1965: CJUS-FM launched

While campus radio programs had been broadcast on CFQC-FM and other stations as early as 1932, with a radio directorate established in 1944, by the late 1950s the students’ union was in a good position to establish an independent station.  In 1959 University Radio Productions approached the federal government for a broadcast license to operate a student-run FM station on a non-commercial basis.  However, licensing requirements demanded that licenses only be issued to the University itself, so in 1960 students approached the Board of Governors for approval.  Operation of the station was formalized in 1965 between the University and the Students’ Union (USSU), and CJUS-FM was launched, with studios in the Memorial Union Building (MUB) and antennas on top of the Arts Building.  For ten years prior to the establishment of a CBC-FM station in Saskatoon, CJUS carried CBC network programming; and many of the station’s locally-produced programs were carried nation-wide.  In 1980 the station moved from the Memorial Union Building to the Education Building.  In October 1983, the station became a limited commercial station, and changed its call letters to CHSK-FM.  However, by late 1984 the Board of Governors decided not to continue the station’s funding.  Although the USSU briefly considered taking full responsibility for running the station, the last day of programming was September 30, 1985.

Related Collections

Campus Radio Station fonds, MG 128
K.S. Gordon fonds, MG 199

Images

1965a: CJUS-FM studio, and the hosts of “Morning Favourites” and “Folk Music International”, 1983. Photograph Collection, A-8787.

Sources

Guide to Holdings, p. 137.