CIMX-FM

CIMX-FM (88.7 MHz) New Rock 89X) is a commercial FM radio station in Windsor, Ontario, Canada. It serves Essex County, Ontario, Chatham-Kent, and Metro Detroit. It is owned by Bell Media and airs a modern rock radio format. CIMX's studios and offices are located on Ouellette Avenue in Windsor.

CIMX-FM
CityWindsor, Ontario
Broadcast areaEssex County, Ontario, Chatham-Kent, Metro Detroit
Frequency88.7 MHz
BrandingNew Rock 89X
SloganThe Best New Rock First
Windsor's New Rock
Programming
Language(s)English
FormatModern rock
Ownership
OwnerBell Media
(Bell Media Windsor Radio Partnership)
Sister stationsCKWW, CIDR-FM, CKLW
History
First air dateJuly 10, 1967 (as CKWW-FM)
Former call signsCKWW-FM (1967-1970)
CJOM-FM (1970-1990)
Call sign meaningCI The MiX (former branding)
Technical information
Facility ID94688
ClassC1
ERP78,200 watts average
100,000 watts peak
HAAT188.5 meters (618 ft)
Transmitter coordinates42°10′14.88″N 82°59′29.01″W
Links
WebcastListen Live
Website89Xradio.com

CIMX-FM has an effective radiated power (ERP) of 78,200 watts, with a maximum of 100,000 watts. The transmitter is located off South Industrial Drive in 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 radio in Montreal and CHOZ-FM in St. John's, Newfoundland. CJOM-FM 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 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.

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. 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.

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 public promo decal mid-1980s
  • Rear of employees' jackets, while Stirling owned the station

The Mix To 89X

CJOM-FM became CIMX-FM in 1990. CIMX-FM 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 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 WYCD, 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.
  • CIMX-FM's long-running logo from 2000-2018

Changes in ownership

CIMX-FM 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 sister station, CIDR-FM, adopted an adult album alternative format in 2006, thus forcing CIMX-FM to add more active rock songs to its playlist and go up against WRIF. Throughout the 2000s, the format has moved between alternative rock and active rock, with the station playing more metal rock than might be found on other alternative playlists.

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. Despite the changes, CIMX and its sister stations retained their respective formats.[5] The current morning show is The Morning X with Mark McKenzie.

On May 30, 2018, CIMX-FM changed its long-running slogan of "Windsor/Detroit's New Rock Alternative" to "New Rock", shifting their format from alternative rock to active rock, with a new logo.

Signal

89X receives little interference from lower-powered stations broadcasting near its frequency. The station can be heard clearly 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 is sometimes heard across Lake Erie at Sandusky, Oak Harbor and Port Clinton. CIMX-FM also gets respectable ratings in Toledo.

The station is broadcast live on the internet using the iHeartRadio app. 89X podcasts the morning show, "The Morning X with Mark and Chris", along with other programming.[6] CIMX-FM also broadcasts soft adult contemporary music on its 92 kHz Subsidiary Communications Multiplex Operation subcarrier. The program is not intended for public reception, but rather provides background music for stores, restaurants and businesses, similar to Muzak.

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."[7]

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 Garbage, Placebo, Beck and Everlast
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 Sublime With Rome, 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 Blink 182, My Chemical Romance, and Matt and Kim
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 The Killers and Tegan & Sara
2013 The 89X Birthday Bash Day 1: Hollywood Undead, Escape The Fate, Middle Class Rut, 3 Pill Morning, 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: A Day To Remember, Pierce The Veil, All Time Low, and The Wonder Years
Day 2: Thirty Seconds to Mars, Billy Talent, Biffy Clyro, and New Politics
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: The Offspring, A Day To Remember, Bad Religion, Grouplove, Portugal The Man, Sleeper Agent, The Bots, Smashing Satellites and more.
Day 2: Rise Against, Chevelle, Awolnation, Taking Back Sunday, USS, Brick + Mortar, The Orwells, Skaters, and more.
2014 The Night 89X Stole Xmas Bush, Our Lady Peace, 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: Weezer, Panic! at the Disco, Andrew McMahon in the Wilderness, We Came As Romans, Thousand Foot Krutch, Beartooth, The Wombats, Night Riots, Vinyl Theater, Coleman Hell, and Arkells.
Day 2: Cage The Elephant, Coheed And Cambria, Cold War Kids, JR JR, Robert Delong, X Ambassadors, The Glorious Sons, Civil Twilight, The Struts, Kaleido, and Five Hundredth Year.
2015 The Night 89X Stole Xmas Day 1: Awolnation, Metric, and PVRIS
Day 2: Sublime With Rome, USS (band), MuteMath, and Autumn Kings
gollark: It uproots itself and runs away.
gollark: Maybe Splash does that...
gollark: What could go wrong?
gollark: Old holiday? Sure! CB hybrid? Why not? Leetle pancakes? Of course. Spriter's alts? Obviously.
gollark: Any egg which has ever existed.

References
  1. FCCdata.org/CIMX-FM
  2. Broadcasting Yearbook 1969 page B-201
  3. "The End of the Cutting Edge". The Vertical Files.
  4. "Page not found". 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. iHeartRadio.ca/89x/audio
  7. King Animal#Track listing
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