CKLC, along with its sister station CKLC-FM, began operations in 1953 at 1380 on the AM dial as an affiliate of the CBC's Dominion Network. The call letters are taken from Kingston's nickname, the "Limestone City". Some of its earliest alumni include newscaster Allan Saunders, Al Boliska as morning man, and disk jockeys Buddy Guilfoyle and Ron Bertrand. The original station manager was John Bermingham. 1380 CKLC started broadcasting in AM Stereo in the summer of 1985. In 2001, CKLC changed from its adult contemporary format in favour of a national sports radio network The Team. In August 2002, after just over a year on the air, then-owner CHUM Limited reversed their decision on the Team format and CKLC moved to an adult standards format as "All time favourites". In April 2007, CKLC applied to move from the AM band to the FM band at 98.9 MHz and was given approval by the CRTC on August 28, 2007. CKLC-FM began broadcasting a test signal on 98.9 in October 2007, with an announcement that "Kingston's newest radio station" will be launching either "soon" or "in the weeks to come". The test signal included classic alternative rock music. The test announcements featured the voice of CHUM-FM's Darren B Lamb. On November 29, 2007, after a short test period, CKLC made the flip from AM to FM. The new CKLC-FM tower was to be installed on the same land as the 1380 AM transmitter site located on Wolfe Island. Due to safety concerns, the construction could not commence on the new 500' FM tower while the 4 175' AM towers remained on and standing. So for the first several weeks on air, CKLC-FM broadcast from a temporary 1 kW transmitter on the old AM STL tower attached to the transmitter building. Once the main transmitter was completed, the station powered up to its full authorized power of 15,000 watts. In 2007, CHUM Limited was acquired by CTVglobemedia. Before CHUM was purchased, the company had applied to the CRTC to convert CKLC to 98.9 MHz with an average effective radiated power of 8,700 watts. On August 28, the Commission approved that application. On November 29, 2007, CKLC launched its FM signal and flipped from easy listening to alternative as 98.9 The Drive. CKLC 1380 left the air in December without ever simulcasting the new CKLC-FM. The AM had authorization to simulcast the FM for three months. On May 27, 2019, CKLC started stunting with a wide range of music. The next day, the station flipped to country music as Pure Country 99, joining all other Bell Media-owned country stations in adopting the "Pure Country" brand that day. In January 2020, the station attracted press attention when, in the midst of a controversy around the underrepresentation of women in country music, it committed to playing a 50/50 balance of male and female country artists for one week.
