Energy 1200, the Top 40 pop station that existed from 1988-1995, the station with such an interesting and rich history. For a short time it became The Buzz, then OSR 1200 (Ottawa Sports Radio ...or... Ottawa Senators Radio), then it was The Team 1200, and now exists as TSN Radio 1200.
The station has one of the most colourful histories in Ottawa. Founded on 1440AM in 1964 as CKPM and owned by Confederation Broadcasting it had it's license revoked by the CRTC in 1970 which led to an unprecedented appeal to the Supreme Court of Canada. At one point in 1970 and 1971 the CRTC was renewing CKPM's license first for 6 months and then year-by-year while the legal drama and the station's recovery played out.
Ultimately, the station was sold in 1972 and became CFGO (CF "Greater Ottawa") on June 21, 1972. Things settled down after a bit and by 1975 the station was stable and playing a close second to CFRA for the music listening habits of Top 40 Ottawa although their Top 40 playlist skewed a little bit more MOR/AA ("Middle Of the Road" or "Adult Alternative") than CFRA. And that's pretty much where things stayed until the big shake-up of 1986.
On January 5, 1986, CFGO moved from 1440AM to 1200AM. This allowed the station to realign its transmitter facilities and gain better coverage in the surrounding areas along with a better signal. With the switch the station adopted the branding "GO 1200 - Adult Rock" and soldiered on until August 18, 1986 when top-rated CFRA suddenly flipped from Top 40 to Oldies. CFGO moved almost immediately to fill the void by flipping back to a full Top 40 playlist within weeks and snatching up the very troubled, but very popular, Mark Elliott from CFRA. Elliott had a couple of months earlier walked off the air at CFRA when he learned of the flip to Oldies (a story for another day). He was later fired by CFGO's station manager in 1987 after his addictions became too much and she worried that his position as the hottest evening DJ in the city was just enabling his self-destruction. Today Elliott credits her with saving his life. The station continued on as Top 40 with the branding "CFGO AM 1200" until early 1988 when it became Energy 1200. And from there you can go back to the first paragraph.
I will confess to listening to Energy 1200 back in 1988. Long before 54 Rock came on the scene and I discovered metal. Yeah, I had bad taste in music in the late 80's. But, hey, memories are memories, right?
