CIMX-FM

Last updated
CIMX-FM
Broadcast area Southwestern Ontario
Detroit–Windsor
Frequency 88.7 MHz (FM)
Branding Pure Country 89
Programming
Language(s) English
Format Country
Affiliations Premiere Networks
Ownership
Owner
CIDR-FM, CKLW
History
First air date
July 10, 1967;57 years ago (1967-07-10)
Former call signs
  • CKWW-FM (1967–1970)
  • CJOM-FM (1970–1990)
Call sign meaning
Station formerly branded as "Mix"
Technical information
Class C1
ERP 78,200 watts average
100,000 watts peak
HAAT 188.5 meters (618 ft)
Transmitter coordinates
 42°10′14.88″N82°59′29.01″W / 42.1708000°N 82.9913917°W / 42.1708000; -82.9913917
Links
Webcast Listen Live
Website iheartradio.ca/purecountry/windsor

CIMX-FM (88.7 MHz, Pure Country 89) is a commercial radio station in Windsor, Ontario, Canada. It primarily serves Essex County, but has a signal that reaches the entire Detroit-Windsor metropolitan area. It is owned by Bell Media and airs a country format. CIMX's studios and offices are located on Ouellette Avenue in Windsor.

Contents

CIMX has an effective radiated power (ERP) of 78,200 watts, with a maximum of 100,000 watts. The transmitter is located off South Industrial Drive in Amherstburg. [1]

History

CKWW-FM

What is now CIMX first signed on the air on July 10, 1967, as CKWW-FM. [2] It was co-owned with CKWW but was separately programmed. The stations shared studios and offices at 1150 Ouellette Avenue.

CKWW-FM had an MOR/easy listening format. The station added evening progressive rock programming in the fall of 1970.

Om FM

The following April, the station changed its call sign to CJOM-FM and the progressive format went full-time. Om FM (pronounced "Ohm FM") distinguished itself from its Detroit competitors WRIF, WWWW and WABX by emphasizing Canadian talent.

By 1976, the album rock sounds of "Om FM" had faded away and the station was again programming MOR and easy listening music.

Top 40 Era

In 1982, CJOM and CKWW were acquired by Geoff Stirling's company, Stirling Communications International, which also owned CKGM in Montreal, Quebec and CHOZ-FM in St. John's, Newfoundland and Labrador. CJOM made an abrupt switch to a CHR/Top 40 format. In the evening hours, 1983-85, DJ Karen Evans played more alternative music with an introduction of British new wave music to the market. In the late 1980s, the station went by the moniker "Laser Rock," a reference to becoming one of the first radio stations in the Detroit area to program music solely from compact discs.

CJOM ran afoul of the CRTC in the summer of 1983 for its format change to CHR/Top 40. Then as now, all radio station format changes in Canada must be approved by the CRTC. CJOM had been approved for a "contemporary MOR" (a.k.a. adult contemporary) format, but analyses of the station's programming in May 1983 showed that almost all of the music being played was rock-oriented, that the station was playing 78% "hit" music rather than the allowed <50%, and that the station was not meeting its licence commitments for "foreground", "mosaic", spoken word, or news programming.

Stirling maintained that the station was "experimenting" with its programming and that such a format was necessary in order to make the station competitive with Detroit-based broadcasters. Stirling and the CRTC finally reached a compromise in August 1985. CJOM was granted an "experimental" licence which would enable the station to play more harder-edged rock and pop music with higher repetition, although a proposal to reduce the station's Canadian Content quotient to 5% from 15% was denied.

Under this experimental licence, CJOM remained a CHR-formatted radio station for most of the rest of the decade. Most rock songs played were Top 40 based like songs from Def Leppard and Billy Squier or Canadian artists such as Platinum Blonde, Haywire, and Gino Vannelli. CJOM would occasionally include several songs by one artist in a "star set" during the day. On Sunday evenings, CJOM would broadcast an "album countdown" in which the station would play several songs from the same album in the countdown.

Studios and tower

In 1987, CJOM increased its transmitting power to 100,000 watts from a tower in McGregor. Before this, the station's signal did not extend much further than the Detroit/Windsor area and the station's Detroit area ratings were minimal.

The station's studios changed a few times in the years. It was originally located in the Macabee's Building next to the Wandalyn Viscount Hotel on Ouellette Avenue between Erie Street and Giles Boulevard. In late 1982, CJOM and CKNW moved to the Bob Pedler Building, located on Cabana Road East near Howard Avenue in the southern part of Windsor. Eventually, the station relocated to the former "Big 8" CKLW building, at the corner of Ouellette Avenue and Tecumseh Road West when CHUM Limited purchased the station.

The Mix to 89X

CJOM-FM became CIMX-FM in 1990. CIMX was first known as The Mix with an adult contemporary format, but disc jockey Greg St. James began playing modern rock on his evening show (8 to midnight) beginning in September 1990. This program was called "The Cutting Edge" and was eventually hosted by four different DJs, Greg St. James, Darren Revell, Michelle Denomme and Mr. Vertical. [3]

On May 13, 1991, the modern rock format went full-time and 89X was born. The first (and ultimately, the last) song on "89X" was "Stop!" by Jane's Addiction. CIMX-FM immediately took away many listeners from other youth-oriented stations in Detroit, particularly WHYT and WDFX, and may have been at least partially responsible for WHYT's decision to switch to an alternative format a few years later.

CIMX had been owned by Canada's CHUM Limited since the late 1980s, but was sold along with the rest of CHUM's radio stations to CTVglobemedia in 2007. Its sister station, CIDR-FM, adopted an adult album alternative format in 2006, thus forcing CIMX to add more active rock songs to its playlist and go up against WRIF. Throughout the 2000s, the format has moved between alternative rock and active rock, with the station playing more metal rock than might be found on other alternative stations.

In the February 29, 2012, issue of Real Detroit Weekly , 89X was rated the best radio station in Detroit. Real Detroit Weekly also crowned 89X's own Jay Hudson the best DJ in Detroit for the fourth consecutive year. [4]

On March 30, 2017, Bell Media announced that it would close its US-based sales office in Bingham Farms, canceled CIMX's morning show "Cal & Co.", and laid off around a dozen people as part of a restructuring of its Windsor cluster. [5] [6] After the changes, CIMX began to once again experience more of an active rock lean. [7] On April 3, 2017, CIMX debuted their new morning show The Morning X, hosted by long-time personality and music director Mark McKenzie.

Pure Country 89

On November 18, 2020, Bell announced on the 89X website that CIMX would adopt a new format the next day at noon; concurrently, the station's on air staff was let go. [8] At that time, CIMX flipped to country as Pure Country 89, launching with 10,000 songs in a row commercial free. In anticipation of the format change, Entercom flipped its Detroit station WDZH from soft adult contemporary to modern rock as Alt 98.7 almost immediately afterward. [9] [10] The current format competes locally with CJWF-FM, as well as with Detroit's WYCD. In other nearby markets, it competes with WWWW in Ann Arbor.

The station carries networked programming shared with other Pure Country-branded stations, [10] including The Bobby Bones Show . Unlike the other Pure Country stations (which air it in the evening), CIMX also clears Bobby Bones in its normal timeslot in lieu of producing a local morning show. [11]

Live events

In addition to the various annual shows, the station holds many acoustic "Live-X" events when bands come to town. The acoustic renditions have even been used by many of the bands, including Soundgarden's re-release of King Animal, "King Animal Plus," when the band performed their song "Halfway There." [12]

89X celebrated its first birthday in May 1992 by holding two X-Fest shows. Peter Murphy, the Nymphs, Senseless Things were a few of the bands that played X-Fest. Then in 1993, 89X held a birthday show at Chene Park featuring the Tragically Hip. The next year, 1994, 89X started throwing annual "Birthday Bash" shows. The Birthday Bash in 1994 was held at the Phoenix Plaza Amphitheater during the World Cup competitions in Pontiac. The Afghan Whigs, Beck, and the Odds were some of the bands that played.

Notable 89X Shows
YearEventBands
1998The Night 89X Stole Christmas Garbage, Placebo, Beck, Everlast, Marcy's Playground, and Kid Rock was the MC.
2006The Night 89X Stole Christmas My Chemical Romance, Taking Back Sunday, Angels & Airwaves, OK Go, and The Hard Lessons
2007The Night 89X Stole Christmas Paramore and Jimmy Eat World, Mutemath. Coheed and Cambria and Plain White T's
2008The Night 89X Stole Christmas Fall Out Boy, The Red Jumpsuit Apparatus, The Academy Is..., and Innerpartysystem
2009The 89X Birthday Bash Incubus & The Duke Spirit
2009The Night 89X Stole Christmas Thirty Seconds to Mars, Flyleaf, Thousand Foot Krutch, The Veer Union, and After Midnight Project
2010The 89X Birthday Bash Sublime With Rome, The Dirty Heads, Paper Tongues, Neon Trees, and Civil Twilight
2010The Night 89X Stole Christmas My Chemical Romance, and also featured Sick Puppies and Middle Class Rut
2011The 89X Birthday Bash Blink 182, My Chemical Romance, and Matt and Kim
2011The Night 89X Stole Christmas Rise Against, Taking Back Sunday, and Awolnation
2012The 89X Birthday Bash Evanescence, Chevelle, Cavo, and Kaleido
2012The Night 89X Stole Christmas The Killers and Tegan & Sara
2013The 89X Birthday Bash Day 1: Hollywood Undead, Escape The Fate, Middle Class Rut, 3 Pill Morning, and Chaos Rains

Day 2: 311, Cypress Hill, G. Love & Special Sauce, and Iamdynamite

2013Cal & Co. and 89X 'Chill On The Hill'Day 1: A Day To Remember, Pierce The Veil, All Time Low, and The Wonder Years
Day 2: Thirty Seconds to Mars, Billy Talent, Biffy Clyro, and New Politics
2013The 89X Nutcracker
2013The Night 89X Stole Christmas Cage The Elephant, Blue October, Foals, and Iamdynamite
2014The 89X Birthday Bash Kings Of Leon, Kongos, and Ashes of Soma
201489X and Bud Light 'Chill On The Hill'Day 1: The Offspring, A Day To Remember, Bad Religion, Grouplove, Portugal The Man, Sleeper Agent, The Bots, Smashing Satellites and more.
Day 2: Rise Against, Chevelle, Awolnation, Taking Back Sunday, USS, Brick + Mortar, The Orwells, Skaters, and more.
2014The Night 89X Stole Xmas Bush, Our Lady Peace, You Me At Six, and Smashing Satellites
2015The 89X Birthday Bash Death Cab For Cutie and The Antlers
201589X and Bud Light 'Chill On The Hill'Day 1: Weezer, Panic! at the Disco, Andrew McMahon in the Wilderness, We Came As Romans, Thousand Foot Krutch, Beartooth, The Wombats, Night Riots, Vinyl Theater, Coleman Hell, and Arkells.
Day 2: Cage The Elephant, Coheed And Cambria, Cold War Kids, JR JR, Robert Delong, X Ambassadors, The Glorious Sons, Civil Twilight, The Struts, Kaleido, and Five Hundredth Year.
2015The Night 89X Stole XmasDay 1: Awolnation, Metric, and PVRIS
Day 2: Sublime With Rome, USS (band), MuteMath, and Autumn Kings
2017Mark McKenzie's Birthday Bash Royal Tusk, The Standstills, and Texas King

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References

  1. ↑ FCCdata.org/CIMX-FM
  2. ↑ Broadcasting Yearbook 1969 page B-201
  3. ↑ "The End of the Cutting Edge". The Vertical Files. Archived from the original on 2015-02-14.
  4. ↑ "Best Media". Real Detroit Weekly. Archived from the original on 30 August 2012. Retrieved 27 April 2018.
  5. ↑ "89X closes American office, cuts morning show". Detroit News. Archived from the original on 2017-03-31. Retrieved 2017-03-30.
  6. ↑ "89X And 93.9 The River Windsor/Detroit Promoting Thursday Format Change". RadioInsight. Retrieved 2020-11-18.
  7. ↑ "Final Listen 89X, CIDR; First Listen, Alt 98.7, Virgin Radio". RadioInsight. Retrieved 2020-11-21.
  8. ↑ Bell Media Launches Pure Country 89 & Virgin Radio 93.9 In Windsor/Detroit
  9. ↑ "Entercom Launches Alt 98.7 Detroit". RadioInsight. Retrieved 2020-11-20.
  10. 1 2 "Nationalization Takes Hold In Two Nations: Looking At Today's Three Station Format Shuffle In Detroit/Windsor". RadioInsight. Retrieved 2020-11-20.
  11. ↑ "Bobby Bones Show Added For Mornings At Pure Country 89 Windsor/Detroit". RadioInsight. Retrieved 2020-12-13.
  12. ↑ King Animal#Track listing
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