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CFRB

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CFRB

CFRB (1010 AM) is a commercial radio station in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. It is owned by Bell Media and carries a News/Talk radio format. Its studios and offices are in the Entertainment District at 250 Richmond Street West.

One of the oldest surviving radio stations active in Toronto, CFRB went on the air on February 19, 1927, as 9RB owned by Edward S. Rogers Sr., with the callsign derived from its parent Rogers Vacuum Tube Company, and the station moved to its current 1010 AM frequency in 1948. Throughout ownership changes for most of the decade and its format remained intact, the station was acquired by Slaight Broadcasting in 1985, before being acquired by Astral Media in 2007 and ultimately sold to Bell Canada, rival company of Rogers Communications, founded by Rogers Sr.'s son, Ted Rogers Jr., in 2013.

CFRB is a clear channel station powered at 50,000 watts, the maximum permitted in Canada. While it is a Class A station, it also must protect CBR in Calgary, which shares Class A status on 1010 AM. CFRB uses a four-tower array directional antenna in the Clarkson neighbourhood of Mississauga. CFRB is simulcast on shortwave station CFRX at 6.07 MHz in the 49 metre band and on sister station 99.9 CKFM-FM-HD2, a digital subchannel. CFRB is also heard across Canada on Bell Satellite TV channel 964.

CFRB first signed on the air on February 19, 1927. It is not Toronto's very first radio station, but it is the city's oldest English-language broadcaster still operating today. (CJBC, which now operates in French, was founded in 1925.) It was founded by the Rogers Vacuum Tube Company. The station was used to promote Edward S. Rogers Sr.'s invention of a batteryless radio receiver that could be operated using alternating current and therefore did not need the cumbersome battery that had previously been required. The station itself was a demonstration of Rogers' application of his invention to radio transmitters as well as receivers, a development that allowed for a signal that reproduced voices and music more clearly. The new type of transmitter also made CFRB the world's first all-electric radio station. The letters "RB" in the station's callsign stand for "Rogers' Batteryless".

The station began transmitting on an experimental basis in January 1927 as 9RB, before being converted to commercial operation a few weeks later, as CFRB. Those call letters have been used continuously since then. On February 19, the inaugural broadcast was a live symphony orchestra concert conducted by Jack Arthur. During its first years, CFRB leased time to two phantom stations: CNRX, owned by Canadian National Railways and providing programs of Canada's first radio network, and CPRY, owned by the CNR's rival, the Canadian Pacific Railway. The CNR's network was discontinued in 1933, with many of its assets eventually passing to the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (CBC), and the CPR's radio service was discontinued in 1935.

CFRB's first studios were in a mansion on Jarvis Street north of Wellesley Street, built by the family of Hart Massey. In 1929, the station moved to purpose-built studios at 37 Bloor Street West. In the same year, the station became a network affiliate of the Columbia Broadcasting System.

In 1932, CFRB began airing the General Motors Hockey Broadcast, which had originated on the CNR's network. This program eventually became Hockey Night in Canada, and continued to be aired by CFRB for many years, despite also airing on the CBC's flagship station CBL, and continues to this day on CBC Television and Rogers Sportsnet.

From the 1930s to the 1950s, CFRB was the radio broadcaster for the Toronto Santa Claus Parade.

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