CIRV-FM is a Canadian

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 ...

, broadcasting at 88.9 FM in

Toronto 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 ...

Ontario Ontario is the southernmost Provinces and territories of Canada, province of Canada. Located in Central Canada, Ontario is the Population of Canada by province and territory, country's most populous province. As of the 2021 Canadian census, it ...

. The station airs a

multicultural Multiculturalism is the coexistence of multiple cultures. The word is used in sociology, in political philosophy, and colloquially. In sociology and everyday usage, it is usually a synonym for ''ethnic'' or cultural pluralism in which various e ...

programming format. CIRV's studios are located in

Brampton Brampton is a city in the Canadian Provinces and territories of Canada, province of Ontario, and the regional seat of the Regional Municipality of Peel. It is part of the Greater Toronto Area (GTA) and is a List of municipalities in Ontario#L ...

, while its transmitter is located atop

First Canadian Place First Canadian Place 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 executive office of the Bank of Montreal. At , it is the tallest buildin ...

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 headquarters offices. In major cities, financial districts often host ...

. Matching sister stations CKYE-FM and

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

, 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 Punjabi, or Panjabi, most often refers to: * Something of, from, or related to Punjab, a region in India and Pakistan * Punjabi language * Punjabis, Punjabi people * Punjabi dialects and languages Punjabi may also refer to: * Punjabi (horse), a ...

Hindi Modern Standard Hindi (, ), commonly referred to as Hindi, is the Standard language, standardised variety of the Hindustani language written in the Devanagari script. It is an official language of India, official language of the Government ...

, and

Urdu Urdu (; , , ) is an Indo-Aryan languages, Indo-Aryan language spoken chiefly in South Asia. It is the Languages of Pakistan, national language and ''lingua franca'' of Pakistan. In India, it is an Eighth Schedule to the Constitution of Indi ...

History

Founded by

Portuguese Canadian Portuguese Canadians () are Canadian citizens of full or partial Portuguese heritage or people who migrated from Portugal and reside in Canada. According to the 2021 Census, there were 448,310 or 1.21% of Canadians claimed full or partial Por ...

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 P ...

neighbourhood of Toronto. CIRV's initial programming was predominantly in Portuguese, 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 countries in the Americas **Spanish cuisine **Spanish history **Spanish culture ...

as well as Chinese (

Cantonese Cantonese is the traditional prestige variety of Yue Chinese, a Sinitic language belonging to the Sino-Tibetan language family. It originated in the city of Guangzhou (formerly known as Canton) and its surrounding Pearl River Delta. While th ...

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 The Caribbean ( , ; ; ; ) is a region in the middle of the Americas centered around the Caribbean Sea in the Atlantic Ocean, North Atlantic Ocean, mostly overlapping with the West Indies. Bordered by North America to the north, Central America ...

Russian Russian(s) may refer to: *Russians (), an ethnic group of the East Slavic peoples, primarily living in Russia and neighboring countries *A citizen of Russia *Russian language, the most widely spoken of the Slavic languages *''The Russians'', a b ...

, Ukrainian and

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 Television in Canada, Canadian Category B services, Category B Portuguese language specialty channel. The channel's licensee is 1395047 Ontario Inc., a company founded by Frank Alvarez, in 2001. ...

channel. In September 2018, the station launched

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

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

CIRV-FM
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 ...

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IRV {{wiktionary, Irv Irv is a diminutive form (hypocorism) of the masculine given names Irving, Irvin, Irvine, etc. It may refer to: * Irvin Irv Anderson (1923–2008), American politician * Irving Irv Comp (1919–1989), American National Football ...

Radio stations established in 1986 1986 establishments in Ontario Urdu-language radio stations Punjabi-language radio stations Hindi-language radio stations Brazilian diaspora in Canada Portuguese-Canadian culture Indo-Canadian culture Asian-Canadian culture in Toronto Indian diaspora mass media