LA-107 and 1090 CHEC: Lethbridge radio in the ‘80s

The logo for LA-107 FM from 1989, a popular radio station
in Lethbridge in the 1980s.
Source: https://soundcloud.com/westernbroadcasters/
john-gates-1077-cila-lethbridge-january-25-1987
(May be subject to copyright)

It was a strange rivalry that really may have only existed among a few people that I knew. Or it may have been a major marketing campaign, not unlike the Cola Wars, which gave one side more credibility then it ever had before.

In the early 1980s, there were two radio stations in Lethbridge that played rock and roll music – 1090 CHEC on the AM dial, and LA-107 FM.

They had a rivalry and, unlike some of my junior high friends and classmates, I liked them both.

The logo for 1090 CHEC from 1986, a popular radio station
in Lethbridge in the 1980s.
Source: https://www.radiowest.ca/
forum/viewtopic.php?f=105&t=32073
(May be subject to copyright)

The shirt off his back
It was Grade 8, making it 1982 or
1983, when I saw Clint, one of my classmates, showing off a t-shirt. To this day, I am not sure whether he had it custom made or bought somewhere. It was classic ‘80s – white, three-quarter length red sleeves and red block lettering with that felt texture. On the front it said “I Love LA-107 FM” and on the back it said “I Hate CHEC”.

TV time
About that time, I also saw a local TV commercial where a guy is listening to a ghetto blaster, with “I Don’t Wanna Dance” by Eddie Grant playing, implying it is on 1090 CHEC. Then another guy rollerskates by, wearing head phones and having a great time, listening to “Let’s Dance” by David Bowie intimating it is LA-107. We are led to believe the first person switches stations as we see the LA-107 logo on a nearby bench.

Even with the shirt and the commercial, at that point, I had not listened to either station.

I heard it on the radio
That all changed in Grade 9 when I started listening to music, partly because of the influence of my friend Mike Hartman.

That continued into Grade 10, where I started listening to the radio. The only radio in our house I could use was this old clock radio my sister left behind when she moved out. All it got was AM, and really the only two channels it picked up were 1220 CJOC, which my parents listened to constantly on the radio they had in the kitchen, and 1090 CHEC.

That was where I first listened to the countdown, and heard artists such as Wham!, Jack Wagner, who was just making his start, Chicago, Michael Jackson, and others.

Yet, even at school, I really did not say that I listened to 1090 CHEC. It just didn’t seem cool.

In stereo
That all changed again the Christmas of Grade 10, which was 1984. My parents bought me a ghetto blaster for Christmas. It was just like the one my good friend Mat had, so I was quite familiar with it.

Made by Sears, it had two tape decks and could record music from one tape to another, or off the radio.

It also picked up FM radio.

Immediately, I tuned into LA-107. A few days later, on New Year’s Day, the station was counting down its top 100 albums, and I periodically tuned, ready to record a song I might like. Two I recall recording were "Break My Stride" by Matthew Wilder and "Dear Darling" by Dennis DeYoung.

For pretty much the next six months I listened to LA-107. Every Monday night, they had an album countdown. What made it unique was they played more than the song currently on the radio, so you really got to listen to a good chunk of an album before deciding whether to buy it or not.

They also had some other interesting features – album highlights, where they profiled a new album; super sessions which played different songs from different albums by the same artist; and week nights at 11 p.m. they had “Profile” which examined one artist for a whole hour. It was beamed in from another location for an hour-long show. In some cases, such as Chicago and Fleetwood Mac, the profile went over two nights. After midnight, they aired the classics, where the station just played an old album from beginning to end. Later on, maybe in 1985 or early 1986, LA-107 started airing, “Rockline” on Monday nights. It was a phone-in show, with an in-studio musical guest, that broadcast from Los Angeles, I think.

After about six months though, I wanted something else.

CHEC mark
Mat always listened to CHEC. He really liked the countdown at 7 p.m., and really, really liked a phone-in request show at 9 p.m. on week nights called “Rock and Roll Your Own”, hosted by Jim Shoots. Every morning on the bus, he had the latest song recorded from the radio. He knew where to get them, either on the countdown or request shows. He even phoned in the odd request.

What I discovered was CHEC focused on singles and LA-107 focused on albums.

I really just wanted to hear a the latest singles, and CHEC offered that.

By the time school got out for summer to end Grade 10, I had left LA-107 for 1090 CHEC.

That was reinforced as I listened more and more to “Rock and Roll Your Own” which was awesome.

By the middle of Grade 11, it really didn’t matter at school anyway. The cool kids who loved LA-107 and hated CHEC had moved on two other forms of entertainment.

Parting thoughts
Both stations would survive the 1980s, but take different paths. CHEC went off the air in that form in 1993, becoming CKRX 1090 Rocks, then moved to 95.5 FM in 1996 and became Country 95.5 FM in 1997. It remains that station to this day. LA-107 FM became “The River” in 1992, then in 2016 it became KISS 107.7, which it remains to this day.

When I went to journalism school, I took a course on mass communications that included a section on radio. It was there I discovered radio formats. 1090 CHEC was top 40, while LA-107 was album-oriented rock. It all made more sense now.

In any event, I really was lucky to have two excellent stations to provide great music, and these unique shows that added value to listening to it.

For someone who wanted to learn as much as he could about music, there was no greater source of knowledge and history than 1090 CHEC and LA-107 FM.

They really didn’t compete with each other. I found they complemented each other, and it was to the benefit of music listeners in Southern Alberta.