CIQB-FM (101.1

MHz The hertz (symbol: Hz) is the unit of frequency in the International System of Units (SI), equivalent to one event (or cycle) per second. The hertz is an SI derived unit whose expression in terms of SI base units is s−1, meaning that one he ...

) is a

commercial Commercial may refer to: * a dose of advertising conveyed through media (such as - for example - radio or television) ** Radio advertisement ** Television advertisement * (adjective for:) commerce, a system of voluntary exchange of products and s ...

radio station Radio broadcasting is transmission of audio (sound), sometimes with related metadata, by radio waves to radio receivers belonging to a public audience. In terrestrial radio broadcasting the radio waves are broadcast by a land-based radio ...

Barrie Barrie is a city in Southern Ontario, Canada, about north of Toronto. The city is within Simcoe County and located along the shores of Kempenfelt Bay, the western arm of Lake Simcoe. Although physically in Simcoe County, Barrie is politically i ...

Ontario Ontario ( ; ) is one of the thirteen provinces and territories of Canada.Ontario is located in the geographic eastern half of Canada, but it has historically and politically been considered to be part of Central Canada. Located in Central Ca ...

. The station uses the on-air brand name ''Big 101'' and is owned by

Corus Entertainment Corus Entertainment Inc. is a Canadian mass media company. Formed in 1999 as a spin-off from Shaw Communications, it has prominent holdings in the radio, publishing, and television industries. It is headquartered at Corus Quay in Toronto, Onta ...

, which also owns

sister station In broadcasting, sister stations or sister channels are radio or television stations operated by the same company, either by direct ownership or through a management agreement. Radio sister stations will often have different formats, and somet ...

CHAY-FM CHAY-FM is a Canadian radio station in Barrie, Ontario broadcasting at 93.1 FM. The station airs a Rhythmic-leaning CHR format, using its on-air brand name as ''Fresh 93.1''. The station is owned by Corus Entertainment. History CHAY signed on ...

. CIQB broadcasts a

classic hits Classic hits is a radio format which generally includes songs from the top 40 music charts from the late 1960s to the early 2000s, with music from the 1980s serving as the core of the format. Music that was popularized by MTV in the early 1980s ...

format Format may refer to: Printing and visual media * Text formatting, the typesetting of text elements * Paper formats, or paper size standards * Newspaper format, the size of the paper page Computing * File format, particular way that informatio ...

, switching to

Christmas music Christmas music comprises a variety of genres of music regularly performed or heard around the Christmas season. Music associated with Christmas may be purely instrumental, or, in the case of carols or songs, may employ lyrics whose subject ma ...

for much of November and December.

History

On August 1, 1949, the station first

signed on Signing may refer to: * Using sign language * Signature A signature (; from la, signare, "to sign") is a handwritten (and often stylized) depiction of someone's name, nickname, or even a simple "X" or other mark that a person writes on do ...

as CKBB. It was launched by

Ralph Snelgrove Ralph Trapnell Snelgrove (June 11, 1914 – March 27, 1990) was a Canadian radio and television pioneer who obtained one of the first television licences issued in Canada and built television station CKVR-TV in Barrie, Ontario. Born in Newfoun ...

's Barrie Broadcasting Company at AM 1230. It was Barrie's first radio station, and was initially a mixture of music and

talk Talk may refer to: Communication * Communication, the encoding and decoding of exchanged messages between people * Conversation, interactive communication between two or more people * Lecture, an oral presentation intended to inform or instruct ...

programming. It moved to 950 AM in 1958. In December 1983, the station was acquired by Kawartha Broadcasting, and in 1987, ownership passed to the broadcasting arm of

Power Corporation of Canada Power Corporation of Canada () is a management and holding company that focuses on financial services in North America, Europe and Asia. Its core holdings are insurance, retirement, wealth management and investment management, including a portfol ...

. In November 1994, after more than 45 years on the AM dial, CKBB moved to FM as CIQB-FM at 101.1 MHz. The station became known as ''B101'', originally airing a

hot adult contemporary Adult contemporary music (AC) is a form of radio-played popular music, ranging from 1960s vocal and 1970s soft rock music to predominantly ballad-heavy music of the present day, with varying degrees of easy listening, pop, soul, R&B, quiet ...

format. CIQB was acquired by

in April 2000. On October 15,

2000 File:2000 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: Protests against Bush v. Gore after the 2000 United States presidential election; Heads of state meet for the Millennium Summit; The International Space Station in its infant form as seen from ...

, the station shifted to

adult contemporary Adult contemporary music (AC) is a form of radio-played popular music, ranging from 1960s vocal and 1970s soft rock music to predominantly ballad-heavy music of the present day, with varying degrees of easy listening, pop, soul, R&B, quie ...

, taking the format from sister station

, which flipped to

top 40 In the music industry, the Top 40 is the current, 40 most-popular songs in a particular genre. It is the best-selling or most frequently broadcast popular music. Record charts have traditionally consisted of a total of 40 songs. "Top 40" or " con ...

as ''Energy Radio''. The station reverted to

hot AC Adult contemporary music (AC) is a form of radio-played popular music, ranging from 1960s vocal and 1970s soft rock music to predominantly ballad-heavy music of the present day, with varying degrees of easy listening, pop, soul, R&B, quiet s ...

in August

2003 File:2003 Events Collage.png, From top left, clockwise: The crew of STS-107 perished when the Space Shuttle Columbia disintegrated during reentry into Earth's atmosphere; SARS became an epidemic in China, and was a precursor to SARS-CoV-2; A des ...

(when CHAY returned to AC), and finally to top 40 in

2008 File:2008 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: Lehman Brothers went bankrupt following the Subprime mortgage crisis; Cyclone Nargis killed more than 138,000 in Myanmar; A scene from the opening ceremony of the 2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing; ...

. It was one of three top 40 stations owned by Corus radio along with

CKQB-FM CKQB-FM (106.9 FM, ''Jump! 106.9'') is a radio station licensed to Ottawa, Ontario. Owned by Corus Entertainment, it broadcasts a Top 40/CHR format. CKQB's studios are located at 1504 Merivale Road in Nepean along with sister station CJOT-FM, w ...

Ottawa Ottawa (, ; Canadian French: ) is the capital city of Canada. It is located at the confluence of the Ottawa River and the Rideau River in the southern portion of the province of Ontario. Ottawa borders Gatineau, Quebec, and forms the core ...

and

CKBT-FM CKBT-FM is a Canadian radio station broadcasting at 91.5 FM broadcasting, FM in Kitchener, Ontario, Kitchener, Ontario. The station broadcasts a Contemporary hit radio, CHR/Top 40 format branded as ''91.5 The Beat'', with studios & offices located ...

in Kitchener. CIQB B101

On April 1, 2016,

Shaw Media Shaw Media was the television broadcasting division of Shaw Communications. Shaw Media owned the Global Television Network, which broadcasts nationally via 13 television stations, as well as 19 specialty channels including Slice (TV channel), Sli ...

was sold to

. On July 27 of that year, CIQB's website was replaced with a countdown clock to July 29 at Noon, with CIQB itself running liners advising to listen at that specific time, claiming Barrie was about to get "bigger". At that time, after playing " Anybody Listening" by Classified, the station flipped to

classic rock Classic rock is a US radio format which developed from the album-oriented rock (AOR) format in the early 1980s. In the United States, the classic rock format comprises rock music ranging generally from the mid-1960s through the mid 1990s, primar ...

, branded as ''101.1 Big FM''. The first song on "Big" was " Big Time" by

Peter Gabriel Peter Brian Gabriel (born 13 February 1950) is an English musician, singer, songwriter, record producer, and activist. He rose to fame as the original lead singer of the progressive rock band Genesis. After leaving Genesis in 1975, he launched ...

. The flip occurred in order to reduce the format overlap with sister station CHAY (which airs a

Hot AC Adult contemporary music (AC) is a form of radio-played popular music, ranging from 1960s vocal and 1970s soft rock music to predominantly ballad-heavy music of the present day, with varying degrees of easy listening, pop, soul, R&B, quiet s ...

format). With the change, morning host Dave Blezard moved to afternoons at CHAY, while CIQB's new airstaff was announced on August 2.

References

External links

Big 101
*
Decision CRTC 94-627
* {{DEFAULTSORT:Ciqb-Fm Iqb Iqb Radio stations established in 1949 1949 establishments in Ontario