CIRV-FM is a Canadian

radio station Radio broadcasting is transmission of audio (sound), sometimes with related metadata, by radio waves to radio receivers belonging to a public audience. In terrestrial radio broadcasting the radio waves are broadcast by a land-based radi ...

, broadcasting at 88.9 FM in

Toronto Toronto ( ; or ) is the capital city of the Provinces and territories of Canada, Canadian province of Ontario. With a recorded population of 2,794,356 in 2021, it is the List of the largest municipalities in Canada by population, most pop ...

, Ontario. The station airs a

multicultural The term multiculturalism has a range of meanings within the contexts of sociology, political philosophy, and colloquial use. In sociology and in everyday usage, it is a synonym for " ethnic pluralism", with the two terms often used interchang ...

programming format. CIRV's studios are located in

Brampton Brampton ( or ) is a city in the Canadian province of Ontario. Brampton is a city in the Greater Toronto Area (GTA) and is a lower-tier municipality within Peel Region. The city has a population of 656,480 as of the 2021 Census, making it the ...

, while its transmitter is located atop

First Canadian Place First Canadian Place (originally First Bank Building) is a skyscraper in the Financial District of Toronto, Ontario, at the northwest corner of King and Bay streets, and serves as the global operational headquarters of the Bank of Montreal. At , ...

in Toronto's

Financial District A financial district is usually a central area in a city where financial services firms such as banks, insurance companies and other related finance corporations have their head offices. In major cities, financial districts are often home to s ...

. Matching sister stations

CKYE-FM CKYE-FM (93.1 MHz) is a commercial FM radio station in Vancouver, British Columbia. It airs a multicultural format and is owned by the South Asian Broadcasting Corporation. CKYE-FM has an effective radiated power of up to 8,000 watts from a trans ...

and

CKYR-FM CKYR-FM is a radio station which operates a multilingual/ethnic radio station on the frequency of 106.7 MHz/ FM in Calgary, Alberta, Canada. CKYR's studios are located on Westwinds Drive Northeast in Calgary, while its transmitter is located on O ...

, it rebranded itself in 2019 as RED FM with Red standing for Reflecting Ethnic Diversity. The station's main channel predominantly carries musical programming in Punjabi,

Hindi Hindi (Devanāgarī: or , ), or more precisely Modern Standard Hindi (Devanagari: ), is an Indo-Aryan languages, Indo-Aryan language spoken chiefly in the Hindi Belt region encompassing parts of North India, northern, Central India, centr ...

, and

Urdu Urdu (;"Urdu"
''

History

Founded by Portuguese Canadian Francisco Alvarez, the station launched in 1986 at FM 88.7, and moved to its current frequency in 1993. Since the move, it was branded on-air as CIRV Radio International FM 88.9 Toronto. The station's studios were originally based at Dundas Street West in the

Trinity-Bellwoods Trinity-Bellwoods is an inner city neighbourhood in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. It is bounded on the east by Bathurst Street, on the north by College Street, on the south by Queen Street West, and by Dovercourt Road on the west. It has a large ...

neighbourhood of Toronto. CIRV's initial programming was predominantly in

Portuguese Portuguese may refer to: * anything of, from, or related to the country and nation of Portugal ** Portuguese cuisine, traditional foods ** Portuguese language, a Romance language *** Portuguese dialects, variants of the Portuguese language ** Port ...

, with

Spanish Spanish might refer to: * Items from or related to Spain: ** Spaniards are a nation and ethnic group indigenous to Spain **Spanish language, spoken in Spain and many Latin American countries **Spanish cuisine Other places * Spanish, Ontario, Ca ...

as well as Chinese (

Cantonese Cantonese ( zh, t=廣東話, s=广东话, first=t, cy=Gwóngdūng wá) is a language within the Chinese (Sinitic) branch of the Sino-Tibetan languages originating from the city of Guangzhou (historically known as Canton) and its surrounding ar ...

and

Mandarin Mandarin or The Mandarin may refer to: Language * Mandarin Chinese, branch of Chinese originally spoken in northern parts of the country ** Standard Chinese or Modern Standard Mandarin, the official language of China ** Taiwanese Mandarin, Stand ...

) content joining the schedule in later years. Select shows also targeted Brazilian, Caribbean, Punjabi,

Russian Russian(s) refers to anything related to Russia, including: *Russians (, ''russkiye''), an ethnic group of the East Slavic peoples, primarily living in Russia and neighboring countries *Rossiyane (), Russian language term for all citizens and peo ...

Ukrainian Ukrainian may refer to: * Something of, from, or related to Ukraine * Something relating to Ukrainians, an East Slavic people from Eastern Europe * Something relating to demographics of Ukraine in terms of demography and population of Ukraine * Som ...

and

Urdu Urdu (;"Urdu"
''

communities. In November 2016, South Asian Broadcasting Corporation Inc. acquired the station. Alvarez continues to operate the

FPTV FPTV (short for Festival Portuguese Television) is a Canadian Category B Portuguese language specialty channel. The channel's licensee is 1395047 Ontario Inc., a company founded by Frank Alvarez, in 2001. FPTV broadcasts a variety of foreign and ...

channel. In September 2018, the station launched

HD Radio HD Radio (HDR) is a trademark for an in-band on-channel (IBOC) digital radio broadcast technology. It generally simulcasts an existing analog radio station in digital format with less noise and with additional text information. HD Radio is used ...

multi-casting services with additional programming on sub-stations. The studio moved to Brampton in early 2019. This was followed by an on-air relaunch as Red FM on April 15, 2019. "South Asian Broadcasting has rebranded CIRV-FM Toronto to 88.9 RED FM, in line with Kulwinder Sanghera’s other RED-branded multicultural stations CKYE-FM Vancouver and CKYR-FM Calgary. Monday’s launch was attended by many dignitaries, including Etobicoke North MP Kirsty Duncan, Minister of Science and Sport." The re-brand came with a shift in programming focus to Punjabi,

and Urdu music from 4 am to midnight. Material targeting other ethnic groups remains on the schedule in a diminished capacity and is also available on the station's three sub-channels. The CIRV-FM brand is still used on the station's multiplex sub-channels, including HD2 where it runs a 24/7 Portuguese format and HD3 which has Tamil-language programming.

References

External links

Official RED FM Toronto website
* * {{coord, 43, 38, 56, N, 79, 22, 54, W, type:landmark_region:CA, display=title IRV IRV Radio stations established in 1986 1986 establishments in Ontario Urdu-language radio stations Punjabi-language radio stations Hindi-language radio stations Brazilian Canadian Portuguese-Canadian culture