NorthEast Radio Watch 1/19/2026: Toronto AMs Go Silent

In this week’s issue… Big changes in Toronto AM – New morning show, plus a morning departure in NYC – Audacy seeks ZoneCasting boosters – A Farewell to Orms in RI

By SCOTT FYBUSH

*The relentless pace of development in and around CANADA‘s biggest market has taken two AM stations off the air for good.

When the Caine family’s Whiteoaks Broadcasting bought Bell Media’s stations in Hamilton (CKLH 102.9) and St. Catharines (CKTB 610, CHTZ 97.7, CHRE 105.7) last year, we’d noted some interesting plans filed as part of the purchase, in which Whiteoaks noted that it was on the verge of losing the ability to operate its two existing stations, CJYE (1250 Oakville) and CJMR (1190 Mississauga), because new development near their shared tower site on Highway 5 was all but forcing a sale of the land.

At the time, Whiteoaks indicated that its plan was to move both stations’ formats – Christian “Joy 1250” for CJYE and leased-time ethnic for CJMR – to HD Radio subchannels that it planned to light up on CKLH. But it appears the pressure to get the AM site sold and off the air outpaced that plan, because last Monday (Jan. 12), both stations took their formats off AM, broadcasting several hours of announcements telling listeners to find them on their streaming platforms and then silencing the AM transmitters for good.

Caine tells Broadcast Dialogue that “our primary reason (for the move) was that the acquisition of FM stations provided the first opportunity to focus on digital audio and FM-HD options now available to address consumer habits changing for our AM undertakings,” and he says both formats will show up soon on CKLH’s HD2 and HD3, while the former AM transmitters will be moved across the lake to replace aging transmitters at CKTB.

It’s the first time the Caines have been off 1250 in Oakville in 70 years; that was the frequency they used for their original station, CHWO, which took over the former CBC signal on 740 in 2001. After CHWO’s move to 740 (and eventual sale to Zoomer Media), 1250 relaunched as CJYE, taking over the Christian programming that had been part of the format on CJMR. CJMR, meanwhile, had been on the air since 1974, originally as a daytimer on 1190 before moving to 1320 when that frequency became available in the area.

Will Joy and CJMR survive as all-digital operations? Caine says he’s confident today’s listeners will find the stations as streams and HD subchannels, and we’ll be watching to see how that prediction plays out.