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CJCL

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CJCL
Broadcast areaGreater Toronto Area
Southern Ontario
Frequency590 kHz
BrandingSportsnet 590 The Fan
Programming
Language(s)English
FormatSports
AffiliationsSportsnet Ontario
Toronto Raptors Radio Network
Toronto Maple Leafs Radio Network
Toronto Blue Jays Radio Network
Buffalo Bisons Radio Network
Buffalo Bills Radio Network
CBS Sports Radio
Ownership
Owner
CFTR, CHFI-FM, CKIS-FM, CFMT-DT, CITY-DT, CJMT-DT
History
First air date
February 21, 1951
(73 years ago) (1951-02-21)
Former call signs
CKFH (1951–1981)
Former frequencies
1400 kHz (1951–1960)
1430 kHz (1960–1995)
Technical information
Licensing authority
CRTC
ClassB
Power50,000 watts
Transmitter coordinates
43°9′10″N 79°32′3″W / 43.15278°N 79.53417°W / 43.15278; -79.53417
Repeater(s)92.5 CKIS-HD3 (Toronto)
Links
WebcastListen live
Websitesportsnet.ca/590

CJCL (590 AM, Sportsnet 590 The Fan) is a Canadian sports radio station in Toronto, Ontario. Owned and operated by Rogers Radio, a division of Rogers Sports & Media since 2002, CJCL's studios are located at the Rogers Building at Bloor and Jarvis in downtown Toronto, while its transmitters are located near Grimsby atop the Niagara Escarpment. It is the flagship station for the Toronto Blue Jays,[1] and also airs games from the Toronto Raptors, Toronto Maple Leafs, Buffalo Bisons and Buffalo Bills. CJCL is a CBS Sports Radio affiliate.[2]

The station was originally owned by longtime sportscaster Foster Hewitt and began broadcasting on February 21, 1951, as CKFH 1400 before moving to 1430 AM in 1960. Telemedia acquired the station in 1981 and relaunched it as CJCL. During its early life, the station aired news and sports, Top 40, country music, adult contemporary and talk radio formats. It adopted the current sports format on September 4, 1992, as The Fan 1430 as Canada's first all-sports radio station before swapping frequencies with CKYC 590, acquired in 1994 by Telemedia, on February 6, 1995, adopting The Fan 590 branding. After Telemedia was sold to Standard Broadcasting, Rogers acquired CJCL in 2002.

Due to its location near the top of the AM dial, as well as its transmitter power and height, CJCL covers most of southern Ontario during the day. The station's signal is directional from north to south to protect various lower-powered radio stations east and west of the station. CJCL is simulcast across Canada on Bell Satellite TV channel 959,[3] and on Shaw Direct channel 868.[4] It is also carried on the 3rd HD digital subchannel of CKIS-FM.

History

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The station first aired on February 21, 1951, as CKFH; operating at 1400 kHz. It was a news and sports station owned by legendary Canadian broadcaster Foster Hewitt (the "FH" of the call sign), who was best known as the first and long-time play-by-play announcer for the Toronto Maple Leafs on what became Hockey Night in Canada.[5] The station moved to the 1430 AM frequency in 1960, increasing power first to 5,000, then 10,000 and finally 50,000 watts. In its first years, CKFH was a full service station with news, drama, and variety programs, but specialized in sports broadcasting away games of the Toronto Maple Leafs as well as "reconstructed" play-by-play broadcasts of the Brooklyn Dodgers.[6] The station also carried a number of foreign-language programs produced by ethnic broadcasters such as Sam Yuchtman's Yiddish-language Jewish Hour and Italian-language programs produced by Johnny Lombardi until Lombardi launched his own station, CHIN, in 1966. CKFH adopted a Top 40 format that same year. It then moved to a country format in 1975.

Fan 1430 logo (1992–1995)
Fan 590 logo (1995– January 2011)
Logo from January to October 2011

The station was subsequently sold to Telemedia in 1981 when it adopted its current CJCL call sign and switched to an adult contemporary format.[7] In 1983, the station briefly adopted talk programming, but returned to its music format within a few months, with increased emphasis on oldies.[8] CJCL was the flagship of the Telemedia network, and as such, broadcast Toronto Blue Jays baseball games (with Tom Cheek and Jerry Howarth calling the action) followed by hours of talk after the game. The station has been flagship radio station of the Blue Jays for most of their history since their inception in 1977 (with exception of a hiatus when CHUM was the flagship from 1998 to 2002). As the 1980s progressed, and the winning Blue Jays became more popular, the sports features became CJCL's profit centre. Encouraged by the newfound success of sports radio in the United States, in 1992, the year the Blue Jays won their first World Series, CJCL would drop non-sports programming altogether on September 4, and became The Fan 1430, the first all-sports station in Canada. The station's nickname may have been inspired by WFAN in New York City, the first sports radio station in the world that led to the creation of sports radio stations everywhere.[9][10][11]

In 1994, Telemedia acquired CKYC from Rogers, and on February 6, 1995, at noon, the two stations switched frequencies, with "The Fan" moving to 590 AM (subsequently becoming The Fan 590) and CKYC moving to 1430 AM (where it operates today as multilingual station CHKT).[12][13] Telemedia was acquired in 2002 by Standard Broadcasting, who resold CJCL to Rogers Media.

In January 2011, CJCL became known as Sportsnet Radio The Fan 590, the move coming as part of a co-branding initiative with its television counterpart Sportsnet,[14] amid indications that rival TSN was preparing to launch a competing sports radio station, TSN Radio 1050.[15] The station's on air identity was then changed to Sportsnet 590 The Fan in October 2011.

The station also provides sports news updates for its sister station, all-news radio CFTR.

Live sports

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CJCL is the flagship station for the following teams' radio broadcasts:

♠-In case of conflicts with other sports broadcasts, one of the games will air on another station in the Toronto area. As Rogers owns the Blue Jays outright but only shares ownership (through Maple Leaf Sports & Entertainment) of the Raptors and Maple Leafs, the Blue Jays games have first priority on CJCL. CHUM shares rights to the other two teams, including all games that are played at the same time as the Blue Jays. In contrast, because of an exclusive CFL-wide multimedia deal with TSN that ensures all Toronto Argonauts games air on CHUM, any Raptors or Maple Leaf games that conflict with the Argonauts will air on CJCL. The two stations split the broadcasts of games that do not conflict with each other.

Roughly 11 Buffalo Bisons games (as of 2018) air on evening dates between June and August that do not conflict with Blue Jays games. The Bisons are the Triple-A East affiliate of the Blue Jays, and broadcasts originate from Buffalo-based WWKB.[16][17]

The Fan 590 also features live coverage of the following:

Previous live sports events on CJCL included:

Notable on-air staff

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Current

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Main article: Sportsnet § On-air staff

Former

[edit]

References

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  1. ^ "Blue Jays Radio Network". MLB.com.
  2. ^ "Sportsnet 590 the Fan - Sportsnet.ca".
  3. ^ "WHS Program Channel" (PDF). Archived from the original (PDF) on 2020-07-30. Retrieved 2020-05-06.
  4. ^ "List of Shaw Direct Channels – TVCL – TV Channel Lists".
  5. ^ "Only the best for CKFH (ad.)". The Globe and Mail. February 21, 1951. p. 5.
  6. ^ CJCL-AM at The History of Canadian Broadcasting by the Canadian Communications Foundation
  7. ^ "CKFH goes off the air," The Toronto Star, March 21, 1981.
  8. ^ "CFNY ties CHUM in FM raido ratings," The Toronto Star, February 21, 1984.
  9. ^ Greg Quill, "CJCL ready to make leap to full-time sports," The Toronto Star, August 12, 1992.
  10. ^ Rob Grant, "All-sports radio station aims at rock 'n' roll beat," The Toronto Star, August 14, 1992.
  11. ^ Ken McKee, "Expanded radio, TV coverage has sports junkies on new high," The Toronto Star, September 4, 1992.
  12. ^ Peter Goddard, "Foster, Jack wouldn't be Fans of this drama on the AM dial," The Toronto Star, February 4, 1995.
  13. ^ Peter Goddard, "Chinese shows aim at 'underserved' market," The Toronto Star, September 30, 1995.
  14. ^ "Change is the operative word in sports radio". The Globe and Mail. Retrieved 13 January 2011.
  15. ^ "TSN Radio a reality". The Globe and Mail, January 21, 2011.
  16. ^ "Sportsnet 590 To Air Eight Bisons Games". Sportsnet.ca. 2013-06-27. Retrieved 2016-08-07.
  17. ^ "Buffalo Bisons | Buffalo Bisons News". Milb.com. 2014-03-18. Retrieved 2016-08-07.
  18. ^ "Rock games return to radio with The Fan 590 – Toronto Rock". Torontorock.com. Archived from the original on 2015-10-25. Retrieved 2016-08-07.
  19. ^ "OHL News". Canoe.ca. Archived from the original on July 21, 2012. Retrieved 2016-08-07.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: unfit URL (link)
  20. ^ a b c d e f "The Fan 590 turns 15 today". Slam.canoe.ca. 2007-09-04. Archived from the original on January 15, 2013. Retrieved 2016-08-07.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: unfit URL (link)
  21. ^ "CKFH Ttribute Page: People".
  22. ^ "Spider Jones | Speaker | National Speakers Bureau". Nsb.com. Archived from the original on 2013-08-14. Retrieved 2016-08-07.
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