Vista Radio has launched 102.7 Moose FM (CJFB-FM) in Bolton, ON, a community of about 30,000 northwest of Toronto that’s experiencing growth as more people choose to leave the city for small town living.
Playing a “true” Variety format featuring high energy hits from the 1960s to today, this is the 19th Vista station in Ontario to carry the Moose FM brand. Vista has owned CJFB-FM since 2012 when it acquired what was a community/tourist information station that as a condition of licence was formerly required to played 70% CanCon selections. The rebrand sees CJFB-FM move down the dial from its former position at 105.5 MHz and get a power boost from 50 to 1,100 watts.
The new 102.7 Moose FM launched at 11 a.m. ET Friday with The Rolling Stones’ Start Me Up. A sampling of tunes included Loverboy’s The Kid is Hot Tonite, Cruise by Florida Georgia Line, Kenny Loggins’ Danger Zone, I Knew You When from Marianas Trench, and Elton John’s Saturday Night’s Alright, in addition to local news.
Joël Lamoureux, Regional Director of Content, says the new station will be “Bolton-centric” with reach into Caledon municipality, an area that’s seeing growth as more people migrate out of Greater Toronto.
“The area is really now a bedroom community to the GTA, so as far as affordability is concerned, people are moving out of Toronto into Bolton-Caledon. By virtue of that, the population is growing at a mad rate, propelled by the pandemic as well,” said Lamoureux. “This has been six years in the making. There have just been a series of issues that we had to tackle one by one, but because we believed in the community and the local radio aspect, Vista has stuck with it, in spite of some incredible challenges.”
“Because this is the first incarnation of a real radio station for Bolton, we’re so genuinely excited to join this community. Right out of the gate, our inbox is filling up and we’re confident we’ll get the business community on side,” said Lamoureux, adding that the station made its first sale within 70 minutes of the launch.
Lamoureux will helm the Moose FM morning show, with Jocelyn Martin (formerly of 107.5 Kool FM (CKMB-FM) and Rock 95 (CFJB-FM) Barrie) in middays and Moose FM network personality Chris Walker, who does double duty as Assistant Program Director, in afternoon drive. The station plans to add evening content and is tapping Algonquin College Broadcast – Radio professors Dan Mellon (a former CHUM Kingston programmer) and Lana Paine (a former Rogers Ottawa and Skywords Media personality), as well as Trevor Smith-Millar to host weekends.
The rebrand includes the introduction of new local news and events site, myboltonnow.com, powered by Just Sayin’ Caledon.
“We could not be more excited to introduce Bolton to 102.7 Moose FM,” added Vista Radio President Bryan Edwards, in a release. “Our group has worked to bring this station on air for years and we recognize how important local radio is for a community. Bolton offers a wonderful lifestyle and we’re ecstatic that we are joining a thriving business community and are looking forward to building those relationships while offering a platform for local businesses to market themselves. We’re so pleased to be on air and be a part of the lives of this community for decades to come.”
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