CFNY-FM
CFNY-FM
City of license
Brampton, Ontario
Broadcast area
Greater Toronto Area
Branding
"102.1 The Edge"
Frequency
102.1 MHz (FM)
First air date
1960
Format
modern rock
Power
35,000 watts
ERP
100,000 watts
Owner
Corus Entertainment
Sister stations
CFMJ, CILQ
Website
102.1 The Edge
CFNY-FM is a Canadian radio station, broad-
casting at 102.1 FM. While the station’s offi-
cial city of license is Brampton, Ontario,[1]
the studios are located on 228 Yonge Street
in downtown Toronto, and the transmitter is
in the CN Tower. The station targets the en-
tire Greater Toronto Area. As of December
2007, the station holds a 3.8% share[2] of its
market area.[3]
For some time in the 1980s, its free-
format programming was considered unique,
and the station garnered wide respect
around the world. This rarely translated into
profits, however, and after being sold and re-
sold several times to larger and larger media
companies, the station now plays a conven-
tional modern rock format with the branding
102.1 The Edge. The radio station is cur-
rently owned by Corus Entertainment.
The station’s current program director is
Ross Winters, who succeeded Alan Cross in
September 2008 after Cross transferred to
Corus’
interactive media division, Splice
Media.
History
CFNY originally started operating in 1961, as
an FM rebroadcast of an AM station, CHIC.
When two brothers named Leslie and Harry
Allen Jr bought the station in the seventies,
they started playing album rock music in the
evenings, while simulcasting the AM pro-
gramming during the day. The nearby Hum-
ber College provided a steady stream of
young employees, who were encouraged to
play their own selections. Eventually, the
owners decided to give the station a brand of
its own, creating CFNY in 1977.
Prior to CFNY, the call letters were CHIC-
FM, with a transmitter power of 857 watts
ERP mono, just enough to just cover the town
of Brampton. Up to around 1975, the CHIC
AM control room operator spun LPs from the
third turntable in AM master control. Non-
stop full play of