About "101.5 Today Radio"

101.5 Today Radio: Calgary's Conversation-Driven Hit Station

101.5 Today Radio is a commercial FM radio station licensed to Calgary, Alberta, broadcasting a hot adult contemporary format at 101.5 MHz under the call letters CKCE-FM. Owned and operated by Pattison Media, part of the Jim Pattison Group, the station pairs contemporary pop hits with restored favourites from the 1980s and 1990s, and distinguishes itself with a heavy on-air emphasis on topical discussion and interaction between listeners and DJs. It is one of Calgary's youngest full-market FM stations, having launched in 2007, and has been rebranded three times in its history: as 101.5 Energy FM in early 2010, as Kool 101.5 later that year, and as 101.5 Today Radio on February 26, 2019.

History: a latecomer to the Calgary dial

CKCE-FM's origins lie in a competitive CRTC licensing round. The station was originally approved by the CRTC in 2006 from an application submitted by CHUM Limited, prior to the announcement of its merger with CTVglobemedia. Because the original application had requested the 90.3 frequency, which was granted instead to Newcap Broadcasting for what would become CFUL-FM, the approval was made conditional on the station submitting a revised application for a different frequency. The station subsequently applied for 101.5, which the CRTC granted in January 2007 in Broadcasting Decision 2007-27.

CKCE-FM began testing on March 12, 2007, stunting with a loop of "Wannabe" by the Spice Girls, and officially launched on March 22 at 1:01 p.m. with a rhythmic hot adult contemporary format as Energy 101.5. The call letters themselves carry the station's original identity: CKCE stands for "Calgary Energy," a reference to both the broadcast area and the launch branding. The station entered a crowded Calgary market as the newest full-power commercial FM signal.

The station's early years were marked by constant musical adjustment. In June 2009, following the relaunch of CFUL as top 40 station CKMP-FM, CKCE segued to hot adult contemporary, replacing most of its rhythmic music with pop rock. In early 2010 the station rebranded as 101.5 Energy FM and began reinstating rhythmic music to compete with the recently relaunched CIGY-FM. Then, on August 17, 2010, CKCE flipped to rhythmic adult contemporary as Kool 101.5, opening with "Get The Party Started" by P!nk and the slogan "Hits from Today and Back In the Day." The rhythmic-leaning mix, heavy on dance-driven tracks with pop-rock product getting less airplay, was in part a response to competition in the market.

The Pattison acquisition

CKCE's ownership changed as a consequence of one of the biggest transactions in Canadian broadcasting history. When Bell Media acquired Astral Media, which had come to own CKCE through earlier consolidation, the CRTC required Bell to divest ten radio stations to stay within ownership limits in major markets. On May 16, 2013, the Jim Pattison Group announced a deal to acquire CKCE-FM along with two other former Bell and Astral stations in Winnipeg, for an undisclosed amount. The CRTC approved the acquisition on December 20, 2013, and the deal closed in early 2014, with CKCE consolidated into Pattison's Calgary broadcast facilities.

Under Pattison, the station quickly moved back toward the mainstream. It dropped the rhythmic lean, reduced its focus on 1980s and 1990s hits, and began adding more pop-rock currents and recurrents, settling into a more conventional hot adult contemporary sound. The moniker was tweaked slightly to "101.5 KooL FM" with the new slogan "Calgary's Hits!"

Becoming 101.5 Today Radio

The station's most significant relaunch came on February 26, 2019. At 6 that morning, CKCE ended its eight-and-a-half years as KooL FM and debuted as 101.5 Today Radio. The hot adult contemporary format remained, and the lineup of station personalities continued virtually unchanged, but management promised a more liberal mixing of music from the eighties, nineties, and early two-thousands back into the playlist. The rebrand positioned the station around personality and conversation: the format carries a heavy emphasis on topical discussions and real-time interaction between listeners and DJs, a deliberate differentiator in a format often dominated by music sweeps.

The launch also added an evening show featuring highlights from Crash and Mars, the morning show on Pattison's Edmonton sister station CKNO-FM (102.3 Now! Radio), linking the Calgary and Edmonton operations. In 2024, as part of industry-wide budget cuts, the station's local Mornings With Bo and Jess show was dropped and replaced with Crash and Mars, a move covered by Billboard in July 2024 as part of a broader story on the pressures facing broadcast morning shows.

Ownership: Pattison Media

101.5 Today Radio is owned by Pattison Media, the broadcast division of the Jim Pattison Group, the Vancouver-based conglomerate founded by Jimmy Pattison. Pattison Media is one of Canada's largest western-based broadcasters, operating dozens of radio stations and television properties across the West. In 2024 the company's fifty-one radio stations, including 101.5 Today Radio in Calgary and 102.3 Now! Radio in Edmonton, joined Bell Media's iHeartRadio Canada platform, making them available for streaming on iHeart.com and the iHeartRadio Canada app alongside the country's other major station groups.

The Pattison story behind the station

Pattison Media is the broadcast arm of the Jim Pattison Group, the empire built by Vancouver businessman Jimmy Pattison, born October 1, 1928, in Saskatoon and raised in Vancouver. Pattison built Western Canada's largest car dealership before beginning a run of more than fifty acquisitions that started with the 1967 purchase of Claude Neon signs; he also managed Vancouver's Expo 86 World's Fair. The broadcast division grew steadily from those roots into one of the country's largest private station groups, concentrated in Western Canada. For CKCE-FM, Pattison ownership meant stability after a turbulent first seven years: the rhythmic experiments of the late Astral era gave way to a steadier mainstream hot AC, and the 2019 Today Radio rebrand gave the station an identity built for the long term rather than another short-term format swing. Being part of a western-based owner also shaped the station's sound: sharing Crash and Mars with Edmonton is the kind of cross-market move a regional group can make that a national conglomerate rarely attempts.

Programming

As a hot adult contemporary station, 101.5 Today Radio plays a blend of current pop hits and recurrents from the past four decades, with a stated emphasis on conversation. The Today Radio brand, which Pattison has also deployed in other markets, is built around the idea that the station's personalities are as important as its music: topical discussions, listener calls and texts, and local information are woven through the music hours. Evenings carry the Crash and Mars program from Edmonton, giving the station a shared western-Canadian personality presence in a daypart that many hot AC stations voice-track or automate.

Signal and coverage

CKCE-FM broadcasts at 101.5 MHz as a Class C1 station with an effective radiated power of 48 kilowatts (maximum 100 kilowatts) from a transmitter on Patina Hill Drive Southwest in Calgary's Prominence Point neighbourhood in the city's west end. Its studios are on 58th Avenue Southwest in Calgary. The signal provides full-market coverage of the Calgary Metropolitan Region, and the station has been a consistent ratings performer: as of Winter 2020 it was the third-most-listened-to radio station in the Calgary market according to a PPM data report released by Numeris. It competes in the hot AC and contemporary space with stations such as Bell Media's CIBK-FM (98.5 Virgin Radio).

A young station finding its voice

CKCE-FM's history is unusually compressed: three brands in its first twelve years, two owners, and a format that has swung between rhythmic-leaning and mainstream hot AC. What has remained constant is its position as Calgary's newest full-power commercial FM voice, a station built from a 2006 CRTC licence rather than inherited from the AM era. The Today Radio rebrand of 2019 gave it its clearest identity yet: a hot AC station that treats the microphone as a two-way conversation with the city. In a market where heritage stations trade on decades of history, 101.5 Today Radio has made personality and listener interaction its claim on the dial.

How to listen

Tune in at 101.5 FM in Calgary, or stream live through the station's page on iHeartRadio Canada, where Pattison Media's full western station lineup is available on demand.