CFFR

CFFR
City Calgary, Alberta
Broadcast area Calgary, Edmonton, Alberta
Branding 660News
Slogan "Number 1 for breaking news, traffic and weather, this is 660News Calgary."
Frequency 660 kHz
First air date 1984
Format All-news
Power 50,000 watts
Class B
Callsign meaning Calgary's Finest Family Radio
Owner Rogers Media, a division of Rogers Communications
(Rogers Radio)
Sister stations Radio: CFAC, CHFM-FM, CJAQ-FM
TV: CJCO-DT, CKAL-DT
Webcast Listen online
Website 660News

CFFR is a Canadian AM radio station broadcasting at 660 kHz in Calgary, Alberta and began broadcasting on January 10, 1984. As of April 3, 2006, it operates in an all-news format, branded 660News. It is a Class B, 50,000 watt station broadcasting on the clear-channel frequency of 660 AM. CFFR's studios are located on 7th Avenue Southwest in downtown Calgary, while its transmitters are located near Okotoks.

Previously it had operated as oldies station 66 CFR. "CFR" initially stood for "Calgary Family Radio" (with the additional "F" in the call sign being incidental), and later for "Calgary Flames Radio", although game coverage moved to sister station CFAC upon its relaunch as all-sports. As an oldies station, the first song they played was at 7:16 am, was "A Hard Day's Night" by the Beatles, and it was an ode to the work they had done just to get the station up and running. [1] The last song played before the format change was "We Built This City" by Jefferson Starship. [2] The announcement of 66 CFR leaving the air was accompanied by the closing chord of the Beatles' "A Day in the Life", which had also been the first sound heard at the start of the production piece introducing the station.

At the time of the change in format, 66 CFR was capturing an insignificant share of the Calgary listening market with an average of 1% share of hours tuned. With few exceptions, the only significant ratings source came from Flames games. In contrast, the number one station in Calgary in 2006, Country 105, remained on top of the radio listeners heap with a 13.2% share of hours tuned.

Notwithstanding a number of loyal "oldies" listeners, the change in format was inevitable. The subsequent re-branding is similar to that used by Rogers all-news or news-talk stations in Toronto (680News), Vancouver (News1130), Ottawa (1310News), and at least four other cities.

CFFR was ranked #14 in the Fall 2011 PPM Data report released by BBM Canada.[3]

At nighttime, CFFR's AM signal can be heard as far south as Central Washington.

References

  1. ↑ 66 CFR Sign On 25 Years ago .. January 10, 1984
  2. ↑ 660 News Launch
  3. ↑ Fall 2011 Calgary PPM Ratings

Coordinates: 50°45′27″N 114°03′46″W / 50.75750°N 114.06278°W / 50.75750; -114.06278


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