CFCO

CFCO
Chatham-Kent, Ontario;
Broadcast area	Chatham-Kent; Southwestern Ontario
Frequency	630 kHz (AM)
Branding	Country 92.9
Programming
Format	Country
Ownership
Owner	Blackburn Radio
Sister stations	CKSY-FM, CKUE-FM
History
First air date	1926
Former call signs	10BT (1926–1928)
Call sign meaning	Coming From Chatham Ontario
Technical information
Class	B
Power	10,000 watts daytime; 6,000 watts nighttime
Transmitter coordinates	42°20′3″N 82°16′53″W / 42.33417°N 82.28139°W
Repeater(s)	CFCO-1-FM 92.9 MHz
Links
Website	country929.com

CFCO (630 AM) is a news, sports, and country music radio station located in Chatham-Kent, Ontario. The station, owned by London, Ontario-based Blackburn Radio, features a heavy local news commitment. CFCO is one of the few dedicated country stations on the AM dial in North America, as well as one of the few to do so in C-QUAM AM Stereo.

History

Classic Gold 630

The AM radio station has been on the air since 1926. CFCO, which stands for "Coming From Chatham Ontario", featured middle of the road and adult contemporary formats through much of its history, moving to an oldies format around 1992, as Classic Gold 630.

The station made several upgrades during this period under the ownership of Bea-Ver Broadcasting, including an increase in nighttime power from 1,000 to 6,000 watts (the station broadcasts with 10,000 watts by day). The high quality of the AM stereo audio of CFCO was for a time even featured on a tuner manufacturer's website.

CFCO-1-FM

In 2000, the station added its FM signal on 92.9 (CFCO-1-FM) to improve reception of the station's programming in office buildings in Chatham. The FM simulcasts the AM 100% and initially broadcast with only 50 watts of power^[1] (later quintupled to 250 watts). ^[2]

Rebroadcasters of CFCO
City of license	Identifier	Frequency	Power	Class	RECNet	CRTC Decision
Chatham	CFCO-1-FM	92.9	250 watts	A1	Query	2000-253

Country 92.9 & AM 630

On March 3, 2008, at 9AM, after sixteen years as an oldies station, Classic Gold 630 came to an end with the song "The Beat Goes On" by Sonny and Cher, after which CFCO signed on the new country format with "Play Something Country" by Brooks & Dunn. Opening the station was 32-year CFCO vet George Brooks. This is the first time Chatham-Kent has had its own country music station, although now-sister station CHYR-FM in nearby Leamington was a country station for most of the 1990s and sister station CJSP-FM, also in Leamington, debuted its own country format prior to CFCO's change. Besides CFCO and CJSP, other country stations owned by Blackburn Radio are CHOK in Sarnia-Lambton, CJWF-FM in Windsor, and CKNX in Wingham.

In March 2011, CFCO began referring the station as Country 92-9 FM CFCO with no mention of 630 AM. By 2015, it would include 630 AM once more. On July 2, 2024, Blackburn Radio submitted an application to migrate CFCO to the FM band on a full-time basis as CFCO-FM, shutting down AM 630 and FM 92.9 in favour of a 1,250-watt transmitter on 91.3 MHz.^[3]. This was after the CRTC and FCC agreed that 91.3 MHz was a usable frequency in Chatham, on May 13, 2024.^[4]