CFRN 2002 Top of Hour

[jon]

Looking back, I see that I didn't mention much about Len Thuesen.

Len did evenings on CHED throughout the '70s. Then, when CFCW got an FM license, CKRA-FM, Len was Program Director from the day they signed on in 1979 until Newcap bought both stations in the late 1990s. CKRA began as roCKRAdio, but quickly became, either formally or informally, K-96, playing album cuts and forcing K-97 (CIRK-FM) to quickly become "Music to Weld By". But a complaint by K-97 management to the CRTC saw CKRA become K-Lite, "Lite Rock and Less Talk", pioneering Adult Contemporary, Music at Work and many other new concepts for Edmonton. Further intervention by the CRTC, forcing the station to play more of what the CRTC defined as current hits, lost it some listeners, some moving to CKXM-FM, which had just switched to Adult Contemporary and hired CKRA's morning man Mike Lynch (to replace Fil Fraser, who went to CKUA), while others just turned off their radios.