ckvl-fm, the station's original call letters, was founded by jack tietolman and corey thomson and probably went on the air at some point between 1947 and 1957. sources disagree on the date, and at least seven different years (including three post-1957 ones) have been reported as the station's first air date. the confusion is increased by the fact that there is no known report suggesting that the station went silent for any noticeable period of time after getting on the air, despite this phenomenon being relatively common among 1950s fm stations. in any case, the canadian communication foundation reports the station's first signed on in 1947, and that ckvl-fm was confirmed as being on the air in 1957.