See also CFRA (disambiguation)

CFRA (disambiguation)

CFRA is a four-letter acronym for:*CFRA, a radio station in Ottawa, Canada*CFRA-FM, the original callsign of what is today radio station CKKL-FM in Ottawa, Canada*California Family Rights Act...

CFRA is a Conservative talk radio station in Ottawa

Ottawa

Ottawa is the capital of Canada, the second largest city in the Province of Ontario, and the fourth largest city in the country. The city is located on the south bank of the Ottawa River in the eastern portion of Southern Ontario...

, Ontario

Ontario

Ontario is a province of Canada, located in east-central Canada. It is Canada's most populous province and second largest in total area. It is home to the nation's most populous city, Toronto, and the nation's capital, Ottawa....

, Canada

Canada

Canada is a North American country consisting of ten provinces and three territories. Located in the northern part of the continent, it extends from the Atlantic Ocean in the east to the Pacific Ocean in the west, and northward into the Arctic Ocean...

, owned by Bell Media. The station broadcasts at 580 kHz on the AM band.

History

Frank Ryan founded the station, which began broadcasting with a 1000 watt transmitter at 560 kHz on May 3, 1947. The first studios were located at the Ottawa Auditorium on O'Connor Street, where the station spent its first ten years. In 1962, the station moved to its present frequency (580 kHz) and increased its daytime power to 50 kW, and nighttime power to 10 kW.

After Ryan's death in 1965, ownership of the station passed to his wife Kathleen, who subsequently sold CFRA and sister station CFMO-FM

CKKL-FM

CKKL-FM is a Canadian radio station, which airs at 93.9 on the FM dial in Ottawa. The station uses the on-air brand name Bob FM.Frank Ryan originally launched the station in 1947 as CFRA-FM, simulcasting the programming of its AM sister station. In 1959, the station began airing some separate...

 to CHUM Limited

CHUM Limited

CHUM Limited was a media company based in Toronto, Ontario, Canada from 1945 to 2007. Immediately prior to its acquisition, it held full or joint control of two Canadian television systems — Citytv and A-Channel  — comprising 11 local stations, and one CBC Television affiliate, one...

 in 1968.

Between 1980 and 1984 on Saturday afternoons from 2 to 5pm; CFRA had once held an Oldies Show by Sattelite that was hosted by American comedian Gary Owens

Gary Owens

Gary Owens is an American disc jockey and voice actor. His polished baritone speaking voice generally offers deadpan recitations of total nonsense, which he frequently demonstrated as the announcer on Rowan and Martin's Laugh-In. Owens is equally proficient in straight or silly assignments and is...

 of formerly of the Laugh-in tv show; it was entitled Soundtrack Of The Sixties, where song requests were offered by postcard to the station as an entry towards the yearly-end prize.

CFRA played pop music until the mid 1980s as Ottawa's leading Top 40 music station, known in the late '70s and early '80s for its hugely popular and controversial evening host Mark Elliott. So popular was Elliott at his peak that he was tapped to be a presenter at the Juno Awards in 1985. Much of Elliott's wildness on the air could be attributed to the fact that he was suffering from drug and alcohol addictions at the time. One of Elliott's most eyebrow-raising behaviors came in 1986 when he quit on the air after a switch to an oldies-based format (see below) was announced. After a short time at competitor CFGO (where his addictions and erratic behaviour cost him his job), Elliott went into rehab and managed to kick his addictions; he later became the host of a talk show for people recovering from addictions on Toronto radio.

In 1986, they changed the format to "Favourites of Yesterday and Today," describing itself as an adult contemporary station (and mirroring a similar change from Top 40 to gold-based AC that same year at sister station CHUM-AM

CHUM (AM)

CHUM, branded as TSN Radio 1050, broadcasting at 1050 kHz in the AM band, is a Canadian radio station licensed to Toronto, Ontario. The station is owned and operated by Bell Media....

 in Toronto). In 1991, CFRA changed the format again to an all-oldies

Oldies

Oldies is a term commonly used to describe a radio format that concentrates on music from a period of about 15 to 55 years before the present day....

 station, before changing to the current news-talk format in 1993. Many believe that CJMJ-FM

CJMJ-FM

CJMJ-FM is an adult contemporary radio station at 100.3 FM in Ottawa, Ontario, Canada. The station uses the brand name Majic 100, and promotes itself as "Today's Soft Rock". It is also one of three adult contemporary outlets owned by Bell Media Radio...

's launch in 1991 (co-owned with CFRA since 1999

1999 in radio

The year 1999 in radio involved some significant events.-Events:*January 1 - 102.1 The Zone stopped played at 6AM and 102.1 FM played a stunt of waves and announcement voice over of our newest radio station....

) led to the demise of CFRA's adult contemporary format. In 2002, CFRA's slogan became "left on the dial, right on the issues", as a tribute to its conservative talk radio political leanings.
The current studios have been located at CHUM's downtown Market Media Mall since 2000. In 2007 CFRA along with the other CHUM stations were sold to CTVglobemedia

CTVglobemedia

CTVglobemedia , was one of Canada's largest private media companies. Its operations include newspaper publishing , television broadcasting and production , radio broadcasting , and their respective Internet properties.Originally established by BCE and the Thomson family in 2001 combining CTV Inc.,...

.

Programming

Notable personalities include Steve Madely

Steve Madely

Steve Madely is an Ottawa, Ontario radio host on CFRA. He got his start in 1964 at CHWO in Oakville, Ontario before eventually joining CFRA in 1981. He is the host of the station's weekday morning show Madely in the Morning, weekdays from 6am to 9am...

, Mark Sutcliffe, Lowell Green

Lowell Green

Lowell Green is a Canadian radio personality. He hosts The Lowell Green Show, a conservative morning talk show on Ottawa radio station CFRA, and has also syndicated programming to several other Canadian radio stations....

, Michael Harris, Rob Snow, and John Counsell

John Counsell

John Counsell is a Canadian broadcaster and pastor.He began pastoring duties in 1981, serving in Canadian communities such as St Catharines, Windsor, Brandon and Neepawa, Manitoba...

.
Other less frequent show hosts are Rabbi

Rabbi

In Judaism, a rabbi is a teacher of Torah. This title derives from the Hebrew word רבי , meaning "My Master" , which is the way a student would address a master of Torah...

 Reuven Bulka

Reuven Bulka

Reuven P. Bulka is a rabbi, writer, broadcaster and activist in Ottawa, Ontario, Canada and former co-president of the Canadian Jewish Congress...

, Shelley McLean, and Greg Hebert.

CFRA also broadcasts syndicated talk radio shows such as Renovations across Canada, Coast to Coast AM

Coast to Coast AM

Coast to Coast AM is a North American late-night syndicated radio talk show that deals with a variety of topics, but most frequently ones that relate to either the paranormal or conspiracy theories. It was created by Art Bell and is distributed by Premiere Radio Networks. The program currently...

, and Duke and the Doctor on weekends and nighttime shows.

CFRA is Ottawa

Ottawa

Ottawa is the capital of Canada, the second largest city in the Province of Ontario, and the fourth largest city in the country. The city is located on the south bank of the Ottawa River in the eastern portion of Southern Ontario...

's only CNN

CNN

Cable News Network is a U.S. cable news channel founded in 1980 by Ted Turner. Upon its launch, CNN was the first channel to provide 24-hour television news coverage, and the first all-news television channel in the United States...

 radio affiliate.

Lowell Green CBSC complaints

A complaint against Lowell Green was launched in 2008 after a provocative show on December 4, 2008 about the Muslim faith. The topic began with Green speaking about a school which had named a teddy bear

Teddy bear

The teddy bear is a stuffed toy bear. They are usually stuffed with soft, white cotton and have smooth and soft fur. It is an enduring form of a stuffed animal in many countries, often serving the purpose of entertaining children. In recent times, some teddy bears have become collector's items...

 Muhammad

Sudanese teddy bear blasphemy case

The Sudanese teddy bear blasphemy case concerns the arrest, trial, conviction, imprisonment and subsequent release of British schoolteacher Gillian Gibbons working at Unity High School in Sudan in 2007.-Arrest:...

. Green then led a discussion on whether the Muslim faith was radical and violent. Lowell himself took the view that is was radical and violent at its core. The complaint to the Canadian Broadcast Standards Council

Canadian Broadcast Standards Council

The Canadian Broadcast Standards Council is an independent, non-governmental organization created by the Canadian Association of Broadcasters to administer standards established by its members, Canada's private broadcasters....

 (CBSC) was launched in December 2008. The CBSC responded that no standards had been broken and there was no obligation for Green to be uncritical of the topic at hand.

The Ontario Regional Panel of the CBSC reviewed the case again after the complainant reiterated his points and did not accept the original decision. Then CBSC then decided that the December 4th Lowell Green show had violated clause 2 (Human Rights

Human rights

Human rights are "commonly understood as inalienable fundamental rights to which a person is inherently entitled simply because she or he is a human being." Human rights are thus conceived as universal and egalitarian . These rights may exist as natural rights or as legal rights, in both national...

) and clause 6 (Full, Fair and Proper Presentation) of the CBSC code of ethics.

A previous complaint had been made to the CBSC in 2006 after a May 18 episode in which Green spoke about the Muslim faith and the Qur'an

Qur'an

The Quran , also transliterated Qur'an, Koran, Alcoran, Qur’ān, Coran, Kuran, and al-Qur’ān, is the central religious text of Islam, which Muslims consider the verbatim word of God . It is regarded widely as the finest piece of literature in the Arabic language...

.

Both complaints resulted in CFRA not being obligated to agree with the complainant but to respond to the complainant in a timely and thorough manner. A response was written by the news director

News Director

A news director is an individual at a broadcast station or network or a newspaper who is in charge of the news department. In local news, the news director is typically in charge of the entire news staff, including journalists, news presenters, photographers, copy writers, television producers,...

 but ultimately, the complainant was not satisfied with the result. The complaint was then sent to the adjudicating panel of the CBSC but no further action was required.

External links

• 580 CFRA
• CFRA's 60th Anniversary website 1947-2007
• History of 580 CFRA from the Canadian Communications Foundation
  Canadian Communications Foundation
  The Canadian Communications Foundation is a history of Canadian broadcasting for radio and television chronicles and documents. It also provides a history of radio and television stations, including networks, programs, broadcasters and many others....
  
  .