CJBC (860

kHz The hertz (symbol: Hz) is the unit of frequency in the International System of Units (SI), often described as being equivalent to one event (or cycle) per second. The hertz is an SI derived unit whose formal expression in terms of SI base uni ...

) is a

French language French ( or ) is a Romance languages, Romance language of the Indo-European languages, Indo-European family. Like all other Romance languages, it descended from the Vulgar Latin of the Roman Empire. French evolved from Northern Old Gallo-R ...

non-commercial A non-commercial (also spelled noncommercial) activity is an activity that is not carried out in the interest of Profit (economics), profit. The opposite is Commerce, commercial, something that primarily serves profit interests and is focused on bu ...

public In public relations and communication science, publics are groups of individual people, and the public (a.k.a. the general public) is the totality of such groupings. This is a different concept to the sociology, sociological concept of the ''Öf ...

radio station in

Toronto, Ontario Toronto ( , locally pronounced or ) is the List of the largest municipalities in Canada by population, most populous city in Canada. It is the capital city of the Provinces and territories of Canada, Canadian province of Ontario. With a p ...

. It is the

Ici Radio-Canada Première Ici Radio-Canada Première (formerly Première Chaîne) is a Canadian French-language radio network, the news and information service of the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (known as Société Radio-Canada in French), the public broadcaster of ...

Network's outlet for much of

Southern Ontario Southern Ontario is a Region, primary region of the Canadian Provinces and territories of Canada, province of Ontario. It is the most densely populated and southernmost region in Canada, with approximately 13.5 million people, approximately 36% o ...

. The studios are in the

Canadian Broadcasting Centre The Canadian Broadcasting Centre, also known as the Toronto Broadcast Centre, is an office and studio complex located in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. It serves as the main broadcast and master control centre for the Canadian Broadcasting Corporati ...

on Front Street West in

Downtown Toronto Downtown Toronto is the main city centre of Toronto, Ontario, Canada. Located entirely within the district of Old Toronto, it is approximately 16.6 square kilometres in area, bounded by Bloor Street to the northeast and Dupont Street to the nor ...

. CJBC is a Class A station. It runs at 50,000 watts, the maximum power for Canadian AM stations. It uses a

non-directional antenna In radio communication, an omnidirectional antenna is a class of antenna which radiates equal radio power in all directions perpendicular to an axis (azimuthal directions), with power varying with angle to the axis (elevation angle), declining t ...

. The

transmitter In electronics and telecommunications, a radio transmitter or just transmitter (often abbreviated as XMTR or TX in technical documents) is an electronic device which produces radio waves with an antenna (radio), antenna with the purpose of sig ...

is on Auburn Road in Milton near

Ontario Highway 401 King's Highway 401, commonly referred to as Highway 401 and also known by its official name as the Macdonald–Cartier Freeway or colloquially referred to as the four-oh-one, is a Controlled-access highway, controlled-access 400-series hig ...

.FCCdata.org/CJBC
/REF> CJBC programming is heard on five rebroadcasters around Southern Ontario.

History

Early years

The station

signed on A sign-on (or start-up in Commonwealth countries except Canada) is the beginning of operations for a radio broadcasting, radio or television station, generally at the start of each day. It is the opposite of a sign-off (or closedown in Commonw ...

the air in 1925. Its original

call sign In broadcasting and radio communications, a call sign (also known as a call name or call letters—and historically as a call signal—or abbreviated as a call) is a unique identifier for a transmitter station. A call sign can be formally as ...

was CKNC and it broadcast on 840 kHz. It was owned by the Canadian National Carbon Company. In January 1927, the station moved to 690 kHz, returning to 840 kHz a month later. The station then moved to 580 in 1928, and to 1030 in 1931. In 1933, the station was leased and then acquired by the

Canadian Radio Broadcasting Commission The Canadian Radio Broadcasting Commission (CRBC/CCR; ), also referred to as the Canadian Radio Commission (CRC), was Canada's first public broadcaster and the immediate precursor to the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation. Origins The CRBC was est ...

, the forerunner of the modern

Canadian Broadcasting Corporation The Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (), branded as CBC/Radio-Canada, is the Canadian Public broadcasting, public broadcaster for both radio and television. It is a Crown corporation that serves as the national public broadcaster, with its E ...

. It became CRCY, before leaving the airwaves in 1935. The following year, it returned at 1420 kHz, as a signal booster for CRCT. The station's call sign was changed to CBY in 1938. In 1941, with the enactment of the

North American Regional Broadcasting Agreement The North American Regional Broadcasting Agreement (NARBA, ; ) refers to a series of international treaties that defined technical standards for AM band (mediumwave) radio stations. These agreements also addressed how frequency assignments were d ...

(NARBA), the station moved to 1010 kHz.

Unusual call sign

A previous radio station with the call sign CJBC was owned and operated by the

Jarvis Street Baptist Church The Jarvis Street Baptist Church is a Baptists, Baptist church located at the intersection of Gerrard Street (Toronto), Gerrard Street and Jarvis Street in downtown Toronto. One of the oldest churches in the city, its congregation was founded in 1 ...

from 1925 until 1933. That station went

dark Darkness is the condition resulting from a lack of illumination, or an absence of visible light. Human vision is unable to distinguish colors in conditions of very low luminance because the hue-sensitive photoreceptor cells on the retina are ...

in 1933, after the government of Canada withdrew all religious broadcasting licenses. The CJBC call letters were subsequently acquired by the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation to replace CBY. They were transferred on November 15, 1943. The call signs for all other CBC and Radio-Canada stations in major cities begin with "CB".

CBC Dominion Network

In 1944, CJBC became the

flagship station In broadcasting, a flagship (also known as a flagship station or key station) is the broadcast station which originates a television network, or a particular radio or television program that plays a key role in the branding of and consumer loyal ...

of the CBC's

Dominion Network The Dominion Network was the second English-language radio network of the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation from January 1, 1944 to 1962. It consisted of the CBC-owned CJBC (AM), CJBC radio station in Toronto and a series of 34 privately owned ...

. On September 1, 1948, CJBC moved to its current frequency, 860 kHz, exchanging frequencies with the privately-owned

CFRB CFRB (1010 AM) is a commercial radio station in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. It is owned by Bell Media and carries a News/Talk radio format. Its studios and offices are in the Entertainment District at 250 Richmond Street West. One of the oldes ...

, which moved to 1010. CJBC's signal strength was boosted to 50,000 watts, up from its previous strength of 1,000 watts. As a Dominion

network affiliate In the broadcasting industry (particularly in North America, and even more in the United States), a network affiliate or affiliated station is a local broadcaster, owned by a company other than the owner of the network, which carries some or a ...

, the station carried network programming in the evening, which included

light entertainment Light entertainment encompasses a broad range of television and radio programming that includes comedies, variety shows, game shows, quiz shows and the like. In the UK In the early days of the BBC, virtually all broadcast entertainment would b ...

fare and some American shows. Local programming and news was heard during the day.

French programming

CJBC began carrying some

programming in 1962, initially in the form of a nightly, half-hour newscast. With the closure of the Dominion Network on October 1, 1962, CJBC's French schedule expanded to two hours of programming each evening. The station adopted a French-only schedule when it became a fully fledged Radio-Canada station on October 1, 1964. Federal Member of Parliament Ralph Cowan attempted to fight the changeover, arguing that since the French language had no legal status outside of Quebec, the station's conversion to French was inappropriate and illegal. However, his case was dismissed by the Ontario Supreme Court in 1965 on grounds of

legal standing In law, standing or ''locus standi'' is a condition that a party seeking a legal remedy must show they have, by demonstrating to the court, sufficient connection to and harm from the law or action challenged to support that party's participation in ...

, as Cowan could not show material harm from the format change.

Ontario rebroadcasters

The station has been carried on rebroadcasters in Belleville,

Kingston Kingston may refer to: Places * List of places called Kingston, including the six most populated: ** Kingston, Jamaica ** Kingston upon Hull, England ** City of Kingston, Victoria, Australia ** Kingston, Ontario, Canada ** Kingston upon Thames, ...

and Midland-

Penetanguishene Penetanguishene (, sometimes shortened to Penetang) is a town in Simcoe County, Ontario, Canada. It is located on the southeasterly tip of Georgian Bay. Incorporated on February 22, 1882, this bilingual ( French and English) community has a popu ...

since 1977,

London London is the Capital city, capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of both England and the United Kingdom, with a population of in . London metropolitan area, Its wider metropolitan area is the largest in Wester ...

since 1978, and

Peterborough Peterborough ( ) is a City status in the United Kingdom, cathedral city in the City of Peterborough district in the Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county of Cambridgeshire, England. The city is north of London, on the River Nene. A ...

since 1980. CJBC also had rebroadcasters under the CJBC call sign that served most of Northern Ontario. Those were changed over to CBON-FM programming out of Sudbury after that station signed on in 1978. CBEF in Windsor, although officially licensed as a separate station, has also been a ''de facto'' rebroadcaster of CJBC. Staffing cutbacks in 2009 resulted in only limited programming originating in Windsor. The station maintained a skeleton staff of just two reporters for local news breaks, while otherwise simulcasting CJBC's programming the rest of the time."CBEF backers fighting cutbacks"
. ''

Windsor Star The ''Windsor Star'' is a daily newspaper based in Windsor, Ontario, Canada. Owned by Postmedia Network, it is published Tuesdays through Saturdays. History The paper began as the weekly ''Windsor Record'' in 1888, changing its name to the ''Bor ...

'', June 20, 2009. Eventually, CBEF expanded its local programming with a morning program and local news bulletins, though otherwise broadcasting a similar schedule as CJBC. On July 8, 2024, the CRTC published applications by the CBC to reassign the London rebroadcaster, CJBC-4-FM, to CBEF, following a request by a coalition of Francophone groups in that area to receive the Windsor station's programming. A

sister station In broadcasting, sister stations or sister channels are radio or television stations operated by the same company, either by direct ownership or through a management agreement. Radio sister stations will often have different formats, and somet ...

, CJBC-FM 90.3, was launched in 1992, to broadcast Radio-Canada's FM music network. Since 1993, the CJBC studios have been based at the

on Front Street West in

Nested rebroadcaster proposal

In 2011, following the revocation of

CKLN-FM CKLN-FM was a community radio station based in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. From 1983 to 2011, CKLN Radio Inc. was licensed by the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission as a campus-community FM radio station affiliated with Ry ...

's licence, the CBC submitted an unsuccessful application to the CRTC to add a nested

rebroadcaster A broadcast relay station, also known as a satellite station, relay transmitter, broadcast translator (U.S.), re-broadcaster (Canada), repeater ( two-way radio) or complementary station (Mexico), is a broadcast transmitter which repeats (or tr ...

of CJBC on 88.1 FM in Toronto. It would have an average

effective radiated power Effective radiated power (ERP), synonymous with equivalent radiated power, is an IEEE standardized definition of directional radio frequency (RF) power, such as that emitted by a radio transmitter. It is the total power in watts that would ha ...

(ERP) of 98 watts and a

height above average terrain Height above average terrain (HAAT), or (less popularly) effective height above average terrain (EHAAT), is the vertical position of an antenna site above the surrounding landscape. HAAT is used extensively in FM radio and television, as it is ...

(HAAT) of 303.4 metres. The rebroadcaster would help improve reception in areas of Toronto, due to inefficiencies of the AM signal. On September 11, 2012, the 88.1 FM frequency was awarded to Central Ontario Broadcasting, which launched a station on 88.1 as CIND-FM, "Indie88".Broadcasting Decision CRTC 2012-485
Licensing of a new radio station to serve Toronto, ''CRTC'', September 11, 2012 Beginning in 2020, CJBC's weekday morning and afternoon

drive time Drive time is the daypart in which radio broadcasters can reach the most people who listen to car radios while driving, usually to and from work, or on public transportation. Drive-time periods are when the number of radio listeners in this c ...

programs were

simulcast Simulcast (a portmanteau of "simultaneous broadcast") is the broadcasting of programs or events across more than one resolution, bitrate or medium, or more than one service on the same medium, at exactly the same time (that is, simultaneously) ...

on CJBC-FM 90.3, which carries

Ici Musique Ici Musique (stylized ICI Musique) is the French-language music radio service of Canada's national public broadcaster, the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (''Société Radio-Canada''). It is the French equivalent of the English CBC Music, altho ...

network programming the other hours of the week, with a full-time simulcast later added on 90.3 HD2.

Programming

The station's regional morning program is ''Y'a pas deux matins pareils'', weekdays from 6 am to 9 am, and its regional afternoon program ''Dans la mosaïque'', weekdays from 3 pm to 6 pm, is also heard on CBEF in Windsor. On Saturdays, CJBC airs the provincewide morning program ''À échelle humaine'', which also airs on CBON-FM in Sudbury and CBEF. On public holidays, ''Pas comme d'habitude'' is heard provincewide (except Ottawa) from 3 pm to 6 pm On some holidays, ''Y'a pas deux matins pareils'' or ''Le matin du Nord'' from CBON-FM airs on both stations, but on some other holidays, both stations either air their local shows as usual or carry CBEF's ''Matins sans frontières''.

Transmitters

References

External links

Ici Radio-Canada Première

"ICI Ontario" official website

CJBC-AM
at The History of Canadian Broadcasting by the

Canadian Communications Foundation The Canadian Communications Foundation (CCF) was a Canadian nonprofit organization which documented the history of broadcasting in Canada, particularly radio and television networks, programs and broadcasters. The organization was established in ...

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Cjbc (Am) 1925 establishments in Ontario Canadian Radio Broadcasting Commission Clear-channel radio stations JBC JBC JBC Radio stations established in 1925 JBC