CJDL-FM (107.3 MHz, Country 107.3) is a radio station licensed to Tillsonburg, Ontario. Owned by Rogers Radio, a division of Rogers Sports & Media, it broadcasts a country format.
The station was established in 1955 as the AM station CKOT, before migrating to FM in 2007. It had been operated by the locally owned Tillsonburg Broadcasting Company until 2017, when it was sold to Rogers Media.
History
The station was originally licensed on April 26, 1955, and began broadcasts four days later at 1510 AM. The station was owned by John B. Lamers Sr., Ken Orton, and four other shareholders under the name of Tillsonburg Broadcasting Company, Limited. The transmitter and two high towers were located in Lot 16, Concession 2, of Middleton Township in Norfolk County. The station was a daytimer (operating only during the day) for much of its existence and was also the last remaining Canadian daytime-only station still in operation until it shut down its AM side in 2013.
In 1958, the station was granted permission to increase to 1,000 watts of power (in the daytime only), using one tower. John B. Lamers became the sole owner of CKOT when he bought out his partners four years later.
CKOT gained a sister station in 1965, when CKOT-FM signed on. The FM station originally served as a simulcast/rebroadcast transmitter of CKOT. CKOT-FM eventually became so successful, it was spun off into its own radio station in 1970. CKOT-FM adopted the Sound of Music format, while CKOT remained as "Active, Lively, Community Information Radio".
In 1973, the station requested a change of frequency from 1510 to 1600 kHz, which had been vacated by CJRN in Niagara Falls. The request was denied, and the frequency ultimately went to CFRS (now CHCD-FM) in nearby Simcoe, Ontario.
On July 11, 1974, CKOT was granted approval to increase its daytime-only power on 1510 kHz from 1,000 watts to 10,000 watts. It was also given approval to move its transmitter location roughly to Glen Meyer, southeast of Tillsonburg.
On May 17, 1988, CKOT was finally able to end its status as a daytimer and add a night-time signal on the same frequency (to operate non-stop). The station was given permission to double its power to 20,000 watts as well. However, these changes were not implemented because of American technical objections from stations across Lake Erie that feared possible signal interference.
Migration aspirations
By 1993, CKOT had hoped to migrate to the FM and had its hopes set for 102.3 MHz. However, that frequency went to CKDK-FM in Woodstock. The station had been considering a number of solutions to fix its daytime-only signal on AM. One possible solution was to use AM 1510 in the day and another frequency at night, and at one point, a move to AM 1200 24/7 was considered.
In 1999, the station lost another chance to move to FM. By this time, it had become a country music station, and wanted to move to 102.3 MHz (occupied by CKDK-FM Woodstock), but this was awarded to CHUM Limited for their London, Ontario, rebroadcast transmitter.
In 2005, the station had received approval to migrate to FM. The station had proposed to occupy the frequency of 104.7 MHz, but this was awarded to a new station in Woodstock. The station had to find an alternate FM frequency. Its application for FM 104.7 meant it would have operated at 2,300 watts (with a maximum of 5,000 watts), and an antenna height of 163.5 metres (sharing the same tower as CKOT-FM). The station had also been granted a temporary permit to operate at 10 kW at day and 10 kW at night on the 1200 kHz frequency as well, a request that had previously been declined.
CKOT has also been able to broadcast on very low power at night, to Tillsonburg and Ingersoll, partially shedding its daytimer status, broadcasting at 20 kW in the daytime and 10 kW at night, on the same frequency (1510 kHz), as well as on 1200 kHz, as a temporary measure to cure the station's problem of being a daytimer, until it could find an available FM frequency.
Moving to the FM band
In 2006, the CRTC had opened up the frequency of 107.3 FM for a new station in Tillsonburg, and had approved of CKOT's owners to simulcast CKOT on that frequency during the day only, much like how CKOT-FM had migrated to the FM band in the early 1970s. The approval of an FM translator for CKOT was not without interventions.