CIMX-FM

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(Redirected from
89X
)
CIMX-FM
Broadcast areaSouthwestern Ontario
Detroit–Windsor
Frequency88.7 MHz (FM)
BrandingPure Country 89
Programming
Language(s)English
FormatCountry
AffiliationsPremiere Networks
Ownership
Owner
CKWW, CIDR-FM, CKLW
History
First air date
July 10, 1967; 56 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
ClassC1
ERP78,200 watts average
100,000 watts peak
HAAT188.5 meters (618 ft)
Transmitter coordinates
42°10′14.88″N 82°59′29.01″W / 42.1708000°N 82.9913917°W / 42.1708000; -82.9913917
Links
WebcastListen Live
Websiteiheartradio.ca/purecountry/windsor

CIMX-FM (88.7

studios
and offices are located on Ouellette Avenue in Windsor.

CIMX has an

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 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

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. [1] 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. [2]

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.

  • Station logo circa 1982, on employees' jackets
    Station logo circa 1982, on employees' jackets
  • Station public promo decal mid-1980s
    Station public promo decal mid-1980s
  • Rear of employees' jackets, while Stirling owned the station
    Rear of employees' jackets, while Stirling owned 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.

  • This decal shows the station's updated logo after its change to Modern Rock in 1991.
    This decal shows the station's updated logo after its change to
    Modern Rock
    in 1991.
  • CIMX-FM's long-running logo from 1999 to 2018
    CIMX-FM's long-running logo from 1999 to 2018
  • 89X logo from 2018 to 2020
    89X logo from 2018 to 2020

CIMX had been owned by Canada's

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.

soft adult contemporary to alternative as Alt 98.7 almost immediately after the launch of Pure Country.[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 in mornings (unlike other Pure Country stations, where it is carried in the evening).[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
Year Event Bands
1998 The Night 89X Stole Christmas was the MC.
2006 The Night 89X Stole Christmas My Chemical Romance, Taking Back Sunday, Angels & Airwaves, OK Go, and The Hard Lessons
2007 The Night 89X Stole Christmas Paramore and Jimmy Eat World, Mutemath. Coheed and Cambria and Plain White T's
2008 The Night 89X Stole Christmas Fall Out Boy, The Red Jumpsuit Apparatus, The Academy Is..., and Innerpartysystem
2009 The 89X Birthday Bash Incubus & The Duke Spirit
2009 The Night 89X Stole Christmas Thirty Seconds to Mars, Flyleaf, Thousand Foot Krutch, The Veer Union, and After Midnight Project
2010 The 89X Birthday Bash
The Dirty Heads, Paper Tongues, Neon Trees, and Civil Twilight
2010 The Night 89X Stole Christmas My Chemical Romance, and also featured Sick Puppies and Middle Class Rut
2011 The 89X Birthday Bash
2011 The Night 89X Stole Christmas Rise Against, Taking Back Sunday, and Awolnation
2012 The 89X Birthday Bash Evanescence, Chevelle, Cavo, and Kaleido
2012 The Night 89X Stole Christmas
Tegan & Sara
2013 The 89X Birthday Bash , and Chaos Rains

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

2013 Cal & Co. and 89X 'Chill On The Hill' Day 1:
2013 The 89X Nutcracker
2013 The Night 89X Stole Christmas
Cage The Elephant, Blue October, Foals
, and Iamdynamite
2014 The 89X Birthday Bash
Kings Of Leon, Kongos, and Ashes of Soma
2014 89X and Bud Light 'Chill On The Hill' Day 1:
Skaters
, and more.
2014 The Night 89X Stole Xmas
You Me At Six, and Smashing Satellites
2015 The 89X Birthday Bash
Death Cab For Cutie and The Antlers
2015 89X and Bud Light 'Chill On The Hill' Day 1: , Kaleido, and Five Hundredth Year.
2015 The Night 89X Stole Xmas Day 1:
MuteMath
, and Autumn Kings
2017 Mark McKenzie's Birthday Bash Royal Tusk, The Standstills, and Texas King

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. ^ a b "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

External links

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