Goderich sits on a bluff above Lake Huron, a small Ontario town famous enough for its sunsets that some residents still repeat the claim Queen Elizabeth II once called it the prettiest town in Canada, whether or not she actually visited. CHWC has broadcast from that same town since October 2007, and its history covers both a natural disaster and a full identity change without ever going off the air.
Lite Hits for Ontario's West Coast
CHWC launched under Bayshore Broadcasting on October 15, 2007, after the CRTC approved its license that February, branding itself "104.9 The Beach" with a tagline of "Lite Hits For Ontario's West Coast." The station's call letters spell out its identity directly: CHWC stands for the County of Huron's West Coast, and the original adult contemporary format targeted listeners aged 35 to 64 with a mix of hits from the 1960s onward, alongside thematic programming touching on jazz, blues, big band and light classical.
The Tornado That Missed the Transmitter
On August 21, 2011, an F3 tornado tore through Goderich with winds up to 280 km/h, devastating the town's two heritage conservation districts and killing one person. The damage to Goderich's historic downtown core was described by heritage professionals as unprecedented in the province's history. Through it, CHWC's studios and transmitter site were spared, and the station stayed on air to help a stunned community through its immediate aftermath.
From The Beach to Country 104.9
On January 2, 2018, CHWC dropped its adult contemporary format entirely, flipping to country music and rebranding on-air as Country 104.9. It was a full identity change for a station that had spent a decade building its audience around a very different sound, and one that shows how a small-market station will reshape its entire format when the local audience calls for it.
Still Local, Whatever the Format
Whether playing lite hits or country, CHWC has stayed anchored to the same job: serving Goderich, Bayfield, Grand Bend and the rest of Ontario's west coast with music, morning shows, weather and local news that bigger regional or national broadcasters simply don't cover in the same detail. That commitment to a specific, small audience is what has kept the station relevant through a tornado, a full-format flip, and everything the FM dial has thrown at small Ontario broadcasters since 2007.