CIMX-FM

CIMX-FM, 89X, Windsor

Bell Media Inc.

StationYearFreq.PowerOwner/Info
CIMX-FM201188.7100.000Bell Media
CIMX-FM200788.7100,000CTVglobemedia
CIMX-FM199088.7100,000CHUM Ltd.
CJOM-FM198788.7100,000CHUM Ltd.
CJOM-FM198588.784,000CHUM Ltd.
CKWW-FM196788.784,000Radio Windsor Canadian Ltd.

1967

Radio Windsor Canadian Ltd. (Geoff Stirling) opened CKWW-FM 88.7 MHz. Studios and offices were co-located with CKWW-AM on the top floor of the new 19 story Viscount Towers at 1150 Ouellette Avenue in downtown Windsor. CKWW-FM operated with an effective radiated power of 84,000 watts from a 269 foot tower located atop the studio building. A new circular polarized antenna was used, making CKWW-FM only the second station in North America to use this type of system. The station operated with a “Good Music” format and was on the air 24 hours a day.

1968-69

CKWW-FM now programmed in 20 minute segments of full stereo music, alternating vocal and instrumental. Mike Stephens was station manager. He said it was hard to place a label on the station’s format – Middle of the Road or Contemporary. Popular artists along with a jazz feeling, ballet music, semi-classical and classical selections along with famous works by the masters, make up the sound. Ads were straight one-voice-over-music presentations. Only acceptable jingles were used. CKWW-FM was strong on public service and there was some involvement in automation. 

1970

CKWW-FM became CJOM-FM. 

1972

Paul Nathan joined CJOM from CHIC Brampton. 

1976

Paul Mahon joined for overnights in June. 

1977

Paul Mahon (overnights) left in April.

1979

Jerry Lawremer was on the air at CJOM.

1981

Dave Snodgrass moved from the CKAR-CKQT Oshawa engineering department to CJOM and CKWW.

1983 

CJOM and CKWW moved from 1150 Ouellete Avenue to 300 Cabana Road East.

1985

CHUM Ltd. announced that it planned to purchase CJOM and CKWW (along with Montreal’s CKGM and CHOM-FM) from Geoff Stirling who planned to concentrate on his Newfoundland operations. The CRTC approved the sale later in the year. 

1987

Power increased to 100,000 watts. 

Dave Simone was on the air at CJOM. 

1987-88

George Ferguson left CJOM/CKWW to become GM at CFRB in Toronto.

Neil Thomas was news director.

1988

Ian Davies was OM-FM’s program director and Keith Chinnery was promotions manager.

1989

August was a bad weather month for CJOM and CKWW. Hydro crews worked for three days to restore power to the transmitters following flooding and electrical storms. The stations operated on a generator for three days. On top of that, there were lightning strikes at the studio facility.

1990

CJOM-FM became CIMX-FM.

1992

CHUM Ltd. announced that it planned to acquire Windsor’s two other commercial radio stations – CKLW-AM and FM – from Amicus Communications (Trillium Cable). The CKLW stations had been losing money in recent years. CHUM proposed to swap the dial positions of the AM stations – CKLW and CKWW, and wanted exemptions from regulations to enable the four stations to compete with the flood of American signals. A public hearing was set to begin September 22.

1993

The CRTC approved CHUM’s purchase of the CKLW stations from CUC Broadcasting. This was a very rare exception – all four commercial stations in a market were owned by the same company.

CIMX-FM and CKWW moved in with their new sister stations, at 1640 Ouellette Avenue.

1997

Wayne Stafford left CHUM Windsor. General sales manager Eric Proksch became interim general manager.

1999

Radio Computing Services installed RCS master control digital studio equipment at CIMX, CKLW, CKWW and CIDR.

2000

On March 22, CIMX was granted a transitional digital radio licence. The facilities were located at the existing CIMX-FM/CIDR-FM site in Windsor, using the EUREKA-147 DAB system in the frequency band 1452 MHz–1492 MHz (L-Band). The transmitter operated on frequency 1484.208 MHz (channel 19) with an effective isotropic radiated power of 4,369 watts.

2005

Allan Waters, the founder of CHUM Limited, owner of CIMX-FM,  passed away at the age of 84, on December 3rd.

2006

On July 12 it was announced that Bell Globemedia would pay C$1.7 billion for CHUM Ltd., in a deal that would see the company become part of the BCE-owned media conglomerate, subject to CRTC approval.  On August 31, the two companies announced that BGM had been successful in its offer to acquire approximately 6.7 million common shares and approximately 19.2 million non-voting Class B shares of CHUM.  The shares were to be placed in the hands of an independent trustee pursuant to a voting trust agreement approved by the CRTC.

On December 12th, it was announced that Bell Globemedia would henceforth be known as CTVglobemedia.

2007

A CRTC hearing on the CTVglobemedia application to acquire the assets of CHUM Limited was held on April 30th 2007.  On June 8 the CRTC approved the acquisition of CHUM Ltd. by CTVglobemedia, on condition that CTV sell off its five City-TV stations, CITY-TV Toronto, CHMI-TV Portage La Prairie/Winnipeg, CKEM-TV Edmonton, CKAL-TV Calgary and CKVU-TV Vancouver.   Rogers Communications announced on June 25th that a deal had been reached for them to buy these stations from CTV, subject to CRTC approval. Among the CHUM assets acquired by CTVglobemedia in the deal were seven television stations, including CHWI-TV Windsor / Wheatley, 21 specialty channels and some 33 radio stations, including CIMX-FM.  

2009

On August 28, the CRTC renewed the transitional digital radio licence of CIMX-DR-1.  

2010

Paul McDonald was promoted to News Director at CHUM Radio Windsor, succeeding Jason Moore who left the business. McDonald had been a reporter.

2011

On March 7, the CRTC approved an application by BCE Inc. on behalf of CTVglobemedia Inc., for authority to change the effective control of CTVgm’s licensed broadcasting subsidiaries to BCE. The Commission concluded that the transaction would be beneficial to the Canadian broadcasting system by ensuring the long-term stability of a significant Canadian television network and advancing the Commission’s objective of providing relevant high-quality Canadian programming to Canadians through conventional and new media distribution channels. BCE was a public corporation and controlled by its board of directors. Before this approval, BCE held 15% of the voting interest in the capital of CTVgm. The other shareholders were 1565117 Ontario Limited (a corporation ultimately controlled by Mr. David Kenneth R. Thomson) (40% of the voting interest), Ontario Teacher’s Plan Board (25% of the voting interest) and Torstar Corporation (20% of the voting interest). Under the transaction agreement dated September 10, 2010, BCE would acquire the remaining 85% of the voting interest in the capital of CTVgm and would therefore exercise effective control. 

On March 15, CTV Inc., CTV Corp., CTV Limited and CTVglobemedia Inc. amalgamated to continue as CTV Inc.

BCE Inc. announced on April 1 that it had completed its acquisition of CTV and that it had launched Bell Media (replacing CTVglobemedia), a new business unit that would make CTV programs and other Bell content available on smartphones and computers as well as traditional television. In addition to CTV and its television stations, Bell Media now also operated 29 specialty channels, 33 radio stations, Dome Productions, a mobile broadcast facilities provider, and dozens of high-traffic news, sports and entertainment websites, including the Sympatico.ca portal.

The CRTC approved a change to the ownership of Bell Media Inc., from BCE Inc. to Bell Canada. This transaction would not affect effective control of Bell Media Inc. and of its licensed broadcasting subsidiaries, which continued to be exercised by BCE Inc. Bell Media Inc. held, directly and through its licensed broadcasting subsidiaries, various radio and television programming undertakings as well as specialty and pay-per-view television services.

On August 22, the CRTC approved the applications by BCE Inc., on behalf of Bell Media Inc. and 7550413 Canada Inc., carrying on business as Bell Media Windsor Radio Partnership, for authority to acquire, as part of a corporate reorganization, CKWW, CKLW, CIMX-FM and CIDR-FM Windsor. Bell Media, the managing partner holding 99.99% of the voting interest in the general partnership, is wholly owned by Bell Canada and controlled by BCE. 7550413, the other partner holding the remaining 0.01% of the voting interest in the general partnership, is wholly owned by Bell Media and is also controlled by BCE. BCE submitted that the purpose of this corporate reorganization was to realize tax efficiencies. The Commission noted that this transaction would not affect the effective control of the undertakings which would continue to be exercised by BCE. 

Mark McKenzie became the new mid-day announcer at 89X CIMX. He had been with the station since 2007 as main back-up host of Canadian Exports and held down the Saturday and Sunday afternoon shifts. He would continue to handle these programs – at least in the interim – along with his new position. Mark officially took over on October 17. 

2012

Dave Hunter and Chuck Urquhart (Dave and Chuck the Freak), the morning show co-hosts at 89X left the station after more than 10 years there.

The story continues elsewhere…
Effective September 1st 2019, we will only be adding new material to these station histories in exceptional circumstances. Our intent to chronicle the early days of these radio and television stations has been achieved, and many new sources and technologies, from the CRTC website to Wikipedia, and others, are now regularly providing new information in these areas.

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