CFMG-FM (104.9 MHz) is a Canadian

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 ...

, broadcasting from

Edmonton Edmonton ( ) is the capital city of the Canadian province of Alberta. Edmonton is situated on the North Saskatchewan River and is the centre of the Edmonton Metropolitan Region, which is surrounded by Alberta's central region. The city an ...

Alberta Alberta ( ) is one of the thirteen provinces and territories of Canada. It is part of Western Canada and is one of the three prairie provinces. Alberta is bordered by British Columbia to the west, Saskatchewan to the east, the Northwest T ...

. Branded as ''104.9

Virgin Radio Virgin Radio launched in the United Kingdom in 1993. In 2008, Virgin Radio UK was sold to TIML, a subsidiary of The Times of India group, and the name was changed to Absolute Radio; the Virgin Radio name was not included in the sale. In 2001, ...

'', the station airs a Top 40/CHR

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 ...

. The station also broadcasts a

Punjabi language Punjabi (; ; , ), sometimes spelled Panjabi, is an Indo-Aryan language of the Punjab region of Pakistan and India. It has approximately 113 million native speakers. Punjabi is the most widely-spoken first language in Pakistan, with 80.5 ...

format on a Subsidiary Communications Multiplex Operation frequency.

History

Early years and EZ Rock

The station launched in

1978 Events January * January 1 – Air India Flight 855, a Boeing 747 passenger jet, crashes off the coast of Bombay, killing 213. * January 5 – Bülent Ecevit, of CHP, forms the new government of Turkey (42nd government). * January 6 ...

playing "

oldies Oldies is a term for musical genres such as pop music, rock and roll, doo-wop, surf music (broadly characterized as classic rock and pop rock) from the second half of the 20th century, specifically from around the mid-1950s to the 1980s, as w ...

" from offices and studios just north of Edmonton in St. Albert. The original frequency was 1070 kHz with the callsign CKST. In

1988 File:1988 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: The oil platform Piper Alpha explodes and collapses in the North Sea, killing 165 workers; The USS Vincennes (CG-49) mistakenly shoots down Iran Air Flight 655; Australia celebrates its Bicenten ...

, CKST received approval to move from to 1200 AM and changed callsigns to CHMG the same year. CHMG received approval move from AM to FM in

1994 File:1994 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: The 1994 Winter Olympics are held in Lillehammer, Norway; The Kaiser Permanente building after the 1994 Northridge earthquake; A model of the MS Estonia, which sank in the Baltic Sea; Nels ...

. In

1995 File:1995 Events Collage V2.png, From left, clockwise: O.J. Simpson is acquitted of the murders of Nicole Brown Simpson and Ronald Goldman from the year prior in "The Trial of the Century" in the United States; The Great Hanshin earthquake str ...

, CHMG changed to its current callsign, CFMG-FM. At the same time, the station shifted to an

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 ...

format, branded as ''104.9

EZ Rock EZ Rock was a brand of adult contemporary radio stations heard primarily in Canada. The branding was originally created by Telemedia in the mid-1990s for its AC stations, and based on the call sign of its former Toronto flagship CJEZ-FM (now ...

''. Programmed by longtime broadcaster Tammy Cole, "EZ Rock" was a station designed to appeal to office work environments. Music was slanted towards female listeners 25–54 years old. On September 28,

2007 File:2007 Events Collage.png, From top left, clockwise: Steve Jobs unveils Apple Inc., Apple's first iPhone (1st generation), iPhone; TAM Airlines Flight 3054 overruns a runway and crashes into a gas station, killing almost 200 people; Former Pakis ...

, the

CRTC The Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission (CRTC; french: Conseil de la radiodiffusion et des télécommunications canadiennes, links=) is a public organization in Canada with mandate as a regulatory agency for broadcasti ...

approved the sale of CFMG and all Standard Radio assets to

Astral Media Astral Media Inc. was a Canadian media conglomerate. It was Canada's largest radio broadcaster, with 84 radio stations in eight provinces. Astral was also a major player in premium and specialty television in Canada, with 23 specialty channels ...

. Astral changed the logo of the station in September

2010 File:2010 Events Collage New.png, From top left, clockwise: The 2010 Chile earthquake was one of the strongest recorded in history; The Eruption of Eyjafjallajökull in Iceland disrupts air travel in Europe; A scene from the opening ceremony of ...

; however, the

format is unchanged while continuing to say the decimal point on the station ID. In addition, most of the

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 198 ...

were dropped.

Virgin Radio (2011-present)

On February 4,

2011 File:2011 Events Collage.png, From top left, clockwise: a protester partaking in Occupy Wall Street heralds the beginning of the Occupy movement; protests against Libyan dictator Muammar Gaddafi, who was killed that October; a young man celebrates ...

, CFMG flipped to Top 40/CHR as ''104.9

''. The last song on "EZ Rock" was " The Boys Of Summer' by

Don Henley Donald Hugh Henley (born July 22, 1947) is an American musician and a founding member of the rock band Eagles. He is the drummer and one of the lead singers for the Eagles. Henley sang the lead vocals on Eagles hits such as " Witchy Woman", "Des ...

, while the first song on "Virgin" was "

Firework Fireworks are a class of low explosive pyrotechnic devices used for aesthetic and entertainment purposes. They are most commonly used in fireworks displays (also called a fireworks show or pyrotechnics), combining a large number of devices in ...

" by

Katy Perry Katheryn Elizabeth Hudson (born October 25, 1984), known professionally as Katy Perry, is an American singer, songwriter, and television personality. Known for her influence on modern pop music and her campy style, she has been referred to ...

. This left Edmonton with no

station for 51 days until

CKEA-FM CKEA-FM (95.7 MHz, ''95.7 Cruz FM'') is a radio station serving Edmonton, Alberta. Owned by Harvard Media, it broadcasts a rock-leaning classic hits format. CKEA's studios are located on Calgary Trail in Edmonton, while its transmitter is loca ...

dropped

adult album alternative Adult album alternative (also triple-A, AAA, or adult alternative) is a radio format. See pages 9 and 10Mills, Joshua. "A New Radio Music Format: Rock for Prosperous Adults" New York Times, Feb 28 1994, p. 2. ProQuest. Web. Accessed September 4, 2 ...

for AC (which has since shifted to adult hits). CFMG, during its final

week, did list its CHR adds on

Mediabase Mediabase is a music industry service that monitors radio station airplay in 180 US and Canadian markets. Mediabase publishes music charts and data based on the most played songs on terrestrial and satellite radio, and provides in-depth analytic ...

's Canadian adult contemporary panel. A week after the station flipped formats, the station was delisted from Mediabase's station adds. As of March 2011, CFMG joined

CHBN-FM CHBN-FM is a Top 40/CHR radio station based in Edmonton, Alberta, Canada. The station, which is owned by Rogers Sports & Media, operates at 91.7 MHz with an ERP of 100 kW. CHBN's studios are located on Gateway Boulevard in Edmonton, while ...

on the

CHR panel. CFMG is the third "Virgin" station in Canada to have a mainstream

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 "cont ...

format, the first being at

Calgary Calgary ( ) is the largest city in the western Canadian province of Alberta and the largest metro area of the three Prairie Provinces. As of 2021, the city proper had a population of 1,306,784 and a metropolitan population of 1,481,806, maki ...

CIBK-FM CIBK-FM (''98.5 Virgin Radio'') is a Top 40/CHR radio station based in Calgary, Alberta, Canada. The Bell Media outlet operates at 98.5 FM with an effective radiated power of 100 kW from a transmitter located at the intersection of Old Ba ...

the year before, and in

Toronto Toronto ( ; or ) is the capital city of the Canadian province of Ontario. With a recorded population of 2,794,356 in 2021, it is the most populous city in Canada and the fourth most populous city in North America. The city is the anch ...

CKFM-FM CKFM-FM (''99.9 Virgin Radio'') is a Canadian radio station, broadcasting on 99.9 MHz in Toronto, Ontario. The station is owned by Bell Media. The station airs a Top 40/CHR format, and is the flagship of Canada's "Virgin Radio" stations. CKFM ...

2009 File:2009 Events Collage V2.png, From top left, clockwise: The vertical stabilizer of Air France Flight 447 is pulled out from the Atlantic Ocean; Barack Obama becomes the first African American to become President of the United States; Protests ...

. Every year for one week, along with sister stations CFBR-FM and CFRN, CFMG presents, Stollery Week, a week long fundraiser for the

Stollery Children's Hospital The Stollery Children's Hospital is a 218 bed children's hospital that opened in October 2001. It is a "hospital within a hospital," being situated within the University of Alberta Hospital and co-located with Mazankowski Alberta Heart Institute i ...

. In past years all three stations had broadcast live for 2 days from the Stollery Children's Hospital. In year one, $300,000 was raised for the Pediatric Oncology Unit; in year two, EZ Rock and her sister stations raised $500,000 for Research.

Ratings

The last ratings period when CFMG was an

station (October/10 - January/11) placed the station at #4 with a 7.4 share. In the first ratings period as "Virgin" (February - May/11), the station plummeted to #14 and with a 2.6 share. The Fall 2011 BBM Canada ratings book has the station up to #11 with a 4.9 share. As of February 28, 2021, CFMG is the 15th-most-listened-to radio station in the Edmonton market according to a PPM data report released by

Numeris Numeris (formerly the Bureau of Broadcast Measurement, or BBM Canada) is a Canadian audience measurement organization. Established on May 11, 1944 as a division of the Canadian Association of Broadcasters, Numeris is the primary provider of viewers ...

References

External links

104.9 Virgin Radio
* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Cfmg-Fm Fmg Fmg Fmg Virgin Radio Radio stations established in 1978 1978 establishments in Alberta