In 1953, the veteran broadcaster Hal Yerxa returned to Alberta from his job as morning host on New Westminster CKNW with a license for a new am radio station. A year later CFCW was on the air with 250 watts of power and a staff of 11 at 1230 on the a.m. dial. In 1957 a power increase to 1000 watts brought their mix of agricultural news and feature programming to a growing rural audience beyond the Camrose city limits.
Johnny Cash, Webb Pierce, Hank Thompson, Hank Snow and many more country stars were played on shows like Main Street Jamboree each evening and popular deejays like Rich Sims and Ross Arthur featured country music in the afternoons.
By 1960 CFCW moved up the dial to 790 and increased their power to 10 thousand watts and became the first station in Canada to play country music 24 hours a day.
It was big news when Curly Curlock, the popular host of Curly’s Corral on CJCA Edmonton moved to Camrose to host CFCW’s breakfast show. He was followed by Hall of Famer Bev Munro, and in the ‘90s the popular duo of WesMontgomery and JackieRay kept folks entertained and informed, and today the torch has been passed to DannyHooper, SharonMallon and Pete Hicks.
Fifty years later the station is still unique with its coverage of rodeo, chuckwagons, its emphasis on Agriculture news, country hits from today and yesterday, Ukrainian music, bluegrass, gospel, and the Spirit of the West has been heard on CFCW since 1997.
