CKFC Vancouver

       Vancouver's second religious station also broadcast from First Congregational Church.  As previously mentioned, the church's services were first heard over CFYC in April, 1924.  These broadcasts brought letters from Alberta and the United States, as well as the coast and interior of British Columbia.  Dr. A.E. Cooke, the pastor, decided to establish a church-owned station, and used some of his radio time to solicit financial support.  Funds were also donated by Vancouver lumber executive Ross Peers and W.C. Woodward of Woodward's stores.  Roy Brown installed a 50-watt transmitter and a licence was obtained under the call sign of CKFC.  The new station went on the air on September 7, 1924.  Cooked based his sermon of dedication on Deuteronomy 4:36: "Out of heaven He made thee to hear his voice, that He might instruct three."  Cooke later wrote:  "Radio CKFC was used three times every Sunday, at both morning and evening services and also at the Sunday Afternoon Forum.  Over it the discussions of religious subjects and social problems by outstanding leaders and speakers from all over Canada and the British Empire and United States were broadcast . . . It was efficiently operated by four young men of the Congregational Church until the United Church of Canada came into being in June, 1925. 


       The United Church of Canada was formed by an amalgamation of 2/3 of the Presbyterian Church with the Congregational and Methodist Churches.  The remaining of the Presbyterian Church continued independently, receiving First Congregational Church as partial compensation for property lost in the merger.  It was renamed Central Presbyterian and continued to house CKFC.  At about the same time, Cyril Trott became involved with the station.  Trott ran his own business--Radio Service Engineers--and operated CKFC on behalf of the church from 1925-1936. 

CYRIL TROTT: In 1925, the man operating the station was James Wilson Spence.  I worked with him for a period of months, and then he had to leave for Australia.  So I had the job of operating the station, make the announcements, and introducing the church programs.  That was my job from then on.  In 1929, we moved the station to Chalmers United Church at 12th and Hemlock.  We also started the shortwave station, VE9CS, which had an output of 2 watts and carried the church services up through the interior of British Columbia and down to California.  We had telephone lines installed to different churches throughout Vancouver, and each church would take part for possibly a month or two at a stretch.  We'd broadcast their morning and evening services.  We did most the afternoon programs from Chalmers United Church.  Down in the basement, one of the classrooms was set aside; we just pulled some curtains around it and that was our studio.  We'd do our program for the Women's Christian Temperance Union and some of the Sunday school program there.  When we were through, we'd take our microphone back up to the top of the church.  The transmitter and the record player were all in one little room at the top of the stairs. I was paid $15 a month for operating the station for them.  They gave me the privilege of making very short announcements for my company.  I would go on and say, "If at any time you need your radio repaired, please call Radio Service Engineers Limited."  We used to have an hour and half program each afternoon, and I'd probably put one in about every half an hour.  That was the only advertising  on the station.  It was an informal way that we received benefit.  At the time, I did't realize how much benefit we were receiving from it.  It wasn't until some years later that I realized how many people did listen to the program.

         CKFC and its shortwave counterpart, VE9CS, remained under the direct control of the United Church until 1936, when they were leased to the Standard Broadcasting Company.   The company agreed to carry the scheduled church broadcasts and sell the balance of the time to approved sponsors.  The shortwave operation continued as CKFX.  Laurie Irvine was the engineer and Ian Clark was the manager. 

LAURIE IRVINE: The first time I saw the transmitter--literally a breadboard transmitter, built out of the Amateur Radio Relay League handbook--I nearly went home.  It was just unbelievable, but there it was.  We ended up with studios and offices in the Stock Exchange Building in downtown Vancouver, and a transmitter in North Vancouver, of all places.  We were still sharing time with CKMO, and we ran this shortwave station.  What for, I don't know, because the audience was nil. 

IAN CLARK: We went into a wider range of programming.  We were going into more of a commercial station than what was held before.  We had advertising on, we had local news and so on and so forth.  We stayed pretty close to running quality non-religious programming.  The lightest we ever got would be songs by Nelson Eddy and Jeanette MacDonald, we ran a lot of symphonies and so on. 

       In 1937, the Standard Broadcasting Company was taken over by the Sun Publishing Company.  CKFC and CKFX moved into offices in the Sun Tower two floors below their competitor, CKMO.  Like CKCD, CKFC was eventually asked by the government to relinquish its licence in order to improve the cluttered situation on Vancouver's airwaves.  When the station went off the air in 1940, CKWX assumed the commitment of carrying United Church broadcasts.  CKWX also took over CKFX, which today still simulcasts the station's programming on the shortwave band.

Author Dennis Duffy,
Published in 1982.