AM radio station 630 CHED, a mainstay of Edmonton broadcasting for more than 60 years, will be changing frequency this fall, according to parent company Corus Entertainment.
Programming, including Edmonton Oilers game coverage for which CHED has radio play-by-play rights, will move to another Corus-owned station, 880 AM, formerly Global News 880.
The changes are set to begin on Oct. 9, in time for the Oilers’ season opener, according to an internal memo obtained by CBC News.
“At the time it was stated that this was an interim period after which the market would only have one AM station on the air,” Ward Smith, senior vice president at Global News, said in the memo.
“Broadcasting CHED on 880 will increase coverage within the city and provide a stronger signal for our listeners, and we have exciting plans to promote this change to our listeners.”
The company stopped operating its 880 AM radio station in June and has been broadcasting CHED content on both frequencies since then.
Smith said the company plans to sell the land in Edmonton where the 630 CHED transmitter sits, and the broadcasting licence on that frequency will be returned to the Canadian Broadcasting and Telecommunications Commission (CRTC), which regulates broadcasting in Canada.
CHED began broadcasting in Edmonton in the mid-1950s on the 1080 frequency before moving to 630 AM about a decade later. The station has held the radio rights to the Oilers since 1995.
“With everything that’s been going on in media recently and all the changes that are happening, this is really just another brick in the wall,” said Grant Ainslie, who runs a media communications company in Edmonton and previously worked at 1110 CHQT.
He noted that there have been many mergers and large-scale layoffs over the past 10 to 15 years.
“It’s certainly historic in that it’s remembered as 630 CHED, but I’m not surprised it’s getting some press these days,” Ainslie said.