Some of the stories behind

Okanagan FM transmitter sites and the

Okanagan Mountain Fire (August 2003)

CILK Kelowna – re the application and subsequent permission to upgrade transmitting facilities in 1993. This work was never carried out, and in fact today CILK still transmits from their original location, (they rent space, along with SUN-FM, from CKLZ's Jim Pattison Broadcast Group).

The original site was rebuilt after the building was totally destroyed in the Ok Mtn fire. The tower itself was virtually untouched.  The main reason CILK has never gone through with their upgrade is cost. The new site was just that, a new site, and required a road, power line, building, and tower.  CILK managed to complete the road and building, but choked on the cost of the power line (approx $85K in 1993, maybe $100K today).  He tried a low power backup installation there, but it has never been the primary site, and in any event it was totally destroyed in the big fire of 2003.  He may not have apprised the authorities, but he's not actually at the new site (which is about 250m higher up the north slope of Ok Mtn.) and never has been.

Logically, CILK had hoped to develop the new site after the fire, but apparently the insurance company wouldn’t accept the equipment changes this would have entailed, and so owner Nick Frost finally rebuilt at the Pattison site with the insurance money.  Now that he's sold CILK, I would think there is zero chance that the new site will ever be developed…

Some little-known information about the valley's FM
pioneer, CJOV, er, CHIM, er, CKLZ, er Power 104. Its orig. transmitter site was Okanagan Mountain, which I think everyone will now admit has turned out to be the best overall site in the valley. (CIGV lives there now - check out their Giant coverage).

The problems with Ok Mtn are that it's in a big park, and there was no power.  Undaunted, CJOV engineers set up on top of Ok Mtn that first year, running on continuous diesel power. Went through the first winter, drove up to the site only to discover that the tower had fallen over, and they had been transmitting with their antenna lying on the ground for months unknown.

Between the lack of hydro power, the poor access to the site in the winter, and the extreme icing conditions that prevail up there in the winter
months, it was just too difficult to maintain, particularly for a station with only a handful of listeners.  They moved out, and set up instead at CHBC's site on Blue Grouse (CK/CJOV was a 1/3 partner in CHBC-TV at the time).  

Six months later, Trans Mountain Pipeline decided to install microwave equipment at Ok Mtn, and they ran in a power line and a better road, making it much more feasible as a broadcast site.  The late Ralph Robinson has been the only broadcaster to succeed in getting permission to use it, however, as the Mountain's ‘pristine park status’ is now closely guarded by Victoria.

To continue with our story, Blue Grouse is another excellent overall site, but stereo performance in much of Kelowna itself is quite poor.  Efforts to improve coverage in the key market area led to development of Pattison's current site, which is usually referred to as Little White.  It is on the northern slope of Ok Mtn, south of Kelowna, several thousand feet from the top.  

The relocation, and subsequent careful adjustments to the new antenna there, resulted in considerable improvement to CHIM's coverage in Kelowna.  This work was carried out while Nick Frost was manager of CHIM, concurrent with his applications for his own radio station.  Jamie Browne was always very reasonable with Nick, allowing him to apply, several times, for a competing station while he continued to manage CHIM, and then renting him transmitter space and sharing facilities with him, virtually at cost.

CKLZ maintained the Blue Grouse facilities over the years, and were paid back amply during the Ok Mtn fire -- they were able to get back on the air, when disaster struck, by just throwing a switch -- off air time was measured in seconds.  Their tenants, CILK and SUN-FM, had more trouble, but both were able to get back on the air with temporary facilities installed
on Blue Grouse.  

CILK had a great deal of help behind the scenes from CBC technicians, which I don't think they have ever adequately acknowledged. CBC located and loaned them equipment, gave them space, and even installed the equipment and set it up for them.

SUN-FM's engineers did very well on their own, setting up at Blue Grouse with their own spares and resources.

With the benefit of Trans Mountain's power line, CIGV built at what I understand is virtually the same spot that CJOV had attempted in the beginning.  The original CIGV configuration offered killer overall coverage ("Sicamous to the U.S. border, and beyond"), but stereo performance was so poor, particularly in the key metro Penticton and Kelowna areas, that they chose to revert to monaural transmission.  

CIGV’s transmitter building was totally destroyed in the Okanagan Mtn. forest fire. Rebuilding the site offered the opportunity to upgrade their antenna with some of the new information gleaned from the CHIM/CKLZ site research in the early '80's.  This has resulted in a much better stereo signal for CIGV in Kelowna and Penticton, while still maintaining the excellent overall coverage from that site.  The proof is that CIGV today transmits in stereo.

Dan Roach

March 4/07