CFLZ-FM

CFLZ-FM (101.1 MHz) is a commercial radio station in Fort Erie, Ontario, Canada, serving the Niagara Region and the Buffalo-Niagara Falls metropolitan area. It is owned by Byrnes Communications and it broadcasts an adult hits format, known as 101.1 More FM. CFLZ's studios and offices are on Ontario Avenue in Niagara Falls.

CFLZ-FM has an effective radiated power (ERP) of 50,000 watts. The transmitter is on Kraft Road in Fort Erie, near Ontario Highway 3.

The station was launched on July 1 (Canada Day), 1986, at 5:30 p.m. as AM 530 CJFT, playing a Top 40 format. Afternoon drive personality Alan Chonka signed CJFT on the air. It moved to FM in 1991, adopted the CKEY-FM call letters, and flipped to adult standards. (from 1945 to 1991, CKEY was the callsign of an AM radio station in Toronto, which now airs Chinese programming as Fairchild Radio affiliate CHKT.)

On August 26, 1994, at noon, the station switched to alternative rock as FM 101 The Planet. By 1996, the station shifted to dance music (similar to CING-FM in nearby Hamilton) while retaining the "Planet" moniker. It was an affiliate of "Pirate Radio" with Chris Sheppard.

On August 21, 1996, the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission (CRTC) approved CJRN 710 Inc.'s application to increase CKEY-FM transmitter from 8,670 watts to 19,700 watts. The Commission also approved the application to amend the broadcasting licence for CKEY-FM by authorizing the licensee to add a transmitter at St. Catharines, operating on frequency 101.1 MHz (channel 266A) with an effective radiated power of 150 watts with a callsign CKEY-FM-1. The Commission notes that this transmitter has been operating on an experimental basis for some time and is a co-channel, synchronous repeater of CKEY-FM Fort Erie.

On November 14, 1997, the dance format was dropped in favour of a modern AC format (which later shifted to Hot AC), branded as The River. In 2001, a change of ownership of CJRN, CKEY-FM and CFLZ-FM to the Niagara Broadcasting Corporation was approved. The company would now be owned by several members of the Dancy family. On September 6, 2002, at 6 am, the Hot AC format moved to sister station CFLZ-FM, and CKEY adopted a rhythmic contemporary format branded as Wild 101

CKEY-FM had a joint sales agreement (JSA) with the U.S.-based radio broadcaster Citadel Broadcasting, under which it solicited advertising sales in the Buffalo, New York market (as part of its local cluster of stations) under a revenue sharing agreement. An intervention against the renewal of CKEY's licence was filed by a representative of a competing station in Buffalo, who accused the station of being programmed by Citadel in violation of CRTC regulations (which require all broadcast undertakings to be "operated in fact by the licensee itself"). CKEY stated that it also contracted some of Citadel's Buffalo personnel to produce programming overseen by its local staff, and denied that Citadel had assumed all of the station's operations.

The CRTC found that the JSA was in fact limited to advertising sales services paid for by the station, and that Citadel was not outright operating the station. However, the CRTC did take issue with the amount of locally-oriented news and information that the station was broadcasting.