CJMX-FM

CJMX 105.3 signed on the air on October 13. The station had a Beautiful Music format. It was the forth FM station in Sudbury after CIGM, CBCS and CBON. Studios and offices were in the old King George School on Victoria Avenue. Sudbury Broadcasting had just moved to the larger facility in November of 1979 so there would be room for CJMX. The studios featured Ward-Beck boards, Studer Revox tape machines, Technics turntables, and Ampro and ITC cart machines. The station used a CCA 20 kw transmitter. The 12-bay antenna was mounted on the Mid-Canada Communications tower, shared by CICI-TV and CIGM-FM. CJMX’s first program director was Terry Hart.

On January 11, the CRTC renewed CJMX-FM’s licence until September 30, 1985.

On March 27, Mid-Canada Communications (Canada) Corp. received approval for the purchase of CHNO, CFBR and CJMX-FM from Sudbury Broadcasting (1977) Ltd.  Mid-Canada was 95.8% owned by Northern Cable Services Ltd. CUC Ltd. was the largest shareholder in Northern, with a 48.3% interest.  G. R. Conway controlled CUC. The remaining 51.7% of Northern’s shares were held by Northern Ontario investors. The largest of these was The Sudbury Broadcasting Co. Ltd., which held 20.1%. It owned Sudbury Broadcasting (1977) Ltd. and was controlled by F. Baxter Ricard.

Mr. Ricard chose to sell his stations for estate planning purposes. As a major shareholder in Mid-Canada, President and Chairman, he would continue to play an active role in CHNO, CFBR and CJMX-FM. At the CRTC hearing on the sale application, it was noted that Mr. Ricard had continued to operate French-language CFBR despite accumulated losses approaching $1 million. 

Bob Derro joined CJMX-FM from CHNO-AM.

Barry Johnson took over morning news at CJMX. He had been news director at CHUR North Bay.

CJMX had its licence renewed to only August 31, 1992, so the CRTC could monitor its use of hits and foreground programming. The commission also denied the station’s request to increase the maximum hit level to 49% from 45%, but approved CJMX’s proposed reduction in foreground commitment from 20% to 15% and combined foreground-mosaic levels from 65% to 55%.

Bob Derro left CJMX for Ottawa’s CFRA.

On July 26, approval came for the sale of Mid-Canada Radio Inc. by Northern Cable Holdings Limited to Pelmorex Broadcasting Inc. 14 radio stations in northeastern Ontario, including CHNO, CFBR and CJMX-FM, were part of the deal. 

Henry Albert, chief engineer for CJMX and CHNO retired after 45 years of service to the stations.

On January 31, for administrative reasons, the CRTC renewed the licence of CJMX-FM to 31 August 1996.

On April 7, the CRTC approved the applications by Pelmorex Radio Inc. for authority to acquire the assets of CKNR Elliot Lake and its transmitter CJNR Blind River, CKNS Espanola, CHYK and CKAP Kapuskasing, CHUR North Bay, CHVR Pembroke, CHVR-1 Renfrew and its transmitter CHVR-2 Arnprior, CJQM Sault Ste. Marie, CHNO, CHYC and CJMX-FM Sudbury, CKOY Timmins and its transmitter CHOH Hearst, and CJWA Wawa, from Pelmorex Broadcasting Inc., and for broadcasting licences to continue the operation of these undertakings. In approving these applications, the Commission took into account the fact that Pelmorex Radio Inc. was a wholly-owned subsidiary of Pelmorex Inc. which was controlled by Pelmorex Management Inc. and that the transaction thus represented an intracorporate reorganization without any change occurring in the control, programming or management of the licensee. 
 
Pelmorex and Telemedia entered into a management agreement for the operation of their stations in North Bay and Sudbury, effective September 1. In North Bay, Pelmorex’s CHUR moved in to the Telemedia broadcast facility (CFCH/CKAT-FM). In Sudbury, the programming staff at the five stations would now work at one facility while the administrative/support staff worked from another building.

In January 1996, CJMX-CHNO moved out of the CIGM-CJRQ (Telemedia) building, back to their old facility. 

Tim Klassen, formerly of CJFM Montreal, joined MIX105 as morning show host. 

Pelmorex announced the sale of its AM stations to Christopher Grossman’s Haliburton Broadcasting and the FM stations to Telemedia Communications. Grossman would acquire AM’s at Sudbury (CHNO and CHYC), CKOY-AM Timmins, CKAP Kapuskasing, as well as Timmins repeater stations CHYK Kapuskasing and CHOH of Hearst. Grossman planned to flip the Sudbury and Timmins stations to FM. Telemedia would buy CHVR-FM Pembroke, CJQM-FM Sault Ste. Marie, CJMX-FM Sudbury and CHUR-FM North Bay. Pelmorex decided it wanted to get out of the radio business to focus on its multimedia weather-related information services and was still looking for a purchaser for its radio network.

On February 17, the sale of CJMX and four other stations to Telemedia Communications Inc. from Pelmorex Radio Inc. was approved. With Telemedia’s acquisition of CHUR-FM, CHVR-FM, CJQM-FM and CJMX-FM, it became the sole commercial radio licensee in both North Bay and Sault Ste. Marie by owning all three of each city’s commercial stations. In Sudbury, it would hold three of the five licences. 

In the Spring, CJMX became known as “EZ Rock 105.3”.

The corporate name changed from Telemedia Communications Inc. to Telemedia Radio Inc. 

Michael Prud’homme left CJMX-CIGM where he was general manager.

Telemedia Radio VP Braden Doerr, most recently vice president of the Ontario regional group, assumed responsibility for the Southern Ontario cluster (London, Hamilton and St. Catharines). Rick Doughty, VP of Telemedia Northern Ontario (Sudbury, North Bay, Timmins, Sault Ste. Marie, Pembroke and Orillia) would continue in that assignment but also added responsibilities as a member of the executive committee of the Ontario division, reporting to Claude Beaudoin, Telemedia executive VP for Ontario region.

Jim Hamm became GM at Telemedia’s four Sudbury stations. He continued to hold on to his director of programming duties for Ontario north and remained a member of Telemedia Ontario North’s management team.

On April 19, the purchase of several Telemedia radio and television stations by Standard Radio Inc. and then the spin-off of some of these properties to NewCap and Rogers, was approved. Among the stations purchased by Rogers Broadcasting Limited: CIGM-AM, CJRQ-FM and CJMX-FM Sudbury.

Early on the morning of December 2nd, Ted Rogers, founder and former Chief Executive of Rogers Communications, owners of CJMX-FM, died at his home in Toronto, after having suffered from congestive heart failure for some time.

Rick Doughty, the Vice President of Rogers Radio Ontario North, who had been in the position on an interim basis at CJRQ/CJMX Sudbury, added Market Sales Manager to his other responsibilities. Mike Leclair and Dave Collins were promoted to Sales Supervisors.

Chris McEwin, the former midday host on the Rogers Ontario North Rock network, moved across the hall to become Music Director at CHUR North Bay (though based in Sudbury) and midday host on the Ontario North EZ Rock network. Succeeding McEwin at the Rock net was Niall Knutson.

Mike Leclair was promoted to Market Sales Manager for CJRQ/CJMX. He had been the Sales Supervisor. 

On August 31, the CRTC administratively renewed the licence for CJMX-FM until March 31, 2012.

Rick Doughty, vice president for Rogers Ontario North’s radio cluster and general manager of Sudbury Radio, announced his retirement. Doughty, who joined Telemedia 22 years ago and carried on when Rogers purchased the stations, set his departure date for March of 2012.

On March 20, the CRTC administratively renewed the licence for CJMX-FM to August 31, 2012. 

Rick Doughty, Rogers Radio vice president and general manager for the company’s Northern Ontario stations (North Bay, Sault Ste Marie and Timmins), and GM at Rogers Sudbury, retired March 31. Doughty was with Telemedia and Rogers for a combined 22.5 years, 12 and a-half of them with Telemedia before it was purchased. He divided his time between, first, North Bay and then Sudbury.

Peter McKeown was named vice president & general manager Ontario North Radio & GM Sudbury Radio. He would oversee operations of Rogers Radio stations in the Northern Ontario. McKeown had been general manager for North Bay Radio (102 The Fox, 600 CKAT, and 100.5 EZ Rock). He assumed the responsibilities previously held by Rick Doughty, who retired.

On August 7, the CRTC approved the applications by Rogers Broadcasting Limited to change the authorized contours of CJRQ-FM and CJMX-FM Sudbury, in order to change the polarization of CJRQ-FM’s antenna, and to increase CJMX-FM’s effective height of antenna above average terrain from 227.5 to 285 metres. All other technical parameters for both stations would remain unchanged. Rogers requested these technical changes in order to consolidate the towers used to broadcast both CJRQ-FM and CJMX-FM. The applicant stated that the use of a new signal antenna for both stations would improve their coverage and should alleviate future signal failures, which had occurred in the past, due to aging equipment and the severe weather in the Sudbury area. 

On August 28, the CRTC administratively renewed the licence of CJMX-FM to December 31, 2012. On December 21, the licence was renewed to August 31, 2019.

Al Campagnola, product manager of Rogers Ontario North Radio Group, was no longer with the company. He began with Rogers North in August of 2005. Before that, he was Program Director for five years at Rogers Ottawa.

On August 29, CJMX was rebranded from EZ ROCK to KISS FM. The format remained Hot Adult Contemporary.

Peter McKeown became VP & General Manager for Rogers Radio Northern Ontario.