Two Greater Toronto radio stations are no longer being heard on the AM band as Whiteoaks Communications moves to a digital-first listener experience for JOY Radio (CJYE-AM) Oakville and CJMR 1320 Mississauga.
Whiteoaks completed its acquisition of four radio stations from Bell Media last June, including 97.7 HTZ FM (CHTZ-FM) and 610 CKTB St. Catharines and rebranded Hamilton stations, Legend 102.9 (CKLH-FM, which formerly carried Bell’s Bounce branding), and Dream 105.7 (CHRE-FM, previously a MOVE Radio station). They joined the company’s existing stations, CJMR and JOY Radio.
A third-generation family broadcast business, Whiteoaks’ founders Howard and Jean Caine launched multicultural station CJMR in 1974. It was the first radio station licensed to the then newly-incorporated City of Mississauga. JOY 1250 launched in 2001 and was notably the first Christian radio station in the Greater Toronto and Hamilton area.
Whiteoaks President Matt Caine told Broadcast Dialogue that the digital transition of the two AM stations is intended to meet listeners where they’re at, while enabling the company to focus on restoring the reliability of 610 CKTB.
“We’ve begun our process to transition both stations to a digital-first experience, and soon FM-HD, to address changes and how listeners become more accustomed to receiving programs,” said Caine. “Moving these AM stations to FM-HD was part of our purchase application to the CRTC for Legend 102.9 (CKLH), Dream 105.7 (CHRE), 97.7 HTZ-FM (CHTZ) and 610 CKTB.”
Caine said the CJMR and CJYE transmitters will be “re-tuned” to the 610 AM frequency, upgrading the stations aging transmitters, estimated to be between 50 and 70 years old.
Both CJMR and JOY Radio boast their own mobile apps, in addition to streaming via iHeartRadio Canada and their individual station websites.
Caine said there will be some changes to each station related to brokered spoken word programming. With both stations previously unrated, Caine said moving to digital will allow sales staff to provide advertisers with real-time audience data on FM-HD via DTS AutoStage.
“The ways people listen to the radio with growth to digital consumption, lack of AM in EVs [electric vehicles], and costs of maintaining legacy AM equipment are factors. But our primary reason 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,” said Caine.
He added that Whiteoaks’ newly-acquired stations are performing well, with Legend 102.9 leading the market with an 8.6 share in the fall ratings release, while HTZ-FM regained #1 in St. Catherines with a 9.9 share. CKTB notably experienced 25% growth from fall 2024 to fall 2025, according to data provided by the company.
