Heather Wright/The Independent

The media landscape in Lambton County is changing again as PostMedia closed its weekly newspaper and Blackburn Media makes changes to iconic AM radio station.

In the last 80 years, the call letters CHOK reigned in Sarnia-Lambton.

But, you won’t actually hear those familiar letters anymore. Blackburn Media, which has owned the Sarnia AM station since 1998 has rebranded the station which has been the sound track of Lambton County. The station is now known as Big Country 103.9, focusing on the FM signal which has been used for years along with the AM band.

“It’s about evolving the station and strengthening the country identity that we’ve been trying to build over the last number of years,” says Dan Wylie, program director for Blackburn Media.

“It allows us to bring our stations together under what we’re hoping will be a recognizable and memorable brand, while maintaining our local connection.”

Blackburn has three other stations which use the Big Country brand including Chatham. CFCO, founded in 1926, disappeared from the airwaves in April when 630 AM transitioned to 91.3 FM

Wiley wouldn’t say definitively if that was going to happen in Sarnia.

“It’s tough to say, because that is dictated by the CRTC… this is just kind of the nature of progress in the industry, and the ability for, as crazy as this is going to be to sound, the newer technology of FM radio, which is just more sustainable than AM radio, is in 2026.”

The change of branding also brings a change in staffing to the station.

“For the last few years, we actually haven’t had anybody on in Sarnia. That will change later this summer. We’re just in the process of hiring somebody from the Sarnia market,” he said.

“Our hope is that while you know, while the name may have changed, the reality is the station is still going to be what it’s always been, which is a hub for local connection, local presence, news information that people have been expecting and getting for many, many years. That’s none of that has changed. It really is just a new name for the same station.”

Todd Case is the mayor of Warwick Township, the community one of CHOK more famous broadcaster – Roy Caley – hailed from.

He’s sad to see the CHOK brand change. “It’s been a mainstay for many, many years in Lambton County,” he says. “You talk about personalities like Roy, Lee Michaels, Dave Denntiger, and Larry Gordon, those people were mainstays in our community and we grew up with them and we always appreciated they covered the local news and they did a good job. This is another place where change is occuring and I am hopeful it doesn’t water down coverage for places like Warwick.”

The changes at Blackburn are not the only taking place in the market. Post Media has stopped publishing Sarnia-Lambton County This Week.

The weekly newspaper came into the Post Media fold in the 2000s. For a brief period, it was a daily newspaper called The Sarnia Sun, before it reverted to Sarnia This Week. Prior to the pandemic, the weekly had staff writers producing original news.

In the last few years, the weekly was a composite of news produced by its sister paper, The Sarnia Observer, and was part of the bundle homeowners received with their local hardware and grocery flyers.

In the first quarter of 2026, Post Media stopped printing Sarnia Lambton County This Week and seven other weekly community newspapers including Chatham This Week, The Londoner, The Strathroy-Middlesex Age Dispatch, and weeklies in Grey-Bruce, Timmins, Kirkland Lake and Kingston. Their websites have also been taken down.

Post Media has daily newspapers in each of the communities where weekly newspapers were closed.