| City of license | Toronto, Ontario |
|---|---|
| Broadcast area | Greater Toronto Area |
| Branding | 680 News |
| Slogan | "All News Radio" |
| Frequency | 680 kHz (AM) |
| First air date | 1962 |
| Format | all-news |
| Power | 50,000 watts |
| Class | B |
| Callsign meaning | Canada's First Ted Rogers |
| Former callsigns | CHFI (AM) |
| Owner | Rogers Radio |
| Sister stations | Radio: CHFI, CJCL, CKIS TV: CFMT, CITY, CJMT |
| Webcast | Listen Live |
| Website | 680 News |
CFTR, broadcasting under the brand 680News, is an all-news radio station based in Toronto, Ontario, Canada, which broadcasts live 24 hours a day, 7 days a week at 680 kHz on the AM dial. According to a recent survey by the Bureau of Broadcast Measurement (BBM), 680News is one of the most-listened-to AM radio stations in North America, with daily cume of 768,100 listeners for the period of May 30, 2011 - August 28, 2011.
Contents |
The station launched in 1962 on 1540 kHz as CHFI-AM, simulcasting the beautiful music of CHFI-FM, one of Canada's first FM radio stations. Since 1540 was a clear-channel frequency assigned to stations in the United States and the Bahamas, CHFI-AM was authorized to broadcast only during the daytime. In 1963, it sought to pay CHLO in St. Thomas, Ontario to move from 680 to another frequency to free up 680 for CHFI-AM's use. No deal was finalized, but, by 1966, the stations reached an agreement to share 680, and CHFI-AM moved to twenty-four hour operation at that frequency.
In 1971, it changed its call letters to CFTR, a tribute to Ted Rogers, Sr., radio pioneer and father of controlling shareholder Ted Rogers.
In 1972, it abandoned the simulcast of CHFI and adopted a Top 40 format. For many years, it was the primary competition to Toronto's original Top 40 station, 1050 CHUM.
In the late 70s - Programmers Chuck Camroux and Dan Plouffe upped the ante in the Rock and Roll Wars and tweaked the notoriously bad CFTR signal, added some reverb - a new morning man named Jim Brady - and it was game on. 1050 CHUM's morning personality, Jay Nelson, rose to the occasion - and both stations hovered near one million listeners a week.
Other announcers included the late Paul Godfrey (*Host of his own TV show - "Boogie" ) - Dick Joseph - "Red" Knight, Bobby Day, Tom Jeffries, Bob Saint, Big "G" Glenn Walters and "Big Don" Biefer. The News Room was headed by Robert Holiday and included Larry Silver, John Wilson, Ted Bird, Clint Nickerson and many more.
Among the station's claims to fame is hiring John "Records" Landecker away from Chicago's powerhouse WLS in 1981. CFTR surpassed CHUM in the Toronto BBM ratings for the first time in 1984, two years before CHUM dropped Top 40 in favor of an Adult Contemporary format.
It adopted its present all-news format in 1993, becoming the first all-news radio station in Canada since the end of the former CKO network in 1989. With the Toronto station's success, Rogers later expanded the format to stations in Vancouver (CKWX) in 1996, Calgary (CFFR) in 2006, and Ottawa (CIWW) in 2010.
In addition to these stations, Rogers owns news-talk stations in Kitchener (CKGL), Halifax (CJNI-FM), Saint John (CHNI-FM), and Moncton (CKNI-FM). All of these are branded similarly to the company's all-news stations, and use a similar all-news wheel during morning and afternoon drive.
The 680News on-air brand was developed for CFTR, and has since extended to Rogers Communications other "All News" stations in other Canadian markets. The format proudly touts "more traffic reports than any other station" with traffic and weather together on the ones. 680 station IDs and bumpers also state they are "the most listened to station in the nation". On-air branding also re-enforces the repetitive nature of the all news format (as seen in the 'newswheel') but suggests that "The news is always changing [and listeners should] check with 680News 3, 4, 5 times a day". This brand has become one of the highest rated and most successful in Canadian radio history.
As part of an ongoing promotion, 680News has a “guaranteed high” temperature for the day. The forecast is set in the morning and the “guaranteed high” is announced on all weather reports. Listeners can enter a contest on the station’s website, and if the forecast high and the actual recorded temperature at Pearson International Airport differ by 3 or more degrees (Celsius) a name will be drawn from a pool of listeners. The winning listener wins a jackpot (starting at $1000) which is increased by $100 every day the station gets the temperature correct.
The largest jackpot for the weather guarantee was awarded on April 5, 2010 to Charmane Palmer. The station got the temperature correct (within the parameters of the contest) 286 days consecutively, making the jackpot total $35,200 (additional funds were added to the prize during the 2010 Winter Olympics and 2010 Winter Paralympics).[1]
The 680News format is very rigid except in cases of extreme breaking news when they switch to "In-depth Team Coverage" and the format has been known to be loosened a little.
Newsflow and commercials make up the rest of the unscheduled time.
Standard Hour Hotclock[2]
|
|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||