CBLA-FM

CBLA-FM is a Canadian radio station. It is the flagship station of the CBC Radio One network, broadcasting at 99.1 FM in Toronto, Ontario. CBLA's studios are located at the Canadian Broadcasting Centre, while its transmitter is located atop the First Canadian Place.

History

The station originally aired in 1925 as AM 910 CKGW, a commercial station owned by Gooderham and Worts. Due to the instability of frequency allocations in North America at the time, the station's frequency changed several times over the next number of years, to 960, 690, and finally clear channel 840. In 1932, the station was leased by the CBC's predecessor, the Canadian Radio Broadcasting Commission. It used the call letters CRCT until 1937, when the station was purchased outright by the CBC and adopted the callsign CBL, moving to a new transmitter facility in rural Hornby. The 650 ft guyed mast that the station transmitted from was for many years the tallest structure in all of Canada. With NARBA in 1941, the station moved to 740 kHz; its former channel, now 860, went to CFRB (which would relocate to 1010 in 1947), while the 840 clear channel was relocated to Louisville, Kentucky, where it was occupied by WHAS. (See Canadian allocations changes under NARBA.)

CBLA-FM-2

CBLA-FM-2, operating as CBC Kitchener-Waterloo, is the CBC Radio One station licensed to Paris, Ontario, Canada but primarily serving the nearby Regional Municipality of Waterloo. It broadcasts on the FM band at 89.1 MHz.

Previously licensed as a rebroadcaster of CBLA-FM Toronto, it began originating a limited amount of programming targeting Waterloo Region and surrounding cities in March 2013.

CBC Kitchener-Waterloo's morning program, The Morning Edition, hosted by Craig Norris, originates from studios on King Street West in Kitchener and airs weekdays from 6:00 to 8:30 a.m.

History

Prior to 1999, the Kitchener-Waterloo area received CBC Radio programming through Toronto's CBL (740 kHz on the AM band), whose city-grade signal easily covered most of southern Ontario. On July 29, 1997, the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission (CRTC) approved the CBC's plan to move CBL to FM; this plan included provisions for new or improved rebroadcasters to serve areas that the new Toronto FM transmitter would not reach, including one at 89.1 FM in Paris.