CFRB (1010 AM) is a commercial radio station in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. It is owned by Bell Media and carries a News/Talk radio format. Its studios and offices are in the Entertainment District at 250 Richmond Street West.
One of the oldest surviving radio stations active in Toronto, CFRB went on the air on February 19, 1927, as 9RB owned by Edward S. Rogers Sr., with the callsign derived from its parent Rogers Vacuum Tube Company, and the station moved to its current 1010 AM frequency in 1948. Throughout ownership changes for most of the decade and its format remained intact, the station was acquired by Slaight Broadcasting in 1985, before being acquired by Astral Media in 2007 and ultimately sold to Bell Canada, rival company of Rogers Communications, founded by Rogers Sr.'s son, Ted Rogers Jr., in 2013.
CFRB is a clear channel station powered at 50,000 watts, the maximum permitted in Canada. While it is a Class A station, it also must protect CBR in Calgary, which shares Class A status on 1010 AM. CFRB uses a four-tower array directional antenna in the Clarkson neighbourhood of Mississauga. CFRB is simulcast on shortwave station CFRX at 6.07 MHz in the 49 metre band and on sister station 99.9 CKFM-FM-HD2, a digital subchannel. CFRB is also heard across Canada on Bell Satellite TV channel 964.
History Early years CFRB first signed on the air on February 19, 1927. It is not Toronto's very first radio station, but it is the city's oldest English-language broadcaster still operating today. (CJBC, which now operates in French, was founded in 1925.) It was founded by the Rogers Vacuum Tube Company. The station was used to promote Edward S. Rogers Sr.'s invention of a batteryless radio receiver that could be operated using alternating current and therefore did not need the cumbersome battery that had previously been required. The station itself was a demonstration of Rogers' application of his invention to radio transmitters as well as receivers, a development that allowed for a signal that reproduced voices and music more clearly. The new type of transmitter also made CFRB the world's first all-electric radio station. The letters "RB" in the station's callsign stand for "Rogers' Batteryless".
The station began transmitting on an experimental basis in January 1927 as 9RB, before being converted to commercial operation a few weeks later, as CFRB. Those call letters have been used continuously since then. On February 19, the inaugural broadcast was a live symphony orchestra concert conducted by Jack Arthur. During its first years, CFRB leased time to two phantom stations: CNRX, owned by Canadian National Railways and providing programs of Canada's first radio network, and its rival Canadian Pacific Radio's CPRY, owned by the Canadian Pacific Railway. The CNR's network was discontinued in 1933, with many of its assets eventually passing to the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (CBC), and the CPR's radio service was discontinued in 1935.
CFRB's first studios were in a mansion on Jarvis Street north of Wellesley Street, built by the family of Hart Massey. In 1929, the station moved to purpose-built studios at 37 Bloor Street West. In the same year, the station became a network affiliate of the Columbia Broadcasting System.
In 1932, CFRB began airing the General Motors Hockey Broadcast, which had originated on the CNR's network. This program eventually became Hockey Night in Canada, and continued to be aired by CFRB for many years, despite also airing on the CBC's flagship station CBL, and continues to this day on CBC Television and Rogers Sportsnet.
From the 1930s to the 1950s, CFRB was the radio broadcaster for the Toronto Santa Claus Parade.
In 1937, CFRB began to simulcast on shortwave station CFRX at 6070 kHz.
Following the sudden death of Edward S. Rogers Sr. in 1939, Rogers Majestic Corporation Limited was sold in 1941 and became Standard Radio Limited. In turn, the company was acquired by Argus Corporation in 1946.
On November 1, 1946, Wally Crouter joined CFRB. He eventually became its morning drive time host, a position he would hold until his retirement on November 1, 1996, after exactly fifty years at the station.
Changing frequencies and studios CFRB and CJBC, owned by the CBC, made a frequency switch on September 1, 1948. CFRB moved to 1010 while CJBC took over the Class I-A clear-channel frequency at 860, previously used by CFRB.Broadcasting Magazine August 23, 1948, p. 32. Retrieved 14-3-2018 The CBC wanted its stations in major cities to be on Class I-A frequencies. But CFRB, which had been running at 20,000 watts, was boosted to 50,000 watts, giving it wide coverage over Southern Ontario.
Beginning in 1948, through until the early 1970s, CFRB made several unsuccessful bids for a licence to operate a television station in Toronto.
In 1965, CFRB moved its studios from 37 Bloor Street West to 2 St. Clair Avenue West (at Yonge Street). At around the same time, Standard Radio Limited was renamed Standard Broadcasting.
A long-lasting show, Calling All Britons featuring news, sports scores and music from Britain, began in 1965. It was hosted by Ray Sonin until his death in 1991.
New ownership In 1978, Argus Corporation was acquired by Conrad Black and his brother Montegu, thus also giving them ownership of Standard Broadcasting. In November 1985, Slaight Broadcasting acquired Standard from the Blacks. In October 2007, Slaight sold Standard to Astral Media.
Ted Rogers, the communications mogul and son of CFRB's founder, had vowed to re-acquire the station that his family had lost after his father's death, and considered his failure to do so his greatest disappointment. Reports indicate that he continued to attempt to re-acquire CFRB right up until his death in December 2008.Pitts, Gordon Ted Rogers dies at 75 , The Globe and Mail, December 2, 2008
In July 2013, with a buyout of Astral Media, CFRB was acquired by Bell Media, a subsidiary of Bell Canada which already owns the CTV Television Network and rival competitor to Rogers Communications founded by Ted Rogers. Shortly after the purchase, Bell announced that it would move the studios and offices of CFRB and sister station CKFM-FM from their long-time location at St. Clair Avenue and Yonge Street, to 250 Richmond Street West at Richmond and Duncan (which already houses the operations of sister radio stations, CHUM and CHUM-FM). The building is adjacent to 299 Queen Street West located at Queen Street and John Street (which already houses the operations of several Bell Media specialty television channels including CP24 and MuchMusic). The move took place on May 10, 2014.LISTEN: It's our last day at Yonge & St. Clair! newstalk1010.com, published May 9, 2014
Transmitter The transmitting antennas for CFRB are a prominent landmark along Lake Ontario, a four-tower array in the Clarkson neighbourhood of Mississauga. The towers are visible from over 100 km away. They are used as a landmark for navigation by pilots, on approach to Toronto Pearson International Airport, or to Toronto Island Airport. The antenna array consists of four vertical masts, 168 metres (550 feet) in height.
CFRB was one of few stations to broadcast in AM stereo, starting in 1984. However, since AM stereo never achieved wide acceptance, the station deactivated its stereo broadcasting system in the mid-1990s.
The transmitter is located on Royal Windsor Drive, 200 meters west of the intersection of Lakeshore Road West (former King's Highway 2) and Southdown Road, at the coordinates .
Shortwave relay
CFRX is a shortwave relay of CFRB, simulcasting the station's news–talk programming on 6.070 MHz in the 49-metre band. The station operates with a nominal transmitter power of 1 kW from CFRB's transmitter site in the Clarkson neighbourhood of Mississauga.
CFRX began broadcasting at 7:30 a.m. on February 11, 1937. It was established to extend CFRB's programming to northern Ontario and western Canada, where conventional radio service was limited. Its original transmitter was located with CFRB's facilities in Aurora, Ontario, and used two vertical towers arranged to direct the signal northwest.
When CFRB prepared to move its transmitting facilities from Aurora to Clarkson in 1948, the company considered discontinuing CFRX. It instead relocated the shortwave transmitter after receiving hundreds of letters from listeners asking that the service be retained.
During the 2000s, CFRX installed a solid-state transmitter and replaced its directional antenna system with a single vertical antenna producing a non-directional signal. The change broadened its potential coverage, including reception by Canadians travelling or spending the winter in the United States. Although the transmitter is rated at 1 kW, its reported output has been approximately 900 watts.
The National Research Council discontinued the shortwave broadcasts of its CHU time-signal station on June 22, 2026, leaving CFRX as the last shortwave station broadcast from Canada.
Programming
Current programming CFRB broadcasts a predominantly news and talk radio schedule featuring both local and nationally distributed programs. As of July 2026, its weekday lineup includes Moore in the Morning with John Moore, The Jerry Agar Show, The Vassy Kapelos Show, The Deb Hutton Show and The Jim Richards Show. The station carries the nationally syndicated Shane Hewitt and The Night Shift during the evening and also broadcasts simulcasts of CTV News Toronto and CTV National News.
The weekday afternoon and evening schedule was reorganized in July 2024 when Hutton was assigned the 2–4 p.m. period, Richards moved to afternoon drive from 4–6 p.m. and Hewitt's nationally distributed program was added from 7–11 p.m.
Weekend programming includes news, financial, home-improvement, technology, lifestyle and public-affairs programs, along with podcasts, television simulcasts and repeats. Programs listed by the station include Totally Useless Information, Taking Stock, The Home Improvement Show, The Greg Carrasco Show, Your Life, Your Money, On the Ledge, The Sunday Money Show, Ask the Experts, Tech Talk and CTV's Question Period.
Morning programming CFRB was historically known for its morning-drive program hosted by Wally Crouter. Crouter joined the station in 1946 and began presenting its morning show several weeks later. Originally titled Top O' the Morning, it was later known as the Wally Crouter Show. He remained its host until retiring on November 1, 1996, completing 50 years with CFRB. At the height of its popularity during the 1970s and 1980s, the program attracted approximately half a million listeners.
Andy Barrie joined CFRB from CJAD in Montreal in 1977. Initially heard during the evening, he later became one of the station's weekday late-morning talk hosts. By 1992, his program aired from 10 a.m. until shortly before noon, and it was subsequently moved to a 9:30 a.m. start. Barrie left CFRB in 1995 to become host of CBC Radio's Toronto morning program, Metro Morning.
Following Crouter's retirement, Ted Woloshyn, who had previously presented weekend programs and worked as a fill-in host at CFRB, took over the morning show on November 4, 1996. The Ted Woloshyn Show was a live weekday talk program; in 2002, it aired from 5 to 9 a.m.
In the fall 1998 Toronto ratings, Woloshyn's CFRB program recorded a 10.8-percent share of the morning audience, compared with 6 percent for Barrie's Metro Morning. Both programs trailed the morning shows on CHFI-FM and CHUM-FM. In 2003, however, Metro Morning surpassed CFRB in the Toronto ratings and became the city's highest-rated morning radio program.