CJCL (590 AM, '' Sportsnet 590 The Fan'') is a Canadian

sports radio Sports radio (or sports talk radio) is a radio format devoted entirely to discussion and broadcasting of sporting events. A widespread programming genre that has a narrow audience appeal, sports radio is characterized by an often- boisterous on ...

station in

Toronto, Ontario Toronto ( ; or ) is the capital city of the Canadian province of Ontario. With a recorded population of 2,794,356 in 2021, it is the most populous city in Canada and the fourth most populous city in North America. The city is the ancho ...

. Owned and operated by 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 Grimsby or Great Grimsby is a port town and the administrative centre of North East Lincolnshire, Lincolnshire, England. Grimsby adjoins the town of Cleethorpes directly to the south-east forming a conurbation. Grimsby is north-east of L ...

atop the Niagara Escarpment. It is the flagship station for the

Toronto Blue Jays The Toronto Blue Jays are a Canadian professional baseball team based in Toronto. The Blue Jays compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a member club of the American League (AL) East division. Since 1989, the team has played its home games ...

, and also airs games from the Toronto Raptors,

Toronto Maple Leafs The Toronto Maple Leafs (officially the Toronto Maple Leaf Hockey Club and often referred to as the Leafs) are a professional ice hockey team based in Toronto. They compete in the National Hockey League (NHL) as a member of the Atlantic Div ...

Buffalo Bisons The Buffalo Bisons (known colloquially as the Herd) are a Minor League Baseball team of the International League and the Triple-A affiliate of the Toronto Blue Jays. Located in Buffalo, New York, the team plays their home games at Sahlen F ...

and

Buffalo Bills The Buffalo Bills are a professional American football team based in the Buffalo metropolitan area. The Bills compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member club of the league's American Football Conference (AFC) East division ...

. CJCL is also a CBS Sports Radio affiliate. The station began broadcasting on February 21, 1951 as CKFH 1400 owned by Foster Hewitt before moving to 1430 AM in 1960. Telemedia acquired the station in 1981 and relaunched as CJCL. During its early life, the station aired news and sports, Top 40,

country music Country (also called country and western) is a genre of popular music that originated in the Southern and Southwestern United States in the early 1920s. It primarily derives from blues, church music such as Southern gospel and spirituals, ...

adult contemporary Adult contemporary music (AC) is a form of radio-played popular music, ranging from 1960s vocal and 1970s soft rock music to predominantly ballad-heavy music of the present day, with varying degrees of easy listening, pop, soul, R&B, quie ...

and

talk radio Talk radio is a radio format containing discussion about topical issues and consisting entirely or almost entirely of original spoken word content rather than outside music. Most shows are regularly hosted by a single individual, and often featu ...

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 bottom 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, and on Shaw Direct channel 868. It is also carried on the 3rd HD

digital subchannel In broadcasting, digital subchannels are a method of transmitting more than one independent program stream simultaneously from the same digital radio or television station on the same radio frequency channel. This is done by using data compres ...

of CKIS-FM.

History

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 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 ass ...

), 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 CBC Television has aired National Hockey League (NHL) broadcasts under the ''Hockey Night in Canada'' (often abbreviated ''Hockey Night'' or ''HNiC'') brand that is primarily associated with its Saturday night NHL broadcasts throughout its hi ...

. The station moved to the 1430 AM frequency in 1960, increasing power first to 5,000, then 10,000 and finally 50,000 watts. CKFH would begin playing Top 40 music in 1966, then move to a

country A country is a distinct part of the world, such as a state, nation, or other political entity. It may be a sovereign state or make up one part of a larger state. For example, the country of Japan is an independent, sovereign state, whi ...

format in 1975. The station was subsequently sold to Telemedia in 1981 when it adopted its current CJCL call sign and switched to an

format. In 1983, the station briefly adopted talk programming, but returned to its music format within a few months, with increased emphasis on

oldies Oldies is a term for musical genres such as pop music, rock and roll, doo-wop, surf music (broadly characterized as classic rock and pop rock) from the second half of the 20th century, specifically from around the mid-1950s to the 1980s, as w ...

. CJCL was the flagship of the Telemedia network, and as such broadcast

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 Chum may refer to: Broadcasting * CHUM Limited, a defunct Canadian media company * CHUM Radio, now Bell Media Radio, a Canadian radio broadcasting company * CHUM (AM), a Toronto radio station * CHUM-FM, a Toronto radio station * CHUM Chart, ...

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 The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country Continental United States, primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 U.S. state, states, a Washington, D.C., ...

, in 1992, the year the Blue Jays won their first

World Series The World Series is the annual championship series of Major League Baseball (MLB) in the United States and Canada, contested since 1903 between the champion teams of the American League (AL) and the National League (NL). The winner of the Worl ...

, 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. 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 Multilingualism is the use of more than one language, either by an individual speaker or by a group of speakers. It is believed that multilingual speakers outnumber monolingual speakers in the world's population. More than half of all ...

station

CHKT CHKT (1430 kHz) is a commercial AM radio station in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. The station, owned by the Fairchild Group service, airs mainly Cantonese and Mandarin Chinese programs as well as weekend shows in the following languages: Cambodian ...

). 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, amid indications that rival TSN was preparing to launch a competing sports radio station,

TSN Radio 1050 CHUM is a Canadian radio station in Toronto, Ontario, broadcasting on 1050 kHz. The station is owned and operated by Bell Media. CHUM's studios are co-located with The Sports Network, TSN at 9 Channel Nine Court in the Agincourt, Toronto, A ...

."TSN Radio a reality"
''

The Globe and Mail ''The Globe and Mail'' is a Canadian newspaper printed in five cities in western and central Canada. With a weekly readership of approximately 2 million in 2015, it is Canada's most widely read newspaper on weekdays and Saturdays, although it ...

'', January 21, 2011. The station's on air identity was then changed to ''Sportsnet 590 The Fan'' in October 2011. The station also supports sports news updates for all-news radio CFTR.

Live sports

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

( MLB baseball) * Toronto Raptors ( NBA basketball)♠ *

( NHL hockey)♠ ♠-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.

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

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 The International League (IL) is a Minor League Baseball league that operates in the United States. Along with the Pacific Coast League, it is one of two leagues playing at the Triple-A level, which is one grade below Major League Baseball ...

affiliate of the Blue Jays, and broadcasts originate from Buffalo-based WWKB. The Fan 590 also features live coverage of the following: *

( NFL football) * NBA All-Star Game * Major League Baseball on ESPN Radio ( Sunday nights, All-Star Game & postseason; when not conflicting with Blue Jays games & weekday afternoon sports talk radio programming) * Memorial Cup hockey (Championship game) * NFL Football (Sunday afternoons) Previous live sports events on CJCL included: * Toronto Argonauts (

CFL The Canadian Football League (CFL; french: Ligue canadienne de football—LCF) is a professional sports league in Canada. The CFL is the highest level of competition in Canadian football. The league consists of nine teams, each located in a ci ...

football) (2000-2001, 2007–2010) *

Toronto FC Toronto Football Club (commonly known as Toronto FC or TFC) is a Canadian professional soccer club based in Toronto. The club competes in Major League Soccer (MLS) as a member of the Eastern Conference. The team plays its home matches at BM ...

( MLS soccer) *

Ice Hockey World Championships The Ice Hockey World Championships are an annual international men's ice hockey tournament organized by the International Ice Hockey Federation (IIHF). First officially held at the 1920 Summer Olympics, it is the sport's highest profile annual ...

( Team Canada games) *

IIHF World U20 Championship The IIHF World Junior Championship (WJC), or simply the "World Juniors" in ice hockey circles, is an annual event organized by the International Ice Hockey Federation (IIHF) for national under-20 ice hockey teams from around the world. It is t ...

( Team Canada games) *

Toronto Rock The Toronto Rock are a professional box lacrosse franchise based in Hamilton, Ontario, Canada. They are members of the North Division of the National Lacrosse League (NLL). The team was the first Canadian franchise in the NLL. Oakville reside ...

( NLL lacrosse) (2006) * OHL All-Star Classic ( OHL hockey) (2007) * International Bowl (

NCAA The National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) is a nonprofit organization that regulates student athletics among about 1,100 schools in the United States, Canada, and Puerto Rico. It also organizes the athletic programs of colleges ...

college football College football (french: Football universitaire) refers to gridiron football played by teams of student athletes. It was through college football play that American football in the United States, American football rules first gained populari ...

) (2007-2010) *

Premier League The Premier League (legal name: The Football Association Premier League Limited) is the highest level of the men's English football league system. Contested by 20 clubs, it operates on a system of promotion and relegation with the English Fo ...

(

soccer Association football, more commonly known as football or soccer, is a team sport played between two teams of 11 players who primarily use their feet to propel the ball around a rectangular field called a pitch. The objective of the game is ...

) (Saturday mornings, 2007–2010) * Grey Cup (

football) (2007-2009) * Toronto Marlies ( AHL hockey) (2008-2010) *

2009 World Baseball Classic The 2009 World Baseball Classic (WBC) was an international baseball competition. It began on 5 9 and finished 5 26. Unlike in 2006, when the round-robin format of the first two rounds led to some eliminations being decided by run-difference ti ...

(All Canada national baseball team games and the final four) * Ice hockey at the 2010 Winter Olympics – Men's tournament (All Team Canada games, plus the quarter-final game determining Team Canada's semi-final opponent, both semi-finals, and both the bronze medal and gold medal games) *

Ice hockey at the 2010 Winter Olympics – Women's tournament The women's tournament in ice hockey at the 2010 Winter Olympics was held in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada from February 13 to 25. Eight teams competed, seeded into two groups. Canada won the final by a score of 2–0 over the United ...

(Gold medal game)

Notable on-air staff

Current

* David Amber * Kevin Barker *

Jeff Blair Jeff Blair (born March 30, 1960) is a Canadian newspaper columnist for The Globe and Mail, a sports columnist for Sportsnet and sports talk radio host on Sportsnet 590 The FAN in Toronto. In June 2019, Blair took over as a host of the long-runn ...

* Joe Bowen (Maple Leafs) *

Stephen Brunt Stephen Brunt (born March 20, 1959) is a Canadian sports journalist, well known as a former columnist for '' Sportsnet.ca'', ''Sportsnet'', and former co-host on podcasts for Sportsnet. Journalist Born in Hamilton, Ontario, Brunt started at ''T ...

Hugh Burrill Hugh W. Burrill is a Canadian radio sports anchor. Hugh was born in Pembroke, Ontario and raised in Chalk River, Ontario. Career Burrill began his career working for numerous radio stations for a few years. His first television gig was at Citytv ...

Sam Cosentino Salvatore "Sam" Cosentino (born March 16, 1971) is a Canadian sportscaster who currently works as a junior hockey analyst on Rogers Sportsnet. Baseball Cosentino attended Spring Arbor College in Spring Arbor, Michigan, where he played baseball an ...

* Richard Deitsch *

Rob Faulds Rob Faulds (born September 29, 1955) is a Canadian sportscaster on Sportsnet. Faulds graduated from Western University and started his broadcasting career at CFPL (AM) in London, Ontario. He then worked for CKSO radio and covered the 1992 Summe ...

Elliotte Friedman Elliotte Friedman (born September 27, 1970) is a Canadian sports journalist. He currently serves as a hockey reporter for Sportsnet and as an insider for the NHL Network. He is a regular panelist on CBC's Hockey Night in Canada. Early life an ...

* Paul Jones * Ian Leggatt * Jeff Marek *

Scott Metcalfe Scott Metcalfe (born January 6, 1967) is a Canadian former professional ice hockey player, who played 19 games in the National Hockey League (NHL). Playing career Metcalfe was born in Toronto, Ontario. He began his junior career playing with ...

* Tim Micallef * Sid Seixeiro *

Gord Stellick Gord Stellick (born May 26, 1957 in Toronto, Ontario) is a Canadian sports broadcaster and former NHL executive. Stellick formerly hosted The Fan 590 Morning Show with Don Landry, and also appears on Hockey Central on Rogers Sportsnet. Currently, S ...

* Anthony Stewart *

Dan Shulman Daniel Shulman is a Canadian sportscaster with Sportsnet as well as the American network ESPN. Shulman serves as a play-by-play announcer for select Toronto Blue Jays telecasts on Sportsnet and during 2018 and 2020 he hosted the baseball-th ...

(Blue Jays) * Eric Smith *

Ben Wagner Benjamin L. "Ben" Wagner (born August 7, 1980) is an American sportscaster. Since March 2018, he has worked as the play-by-play radio announcer for the Toronto Blue Jays of Major League Baseball (MLB). Early life Wagner was born in New Paris ...

(Blue Jays) *

Mike Zigomanis Michael Zigomanis (born January 17, 1981) is a Canadian former professional ice hockey centre. Zigomanis was drafted twice. In the 1999 NHL Entry Draft he was selected 64th overall by the Buffalo Sabres, but was not signed. He re-entered for the ...

Former

Sandy Annunziata Sandy Annunziata (born October 11, 1969) is a former offensive guard and Centre in the Canadian Football League. Football career Annunziata played four years at The University of Western Ontario (1989–1992), and was a member of their Vanier Cu ...

* Jack Armstrong *

Alan Ashby Alan Dean Ashby (born July 8, 1951) is an American former professional baseball catcher in Major League Baseball (MLB) and current radio and television sports commentator. A switch hitter, he played for the Cleveland Indians, Toronto Blue Jays, ...

(Blue Jays) * Bill Berg *

Howard Berger Howard Berger (born 20 December 1964) is a special make-up effects creator who is best known for his work on ''The Chronicles of Narnia'' films. He has over 200 films to his credit since 1977. Berger is the co-founder of KNB EFX Group along wit ...

Dean Blundell Dean Blundell is a former Canadian radio personality. Best known as a longtime "shock jock" morning host on CFNY-FM (The Edge) in Toronto, Ontario,

* Greg Brady * Tom Cheek * Don Cherry *

Ken Daniels Ken Daniels is a Canadian sportscaster. Currently the play-by-play announcer for the Detroit Red Wings of the NHL on Bally Sports Detroit, entering his 19th season as the voice of the Red Wings, he is best known as a sportscaster with CBC Sport ...

* John Derringer *

Dirk Hayhurst Dirk Von Hayhurst (born March 24, 1981) is an American author and broadcaster, and formerly a professional baseball pitcher. Hayhurst played in Major League Baseball for the San Diego Padres in 2008 and for the Toronto Blue Jays in 2009. Followi ...

Mike Hogan Mike Hogan may refer to: * Mike Hogan (American football) (born 1954), former NFL running back * Mike Hogan (athlete) (born 1943), British Olympic hurdler * Mike Hogan (The Cranberries) (born 1973), member of Irish alternative rock band The Cran ...

* Jerry Howarth (Blue Jays) * Jim Hunt * Rob Iarusci *

Mike Inglis Mike Inglis is a Canadian sportscaster. He is the former radio play-by-play voice of the NBA's Miami Heat. Raised in Toronto, Ontario, Inglis is a graduate of Humber College. He began broadcasting in the early 1980s at CKAR in Oshawa, Ontario, ...

* Peter Irvine *

Spider Jones Charles "Spider" Jones (born April 20, 1946) is a Canadian journalist, author, and former amateur boxing, amateur boxer. He is a former three-time Golden Gloves, Golden Glove Champion and was inducted into the Canadian Boxing Hall of Fame in 19 ...

Jim Kelley James Thomas Kelley Jr. (October 26, 1949 – November 30, 2010) was a professional sports news columnist from South Buffalo. His 30-year career focused primarily on the Buffalo Sabres of the National Hockey League, and the greater Buffalo ...

Andrew Krystal Andrew Krystal (died May 22, 2022) was a Canadian news reporter who worked for CityNews on Citytv Toronto. He had previously been a radio talk show host, his most recent stints being on the Rogers Communications news talk network in The Maritime ...

Nick Kypreos Nikos "Nick" Kypreos (born June 4, 1966) is a Canadian former professional ice hockey left winger who played eight seasons in the National Hockey League (NHL) for the Hartford Whalers, Washington Capitals, New York Rangers and Toronto Maple Leaf ...

Don Landry Don Landry (born ca. 1964) is a Canadian sports broadcaster who formerly hosted the Morning Show on The Fan 590 with Pat Marsden and then Gord Stellick. Landry, along with Stellick, were the brains behind Chacin Cologne. The cologne was named af ...

* Jim Lang * Jeff Lumby *

Pat Marsden Patrick Francis Marsden (November 8, 1936 – April 27, 2006) was a Canadian sportscaster and voice of the Canadian Football League play-by-play coverage in the 1970s and 1980s. He also worked as host for the historic 1972 Canada-Soviet Union h ...

* Doug MacLean *

Bob McCown Robert Alan "Bob" McCown (born in Columbus, Ohio) is an American-Canadian radio personality. He is best known as the long-time host of the Canadian sports talk show ''Prime Time Sports'' from its inception on October 2, 1989 to June 21, 2019. He ...

Daren Millard Daren Millard (born August 16, 1970 in Brandon, Manitoba, Canada) is a Canadian sportscaster. Millard began his broadcasting career in radio as he worked in cities including Melfort, Saskatchewan, Portage la Prairie, Manitoba, Yorkton, Saskatch ...

* Jack Morris (Blue Jays) *

Steve Paikin Steven Hillel Paikin (born June 9, 1960) is a Canadian journalist, author, and documentary producer. Paikin has primarily worked for TVOntario (TVO), Ontario's public broadcaster, and is anchor of TVO's flagship current affairs program '' The ...

* Dan Pollard *

Elliott Price Elliott Price is a Canadian sportscaster. He was most recently the host of the morning show of CJCL 590 in Toronto from early 2017 until January, 2019. A graduate of John Abbott College, Price started his radio career in 1982 at CJAD in Montrea ...

* Paul Rimstead * Jim Richards * Mike Richards * Greg Sansone * Chris Schultz * John Shannon * James Sharman *

Joe Siddall Joseph Todd Siddall (born October 25, 1967) is a Canadian former professional baseball catcher. He played in Major League Baseball (MLB) for the Montreal Expos, Florida Marlins, and Detroit Tigers. Professional career Siddall was signed by the ...

(Blue Jays; moved to Sportsnet television coverage) * Steve Simmons * Chuck Swirsky *

Mike Toth Mike Toth (born September 27, 1963) is a Canadian sports anchor, formerly on Rogers Sportsnet's '' Sportsnet Connected'' and with the Fan 590 in Toronto. He grew up in Bassano, Alberta and then spent much of his early career in Calgary, Alberta w ...

* John Wells * Brian Williams * Mike Wilner * Damien Cox *

Ric Nattress Eric James Nattress (born May 25, 1962) is a Canadian former National Hockey League The National Hockey League (NHL; french: Ligue nationale de hockey—LNH, ) is a professional ice hockey league in North America comprising 32 teams—25 in ...

* Mark Osborne *

Bob Weeks Bob Weeks is a reporter and analyst for TSN, covering golf and curling. He was previously the editorial director of SCORE''Golf'' magazine. In addition, he served as host for SCORE''Golf'' TV. He was also the curling columnist for '' The Globe and ...

References

External links

* * *
"FAN 590 an experiment gone right" (Toronto Star article)

Fan 590 Toronto's YouTube channel
* {{Toronto Raptors Jcl Jcl Jcl Sport in Toronto Radio stations established in 1951 1951 establishments in Ontario Sportsnet