CKQQ-FM (103.1 MHz) is a Canadian radio station that broadcasts a classic hits format in Kelowna, British Columbia.
The station's origins are actually that of an amateur radio station with the call letters 10AY owned by the Kelowna Amateur Radio Club, whose founding members in 1928 were George Dunn, Bobby Johnston, Harry Blakeborough and James William Bromley Browne.
Two 90-foot poles were erected for antennas for the new CKOV (the call letters naturally stood for Canada Kelowna Okanagan Valley), and studios and offices were built on Mill Avenue.
The original CKOV building on Mill Avenue, which later became magistrate's offices, was purchased from the city in 1951 by the Kelowna Yacht Club, who continue to operate it as the clubhouse and administrative offices for the local yacht club to this day, although it has since been sold back to the city and leased on a nominal $1.00 per year rate.
In 1957, the three radio stations in the Okanagan Valley, CKOV Kelowna, CKOK Penticton and CJIB Vernon, opened CHBC-TV, which began broadcasting on September 21, covering the central Okanagan valley from its main studio in Kelowna, followed three weeks later by rebroadcast transmitters in Vernon and Penticton.
During the late 1970s, CKOV sold its one-third share in CHBC-TV equally to British Columbia Television and Selkirk Communications of Toronto.
In 1981, construction began on a new studio and administrative office building at the transmitter site on Lakeshore Road, largely financed by the sale of its share of CHBC.
This resulted in the relocation of CKOV's transmitter to lease land from CKIQ Kelowna at its site a couple of kilometers away.
The following year, in 1989, CKOV's sister station CHIM-FM changed call letters to CKLZ-FM and rebranded itself as 104.7 The Lizard.
Ten years later, in June 1998, the CRTC approved the purchase of CKOV and CKLZ by Jim Pattison Group from Seacoast.
[1] The new station said it would offer a soft vocals music format and continue with its traditional style of news and information programming, including Open Line with John Michaels, a daily current affairs show.
The new FM station's music format and spoken word programming were to target Kelowna listeners in the 35-to-64-year-old age group.
For the second anniversary of B-103, the station unveiled a new updated logo of the bee wearing a white cowboy hat on b103.ca.
In 2021, the calls were brought back to Kelowna by Radius Holdings' CKOO-FM; CKOV-FM would subsequently be acquired by Jim Pattison Group in 2024, making that station a sister to the original CKOV.