Radio This Week Back Then #36: September 22-28
Can-Con: CFZM, CKIS-FM, CHBM-FM, CIRR-FM, CHUM-FM, CILQ-FM Toronto; CJXY-FM Hamilton; CHTZ-FM and CJED-FM Niagara Falls ... plus WKSE Buffalo
What was on the radio this week…back then. This is a weekly visit of radio audio from this week in past years for those that enjoy radio history, those working in radio looking for promotional ideas, or stations looking to re-find lost audio of their heritage. If you enjoy these weekly audio rewinds, they take a lot of time to put together, so please do me a favor, subscribe, and share and pass it on. Thank you! A searchable and sortable index of all the audio is located on the Aircheck Index page.
Back this week in 2016, I did a long weekend trip to Toronto to catch the NHL’s World Cup Of Hockey tournament (Canada vs Russia in the semi-finals…fortunately, the home country won 5-3). Within it, I also took a Sunday afternoon drive down to Niagara Falls. So, for this week, I pulled 10 airchecks from that trip — spanning different formats and from multiple metros:
Toronto | standards CFZM 740 “Zoomer Radio,” CHR CKIS-FM 92.5 “Kiss 92-5,” classic hits CHBM-FM 97.3 “Boom 97-3,” rhythmic AC CIRR-FM 103.9 “103-9 Pride FM,” hot AC CHUM-FM 104.5 “104.5 Chum FM,” classic rock CILQ-FM 107.1 “Q107, Great Hits, Real Classics”
Buffalo | CHR WKSE 98.5 “Kiss 98.5”
Hamilton | AOR CJXY-FM 107.9 “Y108, World Class Rock”
Niagara Region | AOR CHTZ-FM 97.7 “97.7 Hits FM,” CHR CJED-FM 105.1 “2Day FM”
Happy reading and listening!
CFZM is old school radio…in a good way. It runs a full-service adult standards/oldies format, and this aircheck from this week in 2016 is of their morning drive show, The Happy Team. There are not many of these stations around with the format’s older-skewing demos…much less one on a big booming 50 kw AM signal (and a small assist from a low wattage FM repeater, CFZM-1 96.7, in downtown Toronto). This aircheck is what you would hope to get from a station like this — a happy, relatable air staff that is good company, familiar songs, and a lot of news and information about your local community.
You would have to go back to the 1980s for many US markets to find an era when there was a sustained period of 3 stations in the CHR format. Toronto has had a three way battle for more than a decade and a half now — CKIS-FM 92.5 “Kiss 92-5,” “Virgin Radio” CKFM-FM 99.9, and rimshot CIDC-FM “Z103.5.”
The current “Kiss 92-5” is the second time (or third time, depending on how you count February 1999’s format change) around for the brand. For most of the 1990s, the stations was country CISS-FM, branded as “92.5 Kiss FM” originally and then “Kiss FM 92.5” later. In February 1999, it flipped to top 40 “Power 92,” but changed the branding to “Kiss 92FM” a few weeks later (rimshot dance CKDX-FM 88.5 “Power 88-5” being a pre-existing “Power” outlet in the market, for one thing). From 2003 to 2009, the station was adult hits CJAQ-FM “92.5 Jack FM.” In June 2009, CJAQ-FM returned to CHR and the “Kiss” brand again under the present day CKIS-FM calls.
This is a Friday night aircheck, including a local top 7 nightly countdown.
At this point, CHBM-FM’s library was already shifted to include the 1990s into the mix of songs from the 1970s and 1980s, a bit ahead of the curve at the time compared to a lot of US classic hits outlets.
Like most of the airchecks this week, there is a few Canadian tracks that you don’t hear on US classic hits stations in the mix. As well, it is pretty lively for an early Saturday morning shift.
CIRR-FM had a lifespan of a decade and a half, running an upbeat rhythmic AC-ish format targeted to and for the LGBT community in Toronto. Citing the impacts of the economy, digital competition, and the lingering effects of post-pandemic life, owner Evanov shut down the 103.9 signal altogether last year. With the signal being shut down, some of the staff moved over to sister CIDC-FM 103.5 “Z103.5.” Evanov was in the Canadian news again this month for announcing the planned shutdown of its AC CJWL-FM 98.5 Ottawa and two other Ontario stations until another owner offered to buy them.
Programming a station exclusively for an LGBT audience is still relatively rare. In the US, both Audacy (Channel Q) and iHeart (Pride Radio) do program dance outlets aimed at that community, but both those national formats are confined to HD subchannels on their stations around the country, not on any main HD1 channel. Dance KGAY-FM/AM 1270/92.1 and repeater K293CL 106.5 in the Palm Springs market is pretty much the lone outlet running a full-time format for that audience on its main channel.
Noting that I’m not an expert in this genre at all, CIRR-FM struck me as being a bit different in that the US outlets are heavily dance/EDM musically while CIRR-FM had a broader mix. From re-listening to this aircheck since the first time since I recorded back in 2016, CIRR-FM seems to go beyond strictly current dance tracks to also include other genre songs from LGBT artists (i.e. Elton John in this audio) and also has quite a bit of recurrents and older material in the library.
Presently, CHUM-FM has been running some form of AC for four decades now. It shifted to hot AC in 1990 and hasn’t looked back. In the few trips to Toronto I’ve made over the years, CHUM-FM struck me as being a little “hotter” musically than many US hot AC counterparts.
A couple of years after this aircheck, it tweaked its branding from “104.5 Chum FM” to its present day “Chum 104.5.”
Since its sign on in 1977, CILQ-FM has aired some variant of rock as its format. These days, it is back to an AOR format, but back this week in 2016, Q107 was in its “Great Hits, Real Classics” days.
Here, CILQ-FM seems to straddle classic rock and classic hits. Corporate sister CFMI-FM 101.1 way out west in Vancouver has similarly done the same — using “Greatest Hits,” branding more typically used on classic hits stations in the US — but also running something between classic rock and classic hits.
For the lone non-Can-Con aircheck of the week, I was able to record Buffalo market WKSE while in Niagara Falls; it covers the area it is licensed to the Niagara Falls across the river in New York. In the early 1980s, 98.5 was home to progressive “Wizard” WZIR, which shifted to AOR and then a rebrand as WRXT in early 1984. WRXT then moved to top 40 later that year and the current “Kiss" brand and the WKSE calls came in 1985.
This aircheck comes from midday Sunday in time for a Buffalo Bills pre-game “Shout.”
Licensed to Burlington ON and with studios in Hamilton, CJXY-FM does put a rimshot signal into Toronto to the northeast. In 2016, it branded as “World Class Rock,” with a bit of an AAA-ish lean. Today, Y108 is active rock and branded as “Hamilton’s Rock.”
Licensed to St Catharines ON, long-time rocker CHTZ-FM covers the Niagara Region between Hamilton to the west over to the Niagara Falls area to the east.
Stylized as “HTZ-FM” in its logo, on air the handle is given as “Hits FM,” which has been its branding now for several decades. On this aircheck from 2016, it is “everything that rocks” with a wide range of classic rock and a few newer tracks plus some classic alternative mixed in as part of its “Nevermind The Grunge Weekend,” celebrating the 25th anniversary of Nirvana’s epic “Nevermind” album. This may be the only aircheck I have of any rock or alternative station playing “Stardog Champion,” so points for throwing in something not in most corporate playlists.
The “2day FM” top 40 format began in September 2013 on both CJED-FM 105.1 and Fort Erie-licensed CFLZ-FM 101.1, across from Buffalo. The simulcast ran afoul with the CRTC since the stations were not licensed to be repeaters. So, the 101.1 simulcast ended two months before I recorded this aircheck on 105.1.
On the aircheck, the Canadian hits come from SonReal, Coleman Hell, and MAGIC!. In 2018, it flipped to hot AC “105.1 the River,” its current format today.
As always, the logos and other intellectual property belong to the stations. The recordings were made from over the air broadcasts.