CHNO-FM

CHNO

File:Bigdaddy1039.jpg
Broadcast area	Sudbury, Ontario
Frequency	103.9 MHz (FM)
Branding	"Big Daddy 103.9" (one oh three dot nine)
Programming
Format	variety hits
Ownership
Owner	NewCap Inc.
History
First air date	1947
Call sign meaning	CH Northern Ontario
Technical information
ERP	11 kW
Links
Website	[1]

CHNO is a Canadian radio station, which broadcasts at 103.9 on the FM dial in Sudbury, Ontario. It brands itself Big Daddy 103.9.

The station began broadcasting on June 24, 1947 on AM 1440. It was a bilingual radio station, airing programming in both English and French, and was an affiliate of both CBC Radio's Dominion Network and Radio-Canada. It was operated by Sudbury Broadcasting, a company owned by F. Baxter Ricard.

On November 9, 1954, CHNO moved to AM 900.

In 1957, Ricard opened CFBR on AM 550 as a full-time French language station, and CHNO switched to full-time English. CFBR took over the Radio-Canada affiliation. On December 31, 1969, CFBR and CHNO swapped frequencies, CHNO moving to 550 and CFBR taking over the 900 slot. In 1980, Baxter also launched the FM station CJMX.

In 1980, Ricard also became a major shareholder in Mid-Canada Communications. Sudbury Broadcasting continued to operate independently, although it was eventually merged into Mid-Canada Radio in 1985. In 1990, Mid-Canada sold the stations to Pelmorex. Following this sale, CFBR adopted the new call letters CHYC.

In the 1970s and 1980s, CHNO was Northern Ontario's most listened-to and most influential radio station, broadcasting a Top 40 format. However, the 1990 launch of CJRQ ended CHNO's dominance, and through much of the 1990s the station struggled through a variety of formats, including oldies, rock music (as The Crusher) and talk radio.

File:Z103-sudbury.gif

Z103 logo

In 1998, Pelmorex sold CJMX to Telemedia. The following year, Pelmorex sold CHNO and CHYC to Haliburton Broadcasting Group. Haliburton applied to the CRTC to move the stations to FM, and on February 3, 2000, CHNO moved to 103.9, with a contemporary hit radio format as Z103. Positioning slogans during the CHR period included "Sudbury's Best Music" and "Sudbury's #1 Hit Music Station." The FM and AM signals aired simultaneously for a few weeks, and on February 29, the AM signal was closed permanently.

The station was originally licensed to broadcast at 100 kilowatts, but because of transmitter interference to the Greater Sudbury Airport the station's license was permanently amended to 11 kilowatts.

On November 9, 2001, Haliburton sold CHNO to Newcap Broadcasting, although Haliburton continues to own CHYC.

In 2003, Friends of Canadian Broadcasting filed a brief with the CRTC alleging that CHNO was operating in a de facto local management agreement with the Rogers Communications stations in the city, CJRQ, CIGM and CJMX. On January 31, 2005, the CRTC disallowed the agreement, ruling in its license renewals for the four stations that the agreement must be terminated no later than May 31 of that year.

At 12:00 AM on January 1, 2006, the station flipped to a variety hits format of 1980s, 1990s and current rock and pop music as Big Daddy 103.9. The first song of the new format was "Start Me Up", by the Rolling Stones. General Manager Darlene Palmer said the station wanted to offer Sudbury "music you can dance to, sing to, date to, divorce to." Some promotional bumpers for the station feature a stiff-voiced character representing "Big Daddy" himself.

In the first quarter BBM ratings for 2006, CHNO's first ratings book under the Big Daddy format, the station regained the #1 status in the Sudbury market for the first time since 1990. However, the move was controversial with some of the station's prior listeners, and in September of 2006, just nine months after flipping CHNO to its current format, Newcap applied to the CRTC for a new contemporary hit radio station in the Sudbury market.

External links

• CHNO
• Recollections from former program director Scott Jackson
• 2005 license renewal (CRTC)