CJTK

FM 95.5

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• Cristão
• Religioso

Our History After decades of disturbing absence from the airwaves, and years of powerful prayer, our government opened the door to Christian Broadcasting in 1993.

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A few months later while preparing a Christian float for a local Christmas Parade, Wayne Wendorf told Curtis Belcher about Christian television, and that Sudbury should apply for a station.

Curtis replied that Wayne should go for it.

Wayne said that Curtis should build it.

Curtis said “OK”.

Curtis met with local businessman Marcel Gratton and police officer Michael Cruickshank and shared the idea with the men.

It was then that Marcel gave the first financial gift towards Christian broadcasting in Northern Ontario.

In 1995, Curtis Belcher met with officials from TBN, the largest Christian Television network in the world, and secured $10,000 in funding towards the broadcasting project.

Three other men in Sudbury were also keen on the idea of Christian television, and they rallied together with Curtis to begin praying.

James Kennedy, Louis Depatie, and Albert Berube met with Curtis weekly, and prayed for Sudbury’s station.

They applied for a Charitable number and believed that this ministry would be a part of what the bible calls the “end time harvest”.

Thus, “Harvest Ministries” was born.

Meanwhile, TBN (Trinity Broadcasting Network) helped fund several other applicants across the country, and a total of 12 cities from coast to coast applied for a television license.

Only one city was awarded a license, the Miracle Channel.

Sudbury along with 11 others was turned down.

In 1996, the Lord led Curtis & Shelley Belcher to Christian radio.

They put together an application for a station in Sudbury, and the group continued to pray.

On a beautiful June 6th, in 1997, James Kennedy were sitting in Curtis’ small office in the Eaton Building on Notre Dame Street in Sudbury when just after 10am the fax machine started up, and out came a license for a Christian Radio Station! We shouted so loud that a businessman down the hallway in another office asked us what all the commotion was about.

We walked over to his office and told him the good news.

We then shared the gospel with him, and he gave his heart to Jesus! In late September of 1997, CJTK went on the air as a low power, non-commercial station, becoming the 7th Christian Station in all of Canada.

The station had an original budget of $12,000 per year – and was run out of Curtis Belcher’s Income Tax Office.

Curtis & Shelley Belcher were the founders of the newly formed “Eternacom Inc”, (Eternal Communications Incorporated).

Curtis became the first and only DJ on the station! Some say that he was one of the pioneers of “multi tasking”.

He would be serving his Income Tax clients one minute, and then excuse himself to the other side of the one-room office he had rented, to change the cd that was playing on the radio station! A simply 5 foot high, blue office divider was all that “separated” the tax business from the radio station.

Probably the most humble radio operation in Canada.

But it was busting with potential! Within 12 months of operation, the station moved across the hallway of the office building to a twelve-hundred square foot office with its’ own sound-proof studio! God continued to bless the station, and we hired our first employee! During that year of 1998, the station ran on the backs of 30 volunteers with a heart for God and a passion for Christian radio.

We even had 4 volunteer receptionists.

On September 23, 1999, CJTK became the first Christian station to be granted a power increase, and go from low-power status, to a full power class “A” station broadcasting at just over 1,000 watts.

In January of 2000, CJTK became one of only 2 Christian stations in all of the country to purchase its’ own building.

For 3 very busy months, Justin Legault led a team of volunteers in a $100,000 renovation project of the new “northern headquaters” of the ministry.

A rapid season of growth continued, as CJTK expanded its’ ministry to cover North Bay as well.

On July 7, 2000, the CRTC made CJTK Canada’s first Christian radio network.

Bringing Christian radio to the Gateway city was only accomplished because of the incredible support of the local North Bay Pastors and churches.

Realizing that there were a great deal of Christian businesses and special church events that needed to be properly advertised, CJTK applied for a “commercial license”.

On November 22, 2001, the CRTC awarded CJTK a commercial license – making it the only Christian radio station in the country to be given permission to change from a non-commercial station to that of commercial status.

We now had the freedom to run professionally produced spots on the air.

Another turning point in the ministry came in 2001 as CJTK became the first and only radio ministry in Canada to develop a “Prayer Ministry Centre”.

A team of prayer warriors who took turns at the station answering calls from people who needed prayer.

Over the next several years, we worked on growing our budget to handle the new staff we would need to hire to really build an effective radio ministry.

By the year 2003, we began to move several people from a volunteer status to a “paid employee” status.

This would help bring some stability and security to the ministry that started with such humble beginnings.

Our North Bay station continued to grow as well, and on May 16, 2005 we received a license from the CRTC to increase the power in North Bay – and build an independent studio so that we could begin to develop some great local programming.

The growth of the station, and bringing the great news of Jesus to people that had never experienced Christian radio before propelled us to build a station on Manitoulin Island.

On October 13, 2005, the CRTC gave us our third license – and we built a station in Little Current.

By the time summer of 2006 rolled around, CJTK had 3 full power Class “A” stations on the air, 2 fully equipped studios, and an incredible Internet ministry.

This in addition to 11 people on staff, and a host of great volunteers.

It was also time to increase the power at the home base of Sudbury, so we applied for a Class “B” station.

This would help us reach all of the newly amalgamated city, and bring us to parts that could not pick us up.

The year 2007 brought CJTK to its 10th anniversary! The first thing we did to celebrate what God had done was to worship Him.

Next, we got busy and built Canada’s first Digital broadcast studio! A completely new studio with the latest digital equipment was built.

On February 19, 2007, the CRTC granted CJTK a license to increase its power to also 10,000 watts! During the Sharathon of 2007, God’s people gave enough money to cover the increase in power, and we built a brand new broadcast facility.

In May, 2007 we met with the Pastors of Elliot Lake to being the process of building the new Elliot Lake Christian Radio station – and affiliate of CJTK – and station #4 in the Northern Ontario Network.

August 2007 brought the ministry to a tremendous milestone with the building of our brand new North Bay studio at 1720 Algonquin Road.

This location is the busiest intersection in North Bay – and is at the corner of Highway 17 and Highway 11… the corner of the “Gateway to The North”.

2008 was a year of change.

Our ministry centre experienced great growth, and it was decided it was time to plan on expansion.

Out team set out on a mission to find a new home for the ministry of CJTK.

It was during this year that we logged our 10,000th caller to our prayer ministry centre! What great things our God has done! We capped off 2008 with a great celebration when God delivered our 4th radio station license to us – and we went on the air in Elliot Lake.

At this stage, KFM now had 4 stations with 3 fully equipped studios – the only network of its kind in all of Canada! We are now waiting to see where God calls us to go next.

2009 was one of the greatest in our history.

CJTK was re-branded and became known everywhere as "KFM".

Being known as "K95" in Sudbury, "K103" in North Bay, "K102" in Elliot Lake and so on was becoming confusing as we had the appearance of multiple brands.

We needed to come up with a name that would be common across all of the radio stations in northern Ontario... so after a consultation process "KFM" became our new trademark.

On New Year's Eve, we took possession of a new broadcasting centre in Sudbury for KFM.

It was the strongest financial year in our history.

2010 began with the renovations of the new KFM broadcasting centre at 2150 Lasalle Blvd.

It took 4 months to complete the renovations to the new centre which not only provided all the space we wanted for growth to the ministry, but also space to host a new Christian bookstore in the strip mall.

As KFM and most ministries learned, 2010 would be a financially challenging year, but KFM's financial supporters continued to be faithful and kept this ministry alive and well.

In the early part of 2011, major changes began to happen in KFM North Bay.

After years of work by volunteers and part-time staff, KFM has now added its first full time station manager and morning host.

Stay tuned as 2011 develops to see (and hear!) more changes at KFM North Bay.