CKO

: CKO is also an acronym for Chief Knowledge Officer.

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CKO was a Canadian radio news network which operated from 1977 to 1989.

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The network was owned by Canada All-News Radio Ltd. Agra Industries was originally a 45 per cent partner in the network, but by 1988 it was the sole owner.

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CKO commenced broadcasting on July 1, 1977 with stations in Ottawa, Ontario and Toronto, Ontario. Later in the year, stations were added in Montreal, Quebec, London, Ontario, Vancouver, British Columbia and Calgary, Alberta.

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In 1978, a station was added in Edmonton, Alberta.

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The stations each had local studios, but also shared national programming as well. In the 1980s, CKO became one of the first Canadian radio networks to deliver its programming by satellite.

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In 1985, CKO added a station in Halifax, Nova Scotia.

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In 1988, CKO filed an application with the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission to trade frequencies with Toronto AM station CKYC. The transaction would have included a payment of $4 million to CKO which the network would have used to launch three more stations for which it already held licenses, but had not been financially able to establish. However, the CRTC denied the application. Later the same year, AGRA, now the sole owner of CKO, transferred ownership to its media division, Cybermedix.

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Later that year, CKO established its final station, in Winnipeg, Manitoba.

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In 1989, AGRA sold Cybermedix to Cogeco. However, the CKO network had always struggled to turn a profit, and on November 10 of that year, Cogeco -- which had only wanted Cybermedix's cable properties -- pulled the plug on CKO during the noon newscast, surrendering all of the network's licenses to the CRTC.

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Many of CKO's frequencies were not reassigned to new radio broadcasters for almost a decade after CKO's demise. In fact, three of the frequencies remain unassigned as of 2005.

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Canadian: REDIRECT Canada...

1977: :For the album by Ash, see 1977 (album)....

1989: 1989 is a common year starting on Sunday of the Gregorian calendar. The world population growth in absolute numbers is believed to have been the highest ever around this time. http://www.census.gov/ipc/www/worldpop.html...