Dean Blundell is a former Canadian radio personality. Best known as a longtime " shock jock " morning host on CFNY-FM (The Edge) in Toronto , Ontario , in 2015 he was named the new morning host on sports radio station CJCL (Sportsnet 590 The Fan). His show on Sportsnet was cancelled in February 2017.
23-698: Blundell worked for CJOK-FM in Fort McMurray and CIMX-FM in Windsor , Ontario before joining CFNY in 2001. His self-titled show on CFNY debuted soon after Corus Entertainment reassigned his longtime predecessors Humble and Fred to talk radio sister station CFMJ . During Blundell's stint on CFNY, his program frequently faced complaints to the Canadian Broadcast Standards Council regarding offensive content. These included complaints about sexually explicit discussion, vulgar terminology used in
46-468: A podcast , and announced plans to launch his own Internet radio stream. He guest hosted an episode of Fan 590's Jeff Blair Show in May 2014 and was named to the station's permanent new lineup in 2015. Rogers Radio executive Scott Moore expressed confidence that Blundell's controversial history would not detract from the station's brand, noting that "He knows that this is a very different show. His mandate at
69-464: A comment on the sexuality of Justin Bieber , derogatory comments about women, and comments that appeared to support violence against women . The program received a one-day suspension following a 2004 appearance by Jackass cast member Steve-O , in which Steve-O urinated on the studio floor, used several profanities, and performed a stunt that involved wrapping duct tape around his penis. In 2009, he
92-411: A counterpart to sister news/talk station CHED . In June 2024, CHQT was closed by owner Corus Entertainment as a part of company-wide cuts, and began to simulcast CHED for a transitional period. CHED's programming and call letters were permanently moved to CHQT's signal on October 9, 2024, with Corus citing its better coverage (while they both broadcast at the same power, CHQT was non-directional in
115-840: A proliferation of rural stations. Charest would later state that he founded CJOK "five years too soon", before the tar sands boom took hold in town. After the success of CJOK, Charest and Morton received licences from the Canadian Radio-Television Commission (now the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission , CRTC) to launch CFOK in Westlock and CIOK in St. Paul . Charest sold all of his interest in OK Radio Group to Humford Development in 1978 but bought it back in 1981, with Charest and Morton co-owning
138-407: A rival company preemptively making any similar move. On May 20, 2008, CHQT re-launched as an all-news station, branded as iNews 880 , complementing sister talk radio station CHED . On May 29, 2018, the station re-branded as Global News Radio 880 Edmonton , as part of an ongoing rebranding of Corus's news/talk radio stations to create synergies with Global News television programming. As part of
161-621: Is owned by Rogers Radio , a division of Rogers Sports & Media . CJOK went on the air January 1, 1973, as the first radio station in Fort McMurray. It was founded by Roger Charest and was the namesake for his broadcast company, the OK Radio Group. In 1985, a sister FM station, CKYX-FM , was established. CJOK moved to FM in August 1997 and was purchased by Rogers in 2006. In 1972, Roger Charest, an announcer at CHQT in Edmonton , decided to file for
184-522: The Edge was to be edgy and he knows a) that's not what we’re asking for and b) it would be unacceptable." He was dropped from Fan 590 in February 2017. Blundell said in 2018 that he regretted the on-air controversies from his show on CFNY-FM . CJOK-FM CJOK-FM (93.3 MHz ) is a radio station in Fort McMurray, Alberta , Canada, with a country format branded on-air as Country 93.3 . The station
207-608: The OK Radio Group and Edmonton ethnic radio station CKER . In the wake of the repurchase, CJOK applied to the CRTC to change frequencies to the lower 550 kHz with 10,000 watts instead of 1,000, expanding coverage. The station also anticipated to improve coverage at the oil sands plants and within buildings in the city. However, an intervention by adjacent-channel CBK , the CBC station in Saskatchewan , stalled approval until April 1984. Ultimately,
230-476: The air a jury trial in which Welsman was the foreman. The trial concerned a sexual assault charge against a client of a gay bathhouse , and Blundell and Welsman's commentary about it was criticized both for homophobia and for potentially causing a mistrial by publicly discussing the jury deliberations. The program's cancellation was announced in January 2014. Following his departure from CFNY, Blundell launched
253-400: The daytime unlike CHED, which used a directional antenna at all times). The station signed on August 19, 1965 on 1110 kHz, with 10,000 watts power. It originally broadcast a Middle of the road format. In 1979, CHQT started using 50,000 watts power. In 1986, the station changed frequency to 880 kHz as it was sold to Monarch Broadcasting, Ltd. In July 2000, Shaw Broadcasting sold
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#1732894836858276-604: The death of hockey player Kristiāns Pelšs , suggesting that Pelšs (whose death was accidental) had committed suicide because that was preferable to living in Edmonton . Through 2012 and 2013, Blundell's show was the subject of nine separate complaints to the Canadian Broadcast Standards Council, and was formally censured six times. Blundell was indefinitely suspended from CFNY in December 2013, following reports that he and cohost Derek Welsman had discussed on
299-459: The first radio licence to serve Fort McMurray, at the time a small town with no local stations in the years before the Athabasca oil sands boomed. He contacted a friend of his, Stu Morton, who at first didn't know where the town was. The two went into partnership, and CJOK began broadcasting as an AM station on 1230 kHz at 12:01 a.m. on January 1, 1973, New Year's Day ; the first song played
322-467: The four MAPL (music, artist, production, lyrics) requirements to qualify. By 1989, CJOK was airing a country music format. CJOK applied in August 1997 to move to the FM band, citing the inadequacy of its signal as conceived in the early 1970s to serve the larger Fort McMurray urban area. The proposal required the CRTC to issue a waiver of its rule that prevented one group from owning more than one FM station in
345-587: The frequency change proposal was abandoned, having become unnecessary because the projected Alsands plant and population boom to support the increased coverage never materialized. In March 1985, OK Radio Group built rock-formatted FM station CKYX-FM ; CJOK removed rock music from its middle of the road format at that time. The station received a short 18-month licence renewal from the CRTC, its most severe penalty short of revocation, in 1987 because it failed to play enough Canadian content ; CJOK fell short because four songs sung by Anne Murray failed to meet two of
368-524: The market. It now consisted of the Fort McMurray stations as well as outlets in Edmonton, Grande Prairie , and Victoria, British Columbia . Rogers Communications acquired the seven stations for $ 39.6 million, marking its entry into the three Alberta markets served by the OK Radio Group. In 1994, CJOK was authorized to add an FM rebroadcaster at 95.7 MHz at the Suncor plant on Tar Island . The rebroadcaster
391-474: The rebranding, the station added an audio simulcast of Global Edmonton 's Global News Hour at 6 . An audio simulcast of Global News at Noon was added as of March 2019. As of July 2020, an audio-only rebroadcast of Global National aired on CHQT at 7 p.m., following the News Hour simulcast. On June 26, 2024, as part of cuts by Corus, CHQT discontinued its all-news format and began simulcasting with CHED. At
414-407: The same market; in December, the commission granted this waiver and approved the FM conversion, satisfied with OK Radio's commitment to retain the country format and that the arrangement would "provide a better quality service to the Fort McMurray population". The conversion was made in August 1998. In 2006, Charest and Morton—now in their 60s—announced their retirement and put the OK Radio Group on
437-410: The station to Corus Entertainment . In June 2001, CHQT flipped to oldies as Cool 880 . In October 2003, the station briefly flipped to a variety hits format as 880 Joe AM . The format moved to sister station CKNG-FM as 92.5 Joe FM on January 13, 2004, after which CHQT reverted to oldies; it is likely CHQT flipped to the format merely as a placeholder while CKNG prepared for their flip to avoid
460-412: The time, Corus stated that the simulcast was an interim measure, and that it would ultimately only operate one news-talk AM station in Edmonton. In August 2024, Corus announced that CHQT would close, and that CHED's branding and programming would move permanently to the 880 signal. Corus stated that CHQT's signal had better coverage than that of CHED; while both stations operated at a power of 50 kilowatts,
483-589: Was " I Can See Clearly Now " by Johnny Nash . The station met with tremendous local interest; Charest recalled nonstop phone calls and a feeling of "jubilation" in town. CJOK was among the first small-town radio stations in Alberta. With the exception of the Peace River area, the majority of the stations in the province were in cities, possibly because the flat terrain allowed those signals to travel much further than otherwise; in contrast, mountainous British Columbia had
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#1732894836858506-564: Was sued for defamation by Linda Jackson , the mayor of the Toronto suburb of Vaughan , after reportedly calling her a "fraudster" and a "fat pig" on the air. In 2011, he granted an interview to Shirley Phelps-Roper in exchange for the Westboro Baptist Church dropping its controversial plan to picket the funeral of 2011 Tucson shooting victim Christina Taylor Green. In 2013, he was widely criticized for comments that appeared to mock
529-418: Was switched to repeating CKYX-FM in 2005. 56°41′16″N 111°19′59″W / 56.68778°N 111.33306°W / 56.68778; -111.33306 CHQT CHQT was an AM radio station in Edmonton, Alberta . Owned by Corus Entertainment , the station first launched in August 1965. In June 2008, after having broadcast various music-based formats, CHQT flipped to an all-news format as
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