Quote:
Originally Posted by getbak
CHQR was originally at 810AM, but changed to 770AM sometime in the mid-80s. I used to have a CHQR 810 Flames sticker (and a QR77 one) from when they were the Flames broadcaster. They dabbled with being talk radio for a few years, but still played some music until sometime in the 90s.
1140AM was XL Radio for the longest time. They ruled the airwaves in the 70s and early 80s, but got stuck trying to be both a top-40 station and a station for the baby-boomers in the mid-80s (they had always been both because the boomers were the target of top 40 until the 80s rolled around). They got destroyed when 66 CFR came along and took the boomers with their Oldies format, and AM 106 took the kids by going totally top 40.
Then, they went through a series of format changes and a couple of name changes before resurrecting the XL Radio name in the early 90s, but by then it was too late. The station that is currently on 1140 AM used to be CHRB 1280 in High River; in 1996, the original XL's licence was converted to an FM licence and they took the 96.9 frequency which is now Jack-FM; the station that currently calls itself XL Radio has no ties to the original (that I know of).
I was one of the last employees at the original XL before they switched to FM (it was a shell of its former self by then, but I got to meet former Stampeder Herm "Ham Hands" Harrison, who was a salesman at the station at the time).
XL's old studio was in a great location, just off of 17th Avenue and 7th Street SW (I think there's a Shopper's Drug Mart at that corner now, not too far from Melrose). There's a little park on the north side of 17th, and XL's studio was just north of the park. It was a great place to people watch on the weekends, especially during the summer.
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Thanks for the background info and the correction - I totally forgot about XL 1140. Didn't they have the controversial "Drive Decent" sticker (maybe it was a different station - I'm obviously not good at remembering the station numbers)? I was about 10 at the time, but remembered thinking it was a silly thing to be upset over.