About CKDO 1580

CKDO 1580

CKDO, broadcasting on 1580 kHz and rebroadcast on 107.7 FM, is a classic hits–oldies radio station based in Oshawa, Ontario, and owned by Durham Radio Inc. On air since 1946, it is one of the oldest continuously operating radio stations in the Greater Toronto Area, and it holds one of the most distinctive dial positions in Canadian radio: a Class A clear-channel AM frequency shared nationally only with a 50-watt weather station in British Columbia. Branded "107.7 FM & 1580 AM CKDO" and marketed as "Durham's Classic Hits," the station pairs music from the 1960s through the 1990s with a heavy local-news commitment in the Durham Region.

Overview

CKDO transmits at 10,000 watts from a two-tower directional array on Courtice Road in Clarington, operating as a clear-channel Class A station — the minimum power permitted on such a protected frequency. Its programming is also carried on FM rebroadcaster CKDO-FM-1 at 107.7 MHz and on the HD3 subchannel of sister station CJKX-FM at 95.9, giving the heritage AM service three distinct paths to the listener. The station's broadcast area is listed as the Greater Toronto Area, with its core audience in Oshawa, Whitby, and Clarington. The call letters stand for "Durham Ontario County," the station's historic broadcast area.

The format is classic hits and oldies — "The Greatest Hits of All Time" — drawing on pop, rock, R&B, and soul from the 1960s through the 1980s and into the 1990s, with the station's own positioning promising that "all it takes is one song to unlock a thousand memories." Weekday mornings feature longtime Oshawa personality Terry Johnston, who has been on the station since 1990 and received the Queen Elizabeth II Diamond Jubilee Medal in 2012 for community service.

History

CKDO signed on October 5, 1946, launched by T. W. Elliott, an executive with the Canadian division of General Motors. Its original frequency was 1240 kilocycles. In 1950, Elliott sold the station to Lakeland Broadcasting, which changed the callsign to CKLB. The station moved to AM 1350 in 1956, and the following year Lakeland launched an FM sister station, CKLB-FM — the station that would eventually become today's CKGE-FM, 94.9 The Rock.

In 1979 the stations were acquired by Grant Broadcasting, and CKLB adopted the new callsign CKAR. (The CKAR callsign is now used by an unrelated station in Huntsville.) Grant sold the stations to Power Broadcasting in 1990, and in 1992 Power restored the station's original CKDO callsign along with an oldies format — a homecoming for the heritage calls after more than four decades. In 1996 the station moved to an adult contemporary format, sometimes simulcasting its FM sister and sometimes airing its own distinct schedule.

The turn of the millennium brought another ownership change. In 2000, Corus Entertainment acquired the stations. In February 2001, Corus briefly added CKDO to a short-lived talk radio network that also included CHML in Hamilton, CFPL in London, CKRU in Peterborough, CFFX in Kingston, and CJOY in Guelph — but the experiment ended within months, and the station returned to oldies by the summer of 2001. In 2003, CKDO and CKGE were acquired by Durham Radio Inc., the Oshawa-based broadcaster founded by Douglas Kirk that owns the stations to this day.

Durham Radio expanded the station's reach in two steps. In 2005 it established the FM rebroadcaster CKDO-FM-1 at 107.7 MHz, following a 2004 CRTC approval that had been conditional on the company choosing a frequency other than the 107.7 it had originally proposed. Then, on August 13, 2006, CKDO moved from 1350 to 1580 kHz, taking over a Class A clear-channel frequency with its protections against interference. The 1580 frequency had previously been the home of CBJ in Chicoutimi, Quebec, before that Ici Radio-Canada station migrated to the FM dial. CKDO operates at 10,000 watts — the minimum power required on a clear-channel frequency — sharing the 1580 allocation nationally only with CBPK, a 50-watt weather-information station in Revelstoke, British Columbia. The CKDO callsign had also been used previously by an unrelated station in Baie-Comeau, Quebec, which operated at 92.5 FM from 1988 to 1991.

Programming

The station's schedule is built around two pillars: classic hits music and Durham Region local news. The music spans the 1960s through the 1990s, leaning on the pop, rock, soul, and R&B titles that defined the oldies format, and the station brands the offering as "Durham's Classic Hits." Terry Johnston's weekday morning show has been a fixture since 1990, making him one of the longest-tenured morning hosts in the market.

Local news is the station's second signature. Alongside its durhamradionews.com operation, the station describes itself as the local station for local news and information and as one of the area's only daily local news sources, carrying news, sports, traffic, weather, and community information throughout the broadcast day. The station is also the official radio broadcaster of the Oshawa Generals of the Ontario Hockey League, carrying the junior hockey club's games — a role that ties the station to one of the community's most visible institutions. Music director Gary Berarde also hosts on-air programming and has become known among shortwave and medium-wave DX hobbyists for personally answering and welcoming reception reports from distant listeners — a reminder that a clear-channel AM signal still carries well beyond its home market after dark.

Coverage and audience

CKDO's 10,000-watt directional AM signal on the protected 1580 frequency gives it a distinctive coverage profile: a clear-channel allocation means limited interference and strong regional reach, particularly valuable at night when AM signals travel farther. The 107.7 FM rebroadcaster serves the immediate Durham market, and the station's own audience research indicates that a majority of its Durham listeners tune in on the FM signal. The HD3 simulcast on CJKX-FM 95.9 adds a third delivery path.

The station's audience is concentrated in the local trading areas of Oshawa, Whitby, and Clarington. According to Numeris data cited in the station's media materials, nearly 60 percent of the audience has post-secondary education, more than a third live in households with annual incomes above $100,000, and over 18 percent are owners, managers, or professionals — a profile the station pitches to local advertisers as an established, community-rooted audience.

Ownership

CKDO is owned by Durham Radio Inc., a private Oshawa-based broadcaster founded in 1994 by Douglas Kirk. The company owns twelve radio stations and associated repeaters, concentrated in the Golden Horseshoe region of southern Ontario, with a first station outside the province acquired in Vancouver in 2021 and three more added from Bell Media's 2024 divestiture in Lindsay and Peterborough. In Oshawa, Durham Radio operates CKDO alongside CKGE-FM (94.9 The Rock) and CJKX-FM (KX96) in Ajax, with the three stations sharing studios at 1200 Airport Boulevard. The station's ownership lineage runs from T. W. Elliott (1946) through Lakeland Broadcasting (1950), Grant Broadcasting (1979), Power Broadcasting (1990), and Corus Entertainment (2000) to Durham Radio (2003–present).

Digital presence

CKDO streams live through its official website, ckdo.ca, which also carries local news content through the Durham Radio news operation and station information. The station maintains social media profiles under the CKDO branding, where it promotes its classic hits programming, the Oshawa Generals broadcasts, and community involvement. The stream is also available through third-party radio aggregators. A dedicated standalone mobile app for the station is not publicly confirmed.