| CFXJ-FM | |
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| City of license | Toronto, Ontario |
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| Broadcast area | Greater Toronto Area |
| Branding | The New FLOW 93.5 |
| Slogan | Hits That Move You |
| Frequency | 93.5 MHz (FM) |
| First air date | 2001 |
| Format | Rhythmic top 40 |
| Power | 1,170 watts |
| Owner | Milestone Radio |
| Website | Flow935.com |
CFXJ-FM is a Canadian radio station in Toronto, Ontario, which uses the on-air brand The New FLOW 93.5. It first aired in 2001 as Canada's first urban music station. The station now airs a rhythmic top 40 format, as a competitor to dance/top 40 station CIDC-FM (Z103.5).
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History
Milestone Radio, the station's owner, first applied to the CRTC for an urban music station in 1990, but were passed over in favour of a country music station, CISS.[1] They applied again in 1997, and were passed over in favour of CBLA, the city's existing Radio One station, which the CBC wanted to move to FM for technical reasons.
Both decisions sparked controversy in Toronto, as the CRTC's reasons for passing over an urban-format station (which Toronto did not have) in favour of existing radio services were widely[citation needed] believed to be racist in nature. The lack of an urban station also created immense difficulties for Canadian hip hop, reggae and R&B musicians, who had no radio outlets in Canada to play and promote their music.
As well, the 99.1 signal which was awarded to the CBC was believed to be the last available FM frequency in the city. However, in 1998, the CBC found that it was able to surrender two repeater transmitters outside of Toronto due to CBLA's superior coverage of the region. In 2000, the CRTC opened applications for new services on these two frequencies, and on Milestone's third application, the CRTC awarded the 93.5 frequency to the company. [2]
CFXJ officially debuted on March 1, 2001, after airing as a testing signal for several days in February of that year, using the name FLOW 93.5. Before the station became prominent in the Greater Toronto Area, many listeners would tune-in to Buffalo, New York's 93.7 WBLK, which has used an urban contemporary format since the 1960s.
In August 2007, the station launched a new campaign and started using "The New Flow 93.5" on air and continues to use it even after three years.
Flow, and R&B/Hip Hop in Canada
Urban-format stations quickly followed in several other Canadian cities as well. However, since then CIBK-FM in Calgary, CFBT-FM in Vancouver, CKEY-FM in Niagara Falls, CKBT-FM in Kitchener, CIHT-FM in Ottawa, and even Milestone's sister station CHBN in Edmonton, have evolved to mainstream Top 40 due to the lack of R&B, hip hop and/or dance product by Canadian acts being released and the pressure to follow the CRTC's guideline on Canadian content music quotas.
Since CFXJ's debut, many Canadian hip hop and R&B musicians – including Jully Black, k-os, Kardinal Offishall and Jarvis Church, among others – have made the types of significant career breakthroughs that often eluded Canadian urban musicians in the 1990s. Since 2005, CFXJ constantly "tweaked" its sound, experimenting with combinations of rhythmic Top 40 and classic urban formats by adding artists such as Black Eyed Peas, Gwen Stefani and Pussycat Dolls, while still striving to satisfy hip hop and R&B enthusists by breaking new North American/international music in Canada, such as Chamillionaire, Young Jeezy, Ne-Yo, Chris Brown and Akon. This was in order for the station to have a competitor since Rogers flipped Toronto's first rhythmic top 40, Kiss 92.5 to Jack FM on June 4, 2003; Kiss 92.5 returned to the Toronto airwaves on June 5, 2009, just one day past the sixth anniversary of its 2003 flip from "Kiss" to "Jack".
Popular urban and rhythmic music, such as Jay-Z, Usher, Alicia Keys and Kanye West remain staples on the playlist as well as popular dance and old school classics.
Recent criticism
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In recent years, many hip-hop listeners have turned against the radio station due to the lack of hip-hop music played. There are currently many anti-Flow 93.5 groups on Facebook, including the most popular of which has gathered over 3,500 members. Though Milestone's application promised "modern day reflection of rich musical traditions of black musicians and black-influenced music over at least the past century", a consultant of Flow continued to support the station in its decision to change the focal point of the genre of music by stating, "We're going along with the times. We're playing rhythmic hits – the top of charts, excluding rock-based music...with certain cultures, like the Caribbean community, where some suggest households don't index in the higher income brackets." The matter remains under dispute, and the Toronto Star published an article regarding it.[1]
References
External links
- Flow 93.5
- CFXJ history at Canadian Communications Foundation
- Query the REC's Canadian station database for CFXJ-FM
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