It was 30 years ago this Sunday that Vancouver was introduced to a new radio service.

At 8:00 a.m. on Feb. 8, 1996, CKWX became News1130, now known as 1130 NewsRadio Vancouver.

CLICK HERE TO LISTEN TO 1130 NEWSRADIO VANCOUVER LIVE!

Top stories that day included: the launch of News1130, flooding in Oregon, and CFCs damaging the ozone layer.

In sports, the Vancouver Canucks lost 5-3 at home to the Hartford Whalers, a reminder that some things never change.

Our parent company, Rogers Communications, brought the all-news format to Vancouver after seeing ratings gains with its Toronto station, 680News.

Today, Rogers operates news stations in Calgary, Kitchener, and Halifax, as well as five in total.

Tom Mark not only read that first news cast, but he was also News1130’s original news director, assembling the team that would launch the station.

“You know, there were a few people left over from Country 1130, people like Jack Marion and a few others who agreed to stay and do specific jobs,” he remembered.

“There were also some people who came in from Toronto who, of course, had worked in the format, and they could help guide us through on how to make this go and what kind of people look for. But we assembled a pretty good team from the beginning.”

Mark admits the format was hardly a slam dunk.

“A lot of people, when they found out this was going to happen, said, ‘It’s never going to work. No one’s going to listen to the radio 24 hours a day.’ And of course, we told them, ‘Well, that’s not the whole idea. We’ll be there for you 24 hours a day, but we don’t expect you to listen for hours on end.’”

Mark admits there was also an early period of teaching the audience how to use the station.

One of our early slogans was, “The news is always changing…check back, two, three, four, even five times a day.”

“That was a very good line to get people to understand, ‘OK, I can come back and listen for 10, 20 minutes. Maybe I’m getting my coffee ready and breakfast for the morning, and come back a little later on and see how things are going,” Mark said.

“I think people expected us to update our stories throughout the day. They’d hear something in the morning, and if there’s something that twigged for them, they want more. They know they could come back later in the day and see if there’s more to it.”

Mark is pleased that the station he helped build continues to this day.

“I know that things have changed, of course, from Day One, and things are being done a bit differently, but you’re still on the air and I’m very happy to see that.”

“There were detractors, but we proved them wrong,” he said with a chuckle.

Mark thinks radio still has a place in our crowded news and information landscape.

“I think radio does still fit in. I don’t think it’s ever going to die,” he said.

“It has to change. It must evolve with the times and evolve with the technology. We’ll still be here, just in a different form.”

One thing that hasn’t changed is our commitment to local news and information programming.

1130 NewsRadio remains your trusted choice for breaking news, traffic, and weather. Always here. Always will be.