Radio” and the DJs changed from “Top Cats” to “Boss Jocks”. The survey became the “Boss 40”, later the “Boss 30”, and then just “CKLG Thirty”.

By the Fall of 1967 CKLG had toppled C-FUN in the local ratings, driving the latter out of the “Top Forty” format. Over the next few years new DJs would include J.B. Shane, Peter Starr, Timothy Burge, Stevie Wonder, and Terry David Mulligan. By the 1980s the lineup consisted of a whole new generation of DJs.

Over the years, with the “Top Forty” format gradually waning in popularity. CKLG unceremoniously passed into history on February 1, 2001, when the station, now owned by the Corus Network, which also owned CKNW, became an all-news station and was now referred to as NW2. It has undergone further format changes since then, including the loss of its call letters.

CKLG was a Top 40 pop radio station from 1964 to 2001. The charts from CKLG tabulated on this website are from September 1964 to October 1991. There are some missing surveys in 1964 and some missing surveys at times in the late 70’s and a few in the early 90’s. In all there are over 1400 weekly charts viewed.

In 1965 CKLG pitched itself to Vancouver radio listeners as “the station with the happy difference.”