Reid Dickie
Every week for at least five and a half years, CKY Radio, Canada’s Friendly Giant, published a hit parade that listed the Top 50 pop songs and Top 20 western songs in Winnipeg. The 50,000 watt station devoted a few hours a day to, what was then called, western music, country music’s uncle. The CKY hit parade was a colourful single fold sheet distributed free at record stores in Winnipeg and round the province to a degree.
The weekly chart was distilled using a formula that combined local record sales and listener requests and resulting in the hit parade. Post-1963 issues featured pictures of the disc jockeys.
The last CKY Hit Parade was published on February 27, 1966. The Beatles are #1.
I’m not sure when CKY started publishing a hit parade. The earliest one I have is for the week of September 9, 1961.
Listen to CKY go off the air forever on January 21, 2004.
If you liked this stuff, check out some of my other nostalgic Winnipeg memories like Eaton’s Beatle Bar, Inside the Mind of a 15 Year Old Beatlemaniac, CKY wants a town named after it, my radio career, the Beatles come to Winnipeg, even some fake nostalgia.
I have pages about Winnipeg’s grand old schools, some heritage houses, churches and Manitoba heritage from around the province.
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