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CIGM-FM is a Canadian radio station, which broadcasts in Greater Sudbury, Ontario. The station airs a CHR/Top 40 format at 93.5 MHz on the FM broadcasting dial with the branding Hot 93.5. The station is owned and operated by Stingray Group.
CIGM and CKSO were owned by Cambrian Broadcasting. The GM in the station's call sign was chosen by 1978 to honour George Miller, one of the founding investors in the company. Miller died in 1977. George Miller ckso.com
As part of Cambrian's sale of CKSO-TV to Mid-Canada Communications in 1979/1980, the company's shareholders dissolved Cambrian and reincorporated themselves as a new company, called United Broadcasting, which retained ownership of the radio stations. In 1986, United Broadcasting sold CKSO and CIGM to Telemedia."Telemedia Takes Over: New Owners for Sudbury Radio Stations". Northern Ontario Business, December 1986.
On March 16, 1990, the CRTC approved Telemedia Communications Ontario Inc.'s application to amend the Promise of Performance for CIGM by changing the music format from Group III (Country and Country-Oriented) to Group IV (40% Pop and Rock-Softer; 60% Pop and Rock-Harder). Decision CRTC 90-246, Promise of Performance for CIGM-FM Sudbury, CRTC, March 16, 1990 Two months later, on May 18, 1990, CKSO and CIGM swapped frequencies. CIGM moved to CKSO's 790 slot on the AM dial, and CKSO took on the new call letters CJRQ-FM and CIGM's 92.7 FM frequency. After the 1990 swap, the CKSO call sign no longer existed in the Sudbury area until an unrelated Christian music radio station (as CKSO-FM) began test transmissions in late 2002.
In 2002, Telemedia was purchased by Standard Broadcasting. Shortly afterward, Standard sold CJRQ, CIGM and CJMX-FM to Rogers Radio.
In fall 2005, CIGM and sister station CKAT in North Bay underwent a format change, with country music cut back, although not entirely eliminated, in favour of increased all-news radio and sports radio programming. After the change, both stations used slogans such as "Today's Country", "News Leader" and "Sports Leader".
The applications were approved on November 24. Broadcasting Decision CRTC 2008-326, November 24, 2008 The purchase made CIGM a sister station to Newcap's CHNO-FM.
After longtime CIGM morning man Scott Overton's employment with the station was discontinued by Rogers during the ownership transition, he wrote a letter to the Sudbury Star and Northern Life thanking the station's audience for its loyalty and indicating that the station's "long history as a country music station will apparently end within the next few months." "Morning Man Says Goodbye & Thanks", Sudbury Star, March 5, 2009. "Q&A with Scott Overton: A voice for the community" , Northern Life, 2009 "Morning man says goodbye and thanks - Scott Overton", Northern Life, July 19, 2009. In early 2009, a number of staff at CIGM were laid off, including the news director. Layoffs at CIGM , Sudbury 24, February 25, 2009. Notably, Newcap had applied for a new CHR/Top 40 station in the round of CRTC license hearings that resulted in the launch of CICS-FM, a competing country music station owned by Larche Communications.
In late July 2009, CIGM's website went offline with a message advising listeners to check out the CJMX-FM website, the former sister station of CIGM.
At midnight on August 24, AM 790 finished its last country song, "There She Goes" by Sudbury native Gil Grand, followed by an announcement: AM 790 CIGM sign off August 24, 2009
Immediately after the announcement, the station aired a steady 394.5 Hertz audio tone which lasted until the simulcasting of the new programming heard on 93.5 FM began on the morning of the 24th.
The station officially launched as Hot 93.5 on August 25 at 12:00 p.m. after a stunt of a clock ticking. New radio station to play hits, Northern Life, August 25, 2009 93.5 FM adopts new format, Sudbury Star, August 27, 2009. The first song on "Hot" was "I Gotta Feeling" by The Black Eyed Peas, which started off 10,000 songs in a row commercial free; this ended on September 21, 2009, when regular programming began. This is the first time Sudbury has had a CHR/Top 40 station since sister CHNO-FM flipped formats to adult hits on January 1, 2006. On September 26, 2009, CIGM began airing syndicated countdown shows such as the Canadian Top 20 with Jimmy T, American Top 40 with Ryan Seacrest, Canadian Hit 30 Countdown and Rick Dees Weekly Top 40. The station also includes On Air with Ryan Seacrest which runs weekdays.
On September 30, 2009, at about 5:00 p.m., the old 50,000 watt AM 790 transmitter was turned off, ending nearly 75 years of AM broadcasting in Sudbury, being the last AM radio station outlet in the city. "Up north, the end of the line for AM radio in Sudbury, Ontario", Scott Fybush/ North East Radio Watch, October 5, 2009
The Sudbury Wolves games, which were formerly aired on CIGM, moved to CJTK-FM for the 2009-2010 Ontario Hockey League season.
According to the fall 2011 BBM Canada ratings at Milkman Unlimited dated December 1, 2011, CIGM achieved the #1 status in Greater Sudbury among adults 25-54. The New HOT 93.5 Hit #1 in Sudbury , Milkman Unlimited, December 1, 2011 Since the station signed on in 2009, the station is still branded as The New Hot 93.5.
On February 23, 2013, the Rick Dees Weekly Top 40, which was carried on both Saturday and Sundays every weekend, was replaced by Sean Hamilton.
Newcap acquisition
In July 2008, Rogers announced it would trade CIGM to Newcap Broadcasting in exchange for Halifax AM station CFDR. Both stations were the sole remaining AM stations in their respective markets, and in both cases the original owner already had the maximum permitted number of FM stations in the applicable market, whereas the acquirer only had a single FM station. Both companies applied to move the stations to FM as part of the trade. "Local country station will be converted to FM", Northern Life, July 24, 2008. CIGM sold to Newcap , Sudbury 24, July 24, 2008. Newcap applied to convert CIGM to 93.5 MHz with an effective radiated power of 100,000 watts. Broadcasting Notice of Public Hearing CRTC 2008-10
Switch back to FM
On August 17, 2009, CIGM began broadcasting on 93.5 MHz, stunting with a 10-minute test broadcast with mostly classic rock music (including a clip of "Radio Ga Ga" by Queen), including clips from television theme shows (such as Seinfeld and The Flintstones), random clips of other songs, some nature sounds, and sound effects, as well as advising listeners to tune in on August 20 at 10:00 a.m. — at which time the station switched stunts to a Chinese pop music format branded as Kung Pao 93.5, which was actually mostly Chinese classical instrumentals, with a few pop songs in rotation. The same stunt format was also aired by WVBW-FM in Norfolk, Virginia for four days in April 2009. Notably, CIGM's website during the stunt was identical to the one that had been used by WVHT during its stunt — with the exception that the name of one of the station's fictional personalities was changed to "Felony Doll", a pun on the name of CJRQ morning host Mellaney Dahl.
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