Radio station CKOV returns to Kelowna

After being closed for more than a year and having its call letters abandoned for the past decade, Kelowna’s oldest radio station has returned with its original CKOV moniker.

The station closed a year ago as COVID-19 crippled the economy. Kelowna resident and career broadcaster, Paul Larsen, bought the licence from bankruptcy and is returning with CKOV – The Lake at FM 103.9.

“With the vaccine rollout and a renewed sense of optimism, timing seems ideal to launch this new local radio service,” Larsen said in a news release. “Kelowna’s future is so bright with a growing population, changing skyline and many new businesses opening. We’re extremely excited to serve this community and be another brand new, small local business contributing to the success and growth of this city.”

The station is starting off playing non-stop soft rock music, which the news release describes as “the biggest adult hits of the late 1970s though the early 2000s.”

Later in April it will bring local personalities, news, weather, sports and community information on board.

CKOV was the city’s first radio station, opening in 1931, the release states. Those call letters were dropped a decade ago.

For more information, go to 1039thelake.com here.


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Rob Munro

Rob Munro has a long history in journalism after starting an underground newspaper in Whitehorse called the Yukon Howl in 1980. He spent five years at the 100 Mile Free Press, starting in the darkroom, moving on to sports and news reporting before becoming the advertising manager. He came to Kelowna in 1989 as a reporter for the Kelowna Daily Courier, and spent the 1990s mostly covering city hall. For most of the past 20 years he worked full time for the union representing newspaper workers throughout B.C. He’s returned to his true love of being a reporter with a special focus on civic politics