| City of license | Windsor, Ontario |
|---|---|
| Broadcast area | Essex County Metro Detroit |
| Branding | 89X |
| Slogan | The Only New Rock Alternative |
| Frequency | 88.7 MHz |
| First air date | 1990 (as CIMX-FM) 1970 (as CJOM) July 10, 1967 (as CKWW-FM) |
| Format | Active-leaning alternative rock |
| Language | English |
| ERP | 100,000 watts |
| HAAT | 176 meters |
| Class | C1 |
| Facility ID | 94688 |
| Callsign meaning | The MiX (former branding) |
| Former callsigns | 1970-1990: CJOM 1967-1970: CKWW-FM |
| Owner | Bell Media (Bell Media Radio) |
| Webcast | Listen Live 2 |
| Website | 89Xradio.com |
CIMX-FM (88.7 FM) — branded 89X — is a commercial active-leaning alternative rock radio station based in Windsor, Ontario. 89X serves both Essex County, Ontario and Metro Detroit; its 100,000-watt signal reaches most of southwestern Ontario, southeastern Michigan, the Toledo metro area and the western Lake Erie shoreline of Ohio.
CIMX-FM also broadcasts a soft rock music program continuously on its 92 kHz SCMO subcarrier. The program is not intended for public reception, but rather provides background music for businesses, similar to Muzak.
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What is now CIMX had its first stint as a progressive/alternative rock station long before the birth of 89X. The station signed on July 10, 1967, as CKWW-FM, with an MOR/easy listening format. CKWW-FM added evening progressive rock programming in the fall of 1970. The following April, the station changed its calls to CJOM 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 music. However, in 1982, the station 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, if not 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 contemporary hits. 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. Owner Geoff 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 whereas 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, although the station had little to no ratings impact in the Detroit market.
The station location changed a few times in the years; 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, the station moved to the Bob Pedler Building, along with her sister station CKWW, located on Cabana Road East near Howard Avenue in the southern part of Windsor. Stirling Communications International, also the owners of CKGM radio in Montreal, was the station owner during these moves. 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.
CJOM became CIMX in 1990. CIMX was first known as "The Mix" with an adult contemporary format, but DJ Greg St. James began playing modern rock on his evening show (8:00 pm to midnight) beginning in September 1990, and in May 1991, the modern rock format went full time and "89X" was born. CIMX immediately took away many listeners from other youth-oriented stations in Detroit, particularly top 40 96.3 WHYT and 99.5 The Fox, 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 CIDR-FM sister station adopted a more adult album alternative sound again in 2006, thus forcing CIMX-FM to add more active rock songs to the playlist and go up against WRIF.
89x receives little interference from lower-powered stations broadcasting near its frequency. The station can be heard as far north as Caro, Michigan, as far west as Greenville, Michigan, and as far south as North Baltimore, Ohio on a typical car radio. It can be regularly heard across Lake Erie at Sandusky, Ohio, and southeast to the greater Norwalk, Ohio area, where it is the only station available featuring an exclusively modern rock format. CIMX also gets respectable ratings in Toledo.
The station is broadcast live across the internet on their website. They also podcast their morning show "Dave and Chuck "The Freak"" along with their rock interviews.
February 22, 2011, Real Detroit Weekly rated 89X the best radio station in Detroit. Real Detroit Weekly also crowned 89X own Jay Hudson best radio DJ in Detroit for the third consecutive year in a row.[1]
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.
The 89X 18th Annual Birthday Bash featured Incubus & The Duke Spirit, and took place on July 26, 2009 at DTE Energy Music Theatre in Clarkston, Michigan.[2] The 19th Annual Birthday Bash on July 16, 2010 featured Sublime With Rome, The Dirty Heads, Paper Tongues, Neon Trees, and Civil Twilight at The Fillmore Detroit.
In 1998, 89X started holding an annual Christmas concert each December called The Night 89X Stole Christmas. The 1998 show was MC'd by Kid Rock (special appearance by Joe C) and featured Garbage, Placebo, Beck and Everlast.
More recent editions of the Christmas show are as follows:
The Night 89X Stole Christmas 9 on December 14, 2006 featured My Chemical Romance, Taking Back Sunday, Angels & Airwaves, OK Go, and The Hard Lessons (replacing Blue October). The 89X Nutcracker, the night before on December 13, hosted Fall Out Boy, New Found Glory, and Cobra Starship.
The Night 89X Stole Christmas 10 on December 17, 2007, featured Paramore and Jimmy Eat World, with special guest MUTEMATH. Coheed and Cambria and Plain White T's played an acoustic set.
The Night 89X Stole Christmas 11 took place on December 14, 2008, at The Fillmore Detroit. It was headlined by Fall Out Boy, and also featured performances by The Red Jumpsuit Apparatus, The Academy Is..., and Innerpartysystem.
The Night 89X Stole Christmas 12 took place December 18, 2009. It was headlined by 30 Seconds to Mars, and also featured Flyleaf, Thousand Foot Krutch, The Veer Union, and After Midnight Project with a free after-party show at the Hard Rock with Richy Nix.
The Night 89X Stole Christmas 13 took place December 17. It was headlined by My Chemical Romance, and also featured Sick Puppies and Middle Class Rut.[3]
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