On Nov. 17, 1969, Whitehorse residents turned on their radios and heard the first sounds of CKRW.

There's a lot that's changed, but a lot too that has remained the same.

Computers and technology have all drastically modified many things about the station. However, as founder Rolf Hougen was quick to note in a recent interview, popular features that were started with the station remain.

"Forty years later, we still do Birthday Greetings and Trader Time,” Hougen said.

The two shows, which give callers a chance to wish others a happy birthday and advertise items they're selling over the air, have been mainstays since the station first hit the airwaves.

While Yukoners first listened to CKRW in 1969, it was more than a year earlier when Hougen began work to bring a commercial radio station to Whitehorse.

Already in the communications business with the town's cable TV company, Hougen said he thought it was time for a new radio station.

He got to work by making a trip down the Alaska Highway, stopping in places like Fort St. John, Grande Prairie and other communities to see how radio stations there were operated.

As planning for the station continued, so did the enthusiasm for it.

"We got a lot of community support,” Hougen said, though he pointed out there was one voice of opposition when the application was made for the radio licence.

"We were not alone in applying.”

It was a mistake by the opponent though that helped Hougen obtain the licence.

"We had done our homework, they erred,” he said recalling at the time there were laws against owning a radio station and a newspaper.

His opponent, he said, argued that Hougen shouldn't get the licence because he owned the Whitehorse Star.

Hougen didn't own the Star, and after that was made clear, in December 1968 he got his licence, and work began to get the new radio station on air.

Originally, the fledgling station was going to be aired out of the Taylor House at Fifth Avenue and Main Street. However, engineers working on the project soon realized the floor there was too creaky, so Hougen made a deal with the Yukon Chamber of Mines to trade off the building where the Hougen Centre's parking lot is now.

A crew of 12 was hired for the station and on Nov. 17, 1969, Whitehorse residents tuned in to listen to the first broadcast.

While CKRW is no stranger to the challenges many northern businesses face in getting and keeping staff, Hougen also said the station has benefited from great employees over its long history.

"We've just had some great people over the years,” Hougen said, recalling the many staff who have come through the doors.

Many started their careers at CKRW before moving on to larger media outlets down South.

When CHON-FM began, staff at that station spent months training at CKRW before CHON went on-air. One of those staffers is now working for a major television station in Vancouver now, he said.

Another standout he cited is Ron McFadyen for his community news coverage.

It was McFadyen's voice that launched the new radio station at 6 a.m. that day in 1969. McFadyen, who made it clear this week he was speaking of his own experience and not on the station's behalf, had arrived in the territory earlier that year for his new job at CKRW.

In a previous Star interview when he retired last year, McFadyen recalled the excitement of that first morning when CKRW was on-air and the building was full with people like Hougen, who had gotten up to witness the birth of the station.

The next morning, McFadyen was alone for the early-morning broadcast.

McFadyen would continue working there, his first stint with the station, until 1973. As he recalled in an interview Thursday, it was a time when typewriters and splicing tape were the norm.

Reporting the news around the territory, McFadyen found himself touring the Faro lead-zinc mine when it opened 40 years ago.

"That was an exciting time,” he said, noting it also meant there was a lot of money flowing around the community, which meant lots of advertising dollars for CKRW.

It was during those first years that McFadyen experienced the Yukon cold.

He remembered at one time doing a remote location event in Marwell where the microphone cable froze in the air. While they had to take the equipment inside every so often to keep it warm, McFadyen and the CKRW crew still managed to do the remote regardless of the -50 C temperature.

McFadyen's career would eventually see him move on to CBC radio and even take a break from broadcasting to work at other businesses in town. When a job opened up at CKRW again in 2000 though, McFadyen couldn't stay away from the radio gig. He found himself sharing the news of the territory with listeners who could now hear the station from other communities.

"It certainly changed a lot,” he said, noting the technological changes from the tape reels to computer had made things much easier on staff.

Through the changes though, the role of private radio, in this case, CKRW, has remained.

That means both letting the public know what products are out there through the advertising and also public service through its news coverage, announcements and shows like Trader Time and Birthday Greetings.

"The radio station has a really vital role in the community,” McFadyen said.

And Captain Keith agrees.

"Everybody comes back to local (radio),” Keith Ellert said in an interview at the station Thursday.

Ellert hosts the 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. show through the week and has been at the station for 11 years. He initially came up for a full-time gig and to gain the experience he needed for six months before moving on.

"It's the Yukon; it gets its hooks in you,” he said.

In CKRW's case, local radio means offering a little something to everyone in the territory. That includes a news package summing up what's happening around town, local weather and a varied music mix with tunes that may appeal to school-aged kids and others that those in their 40s and 50s will want to listen to.

"It can become a challenge,” Ellert said, pointing out it can mean playing both Celine Dion and AC/DC and deciding how that music mix will flow.

Deciding what music will air and how it will flow is one thing, the advertising is a whole other step in the process of a typical CKRW day. As Ellert describes it, staff have to go out and sell the ads. A copywriter then writes them, and that's followed by a production process before they even air. And once the ad is set to go to air, the decision on when it will play is also made.

Then there's a slew of other things that are produced that have to make their way into the schedule: the Yukon Nuggets, to give Yukoners a taste of Yukon history; the news; Pet Report and so on.

Ellert has also seen a lot of technological changes that have "generally made things much easier” for announcers like himself. That said, he also pointed out that anyone with a computer can likely appreciate when it's experiencing problems; they can be severe.

And in radio, there's no time to wait for things to start working again.

In those cases, a CD is usually put on and Ellert does his best to keep it together and get things working by the time the song is done.

"You don't get do-overs,” he said. "It's live, it's immediate and it's in the moment.”

Other changes over the years have seen the station move to its current site, a major retrofit to the station in the later 1990s and simulcasting on the FM band now as CKRW - The Rush in 2004.

Hougen noted that while the AM band gives the station more site coverage, the FM band allows for better sound quality for those in the closer vicinity to hear.

Hougen's involvement as a co-founder of Cancom (now known as Shaw) also allowed the station to broaden its range over the years.

Ellert has also seen a lot of staff come and go over the years, but as he pointed out, the station has always had a strong core, and right now may have the strongest in his memory. The station, which currently employs nine staff, is frequently the one playing in local businesses.

While there have been many technological changes in general over the years, a major one in a competing radio market has been the arrival of satellite radio.

Many have argued the subscriber-base system that allows listeners to hear specialty channels would spell the death of local radio. Ellert said he didn't believe that when he first heard it and he doesn't believe it now.

"Local will always win out,” he said, noting that's where people turn to get a sense of what's happening in their community.

That said, he also understands that in the Yukon, satellite radio offers something for those on long trips where there is dead air on traditional radio bands or even those who want the specialty sports, or other channels.

Kevin Benson, the Hougen Group of Companies' vice-president of finances and operations, said Thursday that while it wouldn't be fair to say there's been no impact to CKRW from satellite radio, it hasn't been significant and is equivalent to the same impact that having an mp3 player in a vehicle.

What satellite radio doesn't offer is the personal sort of relationship local radio, like CKRW, does. Satellite radio, he pointed out, doesn't address local issues nor feature discussions on local events.

Moving into its 41st year on the air, the station has plans that will help it cut down its off-air time when there is a power problem.

While the radio tower on Grey Mountain has a back-up generator in case of power failures, Benson noted that all it takes is for one switch to go off at the wrong time for the whole system to fail.

"We had a lot of issues,” he said, noting there have been many power fluctuations on top of Grey Mountain to deal with of late.

While staff could get up to the mountain to deal with it in the summer months, that's not such an easy task at -30 C. The station has purchased the equipment that will allow it to have control from elsewhere, but it has to be installed after the winter.

"That's the goal for next spring,” Benson said. It will allow the radio to be off for only a minute when there is an outage.

The station is also exploring the possibility of HD radio, though that is still in the very early stages, Benson stressed.

"I don't know how it works in mountainous terrain,” he said.

As the station moves forward, it will also continue its efforts to continue growing and making the best program mixes for the territory, Ellert said.

As Benson pointed out, there's a number of people who may be too busy to read a newspaper, and CKRW is a good way for them to stay informed and have a little entertainment.

This month, the station has been celebrating its big 4-0 by having prominent community member come in and tell listeners what happened on that day in history in a particular year.

Next Tuesday, Hougen will be at the station just as he was 40 years ago, although this time around he may sleep in just a little.