A Short History

CKOC is an AM radio station in Hamilton, Ontario (Canada) that has been on the air since 1922. During the '60s, '70s and early '80s, which was the golden age of Top 40 radio, they were the station to listen to in the Greater Toronto Area (GTA).

Each year on New Year's Eve, CKOC would begin counting down the top 100 songs of the year about to end. The program would usually run about ten hours, and finish shortly before midnight. Top news and sports stories were also recapped and the station would promote the countdown as the "year in review". The countdown was always repeated New Year's day. A few days later, a printed list of the year-end top 100 would appear inside CKOC's All Hit 40 chart which was free at local record and department stores. Many of these original charts are pictured on this site. In August 1985, CKOC stopped printing the free charts and instead opted to send each record store a small poster of the week's top hits which were usually pinned or stapled on a wall near the display of 45 rpm singles. These were not available as giveaways to the public and were usually discarded weekly so therefore are all but impossible to come by today.

This site exists simply to provide nostalgia and/or chart buffs with information they may find interesting. In February 1992, CKOC switched to an all-oldies format and are still currently on the air as Oldies 1150 CKOC.

If you have copies of the CKOC All Hit 40 charts listing the year-end top 100, or even have handwritten lists of the following, email me, as I would like to be able to add to and improve this site.

• CKOC Top 100 of 1971
• CKOC Top 100 of 1967 or any earlier year-end CKOC chart