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A legacy radio station in Chatham, Ont., gearing up for a major milestone in 2027, has just made a major shift.
CFCO, which is owned by London, Ont.,-based Blackburn Media, has left its longtime spot at 630 on the AM dial, to take residency exclusively on the FM band at 91.3.
“We are getting ready to actually celebrate CFCO’s 100th as CFCO in 2027,” Walter Ploegman, a vice-president with Blackburn Media, told CBC Radio’s Windsor Morning.
Walter Ploegman (Walter Ploegman/LinkedIn)
“Originally CFCO was 10BT before it received its official call letters of Coming From Chatham Ontario through a community contest. It was somebody in the community that came up with the call letters back in 1927.”
Ploegman credits the Chatham-Kent community, which “has always supported its local radio stations,” for CFCO’s longevity.
“It really comes down to what you’re talking about, who you’re connecting with and how you’re connecting with the community, and that is CFCO’s legacy through probably the longest standing agricultural broadcast in Canada,” Ploegman said.
LISTEN | Legacy Chatham radio station CFCO leaves historic 630 AM dial:
Windsor Morning9:08Legacy Chatham radio station CFCO abandons historic 630 AM frequency, moves to FM exclusively
A local radio station made the jump from AM to FM. And it’s not just ANY station. It was one of the first to sign on the air in southwestern Ontario. Windsor Morning host Amy Dodge spoke to the vice-president of Blackburn Media, Walter Ploegman.
He said the station continues to do agricultural broadcasting, even though consumption of agriculture information has changed.
Ploegman said the radio station has heard from the community, and “the majority are supportive of us moving it to FM because it’s about longevity.”
“The other thing that we’ve been seeing is the excitement of, ‘Great, CFCO is going to continue and be viable.'”
According to Ploegman, while it’s no secret that the AM band lends itself to a more talk format, because CFCO is a station that does play a lot of country music, “it’s been a welcome change.”
Former employees reminisce about time at CFCO
Two former CFCO employees are now members of the CBC Windsor team.
Mike Evans, an associate producer and technician, says his first job in radio was writing commercials for CFCO and CKSY-FM, another radio station owned by Blackburn Media.
“Some of the first radio commercials that I ever wrote were for CFCO,” said Evans.
“I would commute from Windsor to Chatham every day and I would drive back on the backcountry roads and I would listen to CFCO to see if I could hear some of my commercials over the air.”
While working at CFCO, Evans met Bob Becken, CBC Windsor’s morning digital editor, who served as the afternoon news reader at CFCO before being promoted to program manager.
“CFCO was incredible and … always has a place in my heart because that was where I first read news,” said Becken.
Windsor Morning producer, Peter Duck, who grew up in Chatham-Kent, remembers listening to CFCO as a child.
“It was always there when I was a kid. If you were in the barn, there would be an AM radio station that was just locked on and sometimes just playing continuously day and night, CFCO,” he said
“If you were a kid, you would listen to see if the buses were cancelled. It was just there.”