CFRN was a Class A, 50,000-

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(directional at night)

radio station Radio broadcasting is the broadcasting 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 rad ...

Edmonton, Alberta Edmonton is the capital city of the Provinces and territories of Canada, Canadian province of Alberta. It is situated on the North Saskatchewan River and is the centre of the Edmonton Metropolitan Region, which is surrounded by Central Alberta ...

, Canada. CFRN was unusual in that it was a Class A (protected nighttime skywave) AM station on a regional frequency. Owned by

Bell Media Bell Media Inc. (Canadian French, French: ) is a Canadian media conglomerate that is the mass media subsidiary of BCE Inc. (also known as Bell Canada Enterprises, the owner of telecommunications company Bell Canada). Its operations include nati ...

and broadcasting on 1260 AM, the station last aired a

sports Sport is a physical activity or game, often competitive and organized, that maintains or improves physical ability and skills. Sport may provide enjoyment to participants and entertainment to spectators. The number of participants in ...

format, branded as '' TSN 1260 Edmonton''. The station's studios were located at 18520 Stony Plain Road in Edmonton, where it shared studio space with its

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 ...

CFRN-DT CFRN-DT (channel 3) is a television station in Edmonton, Alberta, Canada, part of the CTV Television Network. It is owned and operated by network parent Bell Media alongside cable-exclusive CTV 2 Alberta. The two outlets share studios with sist ...

. As of February 28, 2021, CFRN was the 17th-most-listened-to radio station in the Edmonton market according to a PPM data report released by Numeris.

History

Early history

In 1927, the Christian and Missionary Alliance launched the original station as CHMA at 580

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 ...

. The station operated experimentally for two months before using its full power of 250 watts beginning in June. In March 1934, CHMA became CFTP after Taylor & Pearson Ltd. took over the station, which moved to 1260 kHz; its debut broadcasts featured the

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in the Abbott Cup and

Memorial Cup The Memorial Cup () is the national championship of the Canadian Hockey League (CHL), a consortium of three Junior ice hockey, major junior ice hockey leagues operating in Canada and parts of the United States. It is a four-team round-robin tou ...

. Studios were located in the Birks Building in Edmonton. At the end of October 1934, Taylor & Pearson announced it would lease CJCA from the ''

Edmonton Journal The ''Edmonton Journal'' is a daily newspaper published in Edmonton, Alberta, Canada. It is part of the Postmedia Network. History The ''Journal'' was founded in 1903 by three local businessmen — John Macpherson, Arthur Moore and J.W. Cunn ...

''. Simultaneously, the manager of CJCA, G. R. A. "Dick" Rice, acquired CFTP from Taylor & Pearson. On November 3, Rice immediately changed the call letters to CFRN, representing Rice and his business partner, H. F. Nielson of Coalspur. The two formed the Sunwapta Broadcasting Company, named for Sunwapta Falls in Jasper National Park. On September 13, 1936, the station moved to 960 kHz, where it remained until March 29, 1941, when it returned to 1260 (as part of

NARBA 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 ...

) and boosted power from 100 to 1,000 watts. It was one of the charter stations of the

CBC Radio CBC Radio is the English-language radio operations of the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation. The CBC operates a number of radio networks serving different audiences and programming niches, all of which (regardless of language) are outlined below ...

-owned

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 ...

from its launch in January 1944; the CBC would not have its own station on its main network in Edmonton until 1964, when CBR launched in Calgary, and CBX became Edmonton's exclusive CBC station. FM simulcast began in 1951 on CFRN-FM 100.3, which lasted until 1964, when the FM station began offering separate stereo programming. CFRN-FM became fully separate from CFRN in 1979 and changed its call sign to CKXM-FM. Sunwapta brought television to Edmonton in 1954 when CFRN-TV signed on. According to the 1976 B.B.M. Weekly Reach survey, CFRN was the 4th-most-listened-to radio station in Edmonton. The CFRN stations were sold in 1988 to

Kitchener, Ontario Kitchener is a city in the Canadian province of Ontario, about west of Toronto. It is one of three cities that make up the Regional Municipality of Waterloo and is the regional Administrative centre, seat. Kitchener was known as Berlin until a ...

-based Electrohome Limited for $51.2 million; a 91-year-old Rice rejected offers from several western groups and selected Electrohome as the purchaser. Electrohome sold off the radio properties to Standard Broadcasting in 1991 to concentrate on the television station. On July 1, 1998, CFRN flipped from

adult standards Adult standards (also sometimes known as the nostalgia or Big Band format) is a North American radio format heard primarily on AM or class A FM stations. Adult standards started in the 1950s and is aimed at "mature" adults, meaning mainly tho ...

oldies Oldies is a term for musical genres such as pop music, rock and roll, doo-wop, surf music from the second half of the 20th century, specifically from around the mid-1950s to the 1980s, as well as for a radio format playing this music. Since 2 ...

, debuting Standard Radio's new oldies network, with CISL in

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, delivered via Anik satellite. The new oldies network replaced the former Satellite Radio Network service.

Switch to sports radio, shutoff

In June 2002, CFRN flipped to

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

as ''The Team 1260'', as an affiliate of CHUM Radio's The Team network. However, the network folded shortly afterwards. CFRN would maintain its branding as ''The Team'' as a locally programmed format, while adding syndicated programs such as '' Prime Time Sports'' and '' The Jim Rome Show''. In 2007, Standard Radio was acquired by

Astral Media Astral Media Inc. was a Canadian media conglomerate. It was Canada's largest radio broadcaster, with 84 radio stations in eight provinces. Astral was also a major player in premium and specialty television in Canada, with 23 specialty channel ...

. In turn, Astral Media was acquired by

on July 5, 2013; the acquisition reunited CFRN with its television sister, and with The Team's former owned-and-operated stations. On September 30, 2013, CFRN was re-branded as a part of Bell's TSN Radio network, as ''TSN Radio 1260'', introducing a new lineup of local afternoon programming. On June 14, 2023, as part of a mass corporate restructuring at Bell Media, the company shut down six of their AM radio stations nationwide, including CFRN. At 9 a.m. Mountain that day, airing a looped message about the impending shutdown, which lasted until the completion of the signoff. The shutdown came with such little warning that the station went to a commercial break shortly before 9 a.m. and never returned. In August 2023, former CFRN afternoon host Jason Gregor would partner with Stingray Radio to launch a new sports talk station on CKJR. The CRTC approved Bell Media's application to revoke CFRN's licence on April 10, 2024. Broadcasting Decision CRTC 2024-79
CFRN Edmonton – Revocation of licence, ''CRTC'', April 10, 2024

Former shows and games

* ''The Mark Spector Show'' – hosted by Mark Spector * ''Cracker-Cats Show'' – hosted by Al Coates * ''Sports-Xtra'' – hosted by Tony Fiorello and Ron Rimer * '' Edmonton Cracker-Cats live play-by-play'' – Games were carried on the Team 1260 during the first two years of the franchise. Al Coates handled the play-by-play * ''Total Sports'' – hosted by Bob Stauffer; featuring the 'Total Sports Dream Team' of co-hosts * ''What's Going On'' – hosted by Jason Jones, Corey Graham and Nadine Woudstra * ''Sports Talk'' – hosted by John Short * ''More on Sports'' – featuring play-by-play veteran Bryn Griffiths and Jake Daniels (the "voice of the fan"). * ''Way Offside'' – hosted by Jake Daniels * ''The Pipeline Show'' – hockey program hosted by Global Edmonton's Dean Millard and columnist Guy Flaming * ''The Ultimate Soccer Show'' – 3-hour Soccer program hosted by "Soccersteve" Steve O'Boyle FROM 2004-2010 Steve brought soccer to a higher level including his loc work for the 2007 Fifa World Cup.

Live sports

CFRN was the flagship station for the following teams' radio broadcasts: * Edmonton Oil Kings ( WHL hockey) * Spruce Grove Saints AJHL hockey (select games) *

University of Alberta The University of Alberta (also known as U of A or UAlberta, ) is a public research university located in Edmonton, Alberta, Canada. It was founded in 1908 by Alexander Cameron Rutherford, the first premier of Alberta, and Henry Marshall Tory, t ...

Golden Bears football and hockey games (select games)

References

External links

CFRN (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 ...

* {{Bell Media Frn Frn Sport in Edmonton Radio stations established in 1927 1927 establishments in Alberta FRN Radio stations disestablished in 2023 2023 disestablishments in Alberta FRN