CBW is a non-commercial Class A Clear-channel station reserved for Canada under the North American Regional Broadcasting Agreement (NARBA) allocations.

An early demonstration of radio by Lee de Forest took place in Winnipeg in April 1910, with extensive amateur and experimental interest after that date.

Regularly scheduled broadcasting did not begin until the spring of 1922, when Lynn Salton established a private station with the call sign CKZC.

[1] The station first signed on March 13, 1923 as CKY, owned and operated by the Manitoba Telephone System, with a transmitter power of 500 watts at a frequency of 665 kHz.

On March 16, 2006, the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission (CRTC) approved an application by the CBC for a "nested" FM rebroadcaster in Winnipeg as a simulcast of CBW.

The station had long been plagued by poor coverage in portions of Winnipeg itself, and the FM repeater was intended to improve reception in these areas.