CIMX-FM (88.7 MHz) is a commercial radio station in Windsor, Ontario, Canada. It primarily serves Essex County, Ontario, but has a signal that reaches the entire Detroit-Windsor metropolitan area and surrounding areas of Ontario (Chatham-Kent), Michigan (Ann Arbor) and Ohio (Toledo). It is owned by Bell Media and plays alternative rock under the 89X branding. CIMX's studios and offices are located on Ouellette Avenue in Windsor.
 | |
| Broadcast area | Southwestern Ontario Detroit–Windsor |
|---|---|
| Frequency | 88.7 MHz (FM) |
| Branding | 89X |
| Programming | |
| Language | English |
| Format | Modern rock |
| Ownership | |
| Owner | |
| CIDR-FM, CKLW | |
| History | |
First air date | July 10, 1967 |
Former call signs |
|
Call sign meaning | Station formerly branded as "Mix" |
| Technical information | |
| Class | C1 |
| ERP | 78,200 watts average 100,000 watts peak |
| HAAT | 188.5 meters (618 ft) |
Transmitter coordinates | 42°10′14.88″N 82°59′29.01″W / 42.1708000°N 82.9913917°W |
| Links | |
| Webcast | Listen Live |
| Website | 89xradio.com |
CIMX has an effective radiated power (ERP) of 78,200 watts, with a maximum of 100,000 watts. The transmitter is located off Smith Industrial Drive in Amherstburg.[1]
History
editCKWW-FM
editWhat is now CIMX first signed on the air on July 10, 1967, as CKWW-FM.[2] It was co-owned with CKWW but was separately programmed. The stations shared studios and offices at 1150 Ouellette Avenue.
CKWW-FM had an MOR/easy listening format. The station added evening progressive rock programming in the fall of 1970.
Om FM
editThe following April, the station changed its call sign to CJOM-FM and the progressive format went full-time. Om FM (pronounced "Ohm FM") distinguished itself from its Detroit competitors WRIF, WWWW and WABX by emphasizing Canadian talent.
By 1976, the album rock sounds of "Om FM" had faded away and the station was again programming MOR and easy listening music.
Top 40 Era
editIn 1982, CJOM and CKWW were acquired by Geoff Stirling's company, Stirling Communications International, which also owned CKGM in Montreal, Quebec and CHOZ-FM in St. John's, Newfoundland and Labrador. CJOM made an abrupt switch to a CHR/Top 40 format. In the evening hours, 1983-85, DJ Karen Evans played more alternative music with an introduction of British new wave music to the market. In the late 1980s, the station went by the moniker "Laser Rock," a reference to becoming one of the first radio stations in the Detroit area to program music solely from compact discs.
CJOM ran afoul of the CRTC in the summer of 1983 for its format change to CHR/Top 40. Then as now, all radio station format changes in Canada must be approved by the CRTC. CJOM had been approved for a "contemporary MOR" (a.k.a. adult contemporary) format, but analyses of the station's programming in May 1983 showed that almost all of the music being played was rock-oriented, that the station was playing 78% "hit" music rather than the allowed <50%, and that the station was not meeting its licence commitments for "foreground", "mosaic", spoken word, or news programming.
Stirling maintained that the station was "experimenting" with its programming and that such a format was necessary in order to make the station competitive with Detroit-based broadcasters. [1] Stirling and the CRTC finally reached a compromise in August 1985. CJOM was granted an "experimental" licence which would enable the station to play more harder-edged rock and pop music with higher repetition, although a proposal to reduce the station's Canadian Content quotient to 5% from 15% was denied. [2]
Under this experimental licence, CJOM remained a CHR-formatted radio station for most of the rest of the decade. Most rock songs played were Top 40 based like songs from Def Leppard and Billy Squier or Canadian artists such as Platinum Blonde, Haywire, and Gino Vannelli. CJOM would occasionally include several songs by one artist in a "star set" during the day. On Sunday evenings, CJOM would broadcast an "album countdown" in which the station would play several songs from the same album in the countdown.
Studios and tower
editIn 1987, CJOM increased its transmitting power to 100,000 watts from a tower in McGregor. Before this, the station's signal did not extend much further than the Detroit/Windsor area and the station's Detroit area ratings were minimal.
The station's studios changed a few times in the years. It was originally located in the Macabee's Building next to the Wandalyn Viscount Hotel on Ouellette Avenue between Erie Street and Giles Boulevard. In late 1982, CJOM and CKNW moved to the Bob Pedler Building, located on Cabana Road East near Howard Avenue in the southern part of Windsor. Eventually, the station relocated to the former "Big 8" CKLW building, at the corner of Ouellette Avenue and Tecumseh Road West when CHUM Limited purchased the station.
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Station logo circa 1982, on employees' jackets -
Station public promo decal mid-1980s -
Rear of employees' jackets, while Stirling owned the station
The Mix to 89X
editCJOM-FM became CIMX-FM in 1990. CIMX was first known as The Mix with an adult contemporary format, but disc jockey Greg St. James began playing modern rock on his evening show (8 p.m. to midnight) beginning in September 1990.[3][4] This program was called "The Cutting Edge" and was eventually hosted by four different DJs, Greg St. James, Darren Revell, Michelle Denomme and Mr. Vertical.[5]
At 4 p.m. on May 30, 1991, the modern rock format went full-time and 89X was born. The first (and ultimately, the last) song on "89X" was "Stop!" by Jane's Addiction.[6] CIMX-FM immediately took away many listeners from other youth-oriented stations in Detroit, particularly WHYT and WDFX, and may have been at least partially responsible for WHYT's decision to switch to an alternative format a few years later.
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This decal shows the station's updated logo after its change to Modern Rock in 1991. -
CIMX-FM's long-running logo from 1999 to 2018 -
89X logo from 2018 to 2020
CIMX had been owned by Canada's CHUM Limited since the late 1980s, but was sold along with the rest of CHUM's radio stations to CTVglobemedia in 2007. Its sister station, CIDR-FM, adopted an adult album alternative format in 2006, thus forcing CIMX to add more active rock songs to its playlist and go up against WRIF. Throughout the 2000s, the format moved between alternative rock and active rock, with the station playing more metal rock than might be found on other alternative stations.
In the February 29, 2012, issue of Real Detroit Weekly, 89X was rated the best radio station in Detroit. Real Detroit Weekly also crowned 89X's own Jay Hudson the best DJ in Detroit for the fourth consecutive year.[7]
On March 30, 2017, Bell Media announced that it would close its US-based sales office in Bingham Farms, canceled CIMX's morning show "Cal & Co.", and laid off around a dozen people as part of a restructuring of its Windsor cluster.[8][9] After the changes, CIMX began to once again experience more of an active rock lean.[10] On April 3, 2017, CIMX debuted their new morning show The Morning X, hosted by long-time personality and music director Mark McKenzie.
Pure Country 89
edit
On November 18, 2020, Bell announced on the 89X website that CIMX would adopt a new format the next day at noon; concurrently, the station's on air staff was let go.[11] At that time, CIMX flipped to country as Pure Country 89, launching with 10,000 songs in a row commercial-free.[12] In anticipation of the format change, Entercom flipped its Detroit station WDZH from soft adult contemporary to modern rock as Alt 98.7 almost immediately afterward.[13][14] The format competed locally with CJWF-FM, as well as with Detroit's WYCD. In other nearby markets, it competed with WWWW in Ann Arbor.
The station carried networked programming shared with other Pure Country-branded stations,[14] including The Bobby Bones Show. Unlike the other Pure Country stations (which air it in the evening), CIMX also cleared Bobby Bones in its normal timeslot in lieu of producing a local morning show.[15]
Return of 89X
editOn August 21, 2025, radio news outlet RadioInsight reported that Bell, in addition to keeping the 89XRadio.com ___domain, had recently registered the .ca equivalent and 89Xfm.com; they had speculated the 89X format would return with a classic alternative format. By that time, the "Pure Country" format had begun to run with a skeleton crew, parting ways with its local talent with both morning show producer Nate Carr and afternoon host Chris Byrne exiting the station. All remaining programming, including Bobby Bones, would be automated or nationally syndicated by this point in the format's run.[16]
On August 25, the reports would be confirmed, as CIMX began stunting, dropping all references to the "Pure Country" branding and running sweepers between songs warning listeners that a "revolution" would bring "Canada's greatest export" and "something familiar" back to CIMX, with the time of relaunch set for 8:08 a.m. on August 28. These liners were also delivered in the Spanish language, itself a subtle reference to the 89X format, more specifically the opening of its first and final song "Stop!" by Jane's Addiction, which opened with a spoken-word introduction delivered entirely in Spanish.[17]
At the said time, after signing off the country format with "After All the Bars Are Closed" by Thomas Rhett, "The Gambler" by Kenny Rogers, and a set of Johnny Cash songs ("Hurt", “Personal Jesus”, "Rusty Cage", and "The Man Comes Around"; serving as a transition between formats, the first 3 are covers of alternative rock songs), and an introduction to the new format also mentioning the station’s past (as well as acknowledging the history of CKLW, declaring 89X Windsor-Detroit's "second Big 8"), CIMX-FM reverted back to the heritage "89X" branding, with the first song once again being “Stop!” by Jane's Addiction. This would be followed by "Lose Yourself" by Eminem and "All the Small Things" by Blink 182, in both cases immediately re-premiered with new liners personally narrated by the singers themselves (Eminem, then Blink 182 lead singer Mark Hoppus) emphasizing that both artists were both first heard on 89X in the Windsor-Detroit area.[18]
Live events
editIn addition to the various annual shows, the station held many acoustic "Live-X" events when bands come to town. The acoustic renditions have even been used by many of the bands, including Soundgarden's re-release of King Animal, "King Animal Plus," when the band performed their song "Halfway There."[19]
89X celebrated its first birthday in May 1992 by holding two X-Fest shows. Peter Murphy, the Nymphs, Senseless Things were a few of the bands that played X-Fest. Then in 1993, 89X held a birthday show at Chene Park featuring the Tragically Hip. The next year, 1994, 89X started throwing annual "Birthday Bash" shows. The Birthday Bash in 1994 was held at the Phoenix Plaza Amphitheater during the World Cup competitions in Pontiac. The Afghan Whigs, Beck, and the Odds were some of the bands that played.
References
edit- ^ FCCdata.org/CIMX-FM
- ^ Broadcasting Yearbook 1969 page B-201
- ^ John Laycock, "CIMX offers 'Cutting Edge'," The Windsor Star, August 31, 1990.
- ^ Deborah McDougall, "Split personality," The Windsor Star, January 25, 1991.
- ^ "The End of the Cutting Edge". The Vertical Files. Archived from the original on 2015-02-14.
- ^ Owen Jones, "CIMX switches on modern rock," The Windsor Star, May 29, 1991.
- ^ "Best Media". Real Detroit Weekly. Archived from the original on 30 August 2012. Retrieved 27 April 2018.
- ^ "89X closes American office, cuts morning show". Detroit News. Archived from the original on 2017-03-31. Retrieved 2017-03-30.
- ^ "89X And 93.9 The River Windsor/Detroit Promoting Thursday Format Change". RadioInsight. Retrieved 2020-11-18.
- ^ "Final Listen 89X, CIDR; First Listen, Alt 98.7, Virgin Radio". RadioInsight. Retrieved 2020-11-21.
- ^ Bell Media Launches Pure Country 89 & Virgin Radio 93.9 In Windsor/Detroit
- ^ Dalson Chen, "Alt-rock station switches to country music," The Windsor Star, November 26, 2020.
- ^ "Entercom Launches Alt 98.7 Detroit". RadioInsight. Retrieved 2020-11-20.
- ^ a b "Nationalization Takes Hold In Two Nations: Looking At Today's Three Station Format Shuffle In Detroit/Windsor". RadioInsight. Retrieved 2020-11-20.
- ^ "Bobby Bones Show Added For Mornings At Pure Country 89 Windsor/Detroit". RadioInsight. Retrieved 2020-12-13.
- ^ "Domain Insight 8/21: Is 89X About To Return To Windsor/Detroit?". RadioInsight. 2025-08-21. Retrieved 2025-08-29.
- ^ Pure Country 89 Windsor/Detroit Enters Stunt Mode
- ^ Venta, Lance (2025-08-28). "89X returns to Windsor/Detroit". RadioInsight. Retrieved 2025-08-28.
- ^ King Animal#Track listing
External links
edit- 89X Radio
- CIMX-FM at The History of Canadian Broadcasting by the Canadian Communications Foundation
- Radio-Locator information on CIMX-FM
- CIMX-FM in the REC Canadian station database