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It’s been 80 years since CJOB’s first broadcast.
On March 11, 1946, on the 10th floor of downtown Winnipeg’s Lindsay Building, then-mayor Garnet Coulter flipped the switch that put the station on the air. CJOB was the first station in Winnipeg to offer news on the hour, western Canada to remain on-air 24 hours per day.
CJOB’s founder, Jack Oliver Blick, founded the station after returning from the Second World War. The station’s call letters “JOB” stood for his initials, and the jobs he gave 26 other veterans at the station. The station’s slogan was “Working for Winnipeg.”
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The station remained on-air during the 1950 flood, broadcasting from the roof of the transmitter building. 47 years later, during the 1997 “Flood of the Century”, staff protected the station’s transmitter in St. Norbert with sandbags to remain on the air.
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CJOB began broadcasting from 680 AM in 1957, and expanded its transmitting power, and thus coverage area, over the next several years. CJOB has received communications from listeners in Canada, the United States, and as far away as Norway who have been able to pick up the signal.
After moving the station to Portage Avenue, then to the Polo Park area (where Jack Blick Avenue is named in his honour,) 680 CJOB currently broadcasts from the 30th floor of 201 Portage avenue, broadcasting news, sports, and talk shows 24 hours per day.
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