CKWS-FM is a Canadian radio station, broadcasting at 104.3 FM in Kingston, Ontario. The station airs a hot adult contemporary format branded on-air as 104.3 Fresh Radio. The station is owned by Corus Entertainment, which also owns CFMK-FM and CKWS-DT. History The station was launched in 1942 as CKWS, a CBC Trans-Canada Network affiliate taking over CBC responsibilities from Queen's University radio station CFRC. When CKLC launched, it became affiliated with the CBC's Dominion Network while CKWS remained with the main CBC network. Broadcasting on 960 AM, CKWS was owned by Allied Broadcasting, a partnership of Roy Thomson and Rupert Davies, owner of the Kingston Whig-Standard newspaper. The call letters were derived from the newspaper's name, as was common at the time. FM sister station CKWS-FM (now CFMK-FM) signed on in 1947 (originally as CKWR-FM), and CKWS-TV launched in 1954. For most of the 1960s and 1970s, CKWS battled local rival CKLC for listenership, since both stations had adopted a similar Top 40 format, although CKWS always carried more news and community programming. The stations were purchased by Paul Desmarais and Claude Pratte in 1977. CKWS disaffiliated from CBC Radio in 1978 with the opening of CBCK-FM. In 1982, the station would move to new studios on Counter Street. In 1987, the station became part of Desmarais' Power Corporation and adopted the call letters CFFX, as it would no longer be associated with the television station, which retained the CKWS name. At the same time, CFMK-FM relocated its studios to the Counter Street location. The stations were subsequently sold to their current owner, Corus Entertainment, in 2000, at which time they were "reunited" with the television station and moved back to the studios on Queen Street. On February 14, 2005, the CRTC denied an application by 591989 B.C. Ltd., a subsidiary of Corus Entertainment Inc. to operate a low-power FM transmitter in Kingston. The proposed transmitter would operate at 93.7 MHz with an effective radiated power of 50 watts. The applicant indicated that approval of its proposal would improve the quality of CFFX's signal in Kingston's downtown core. Corus stated that in the central core area of Kingston, the CFFX signal dropped significantly in volume and that it was weak, or very weak, in shopping centres. The licensee further stated that while both AM and FM signals would experience signal degradation in downtown areas, AM signals were significantly more susceptible