CFTR CityNews 680 (formerly 680 News AM) is a commercial all-news radio station licensed to Toronto, Ontario, serving the Greater Toronto Area. Owned by the Rogers Sports & Media subsidiary of Rogers Communications, the station became Canada's first solo station to broadcast an all-news radio format, following in the footsteps of the CKO national all-news radio network, a format that has since been replicated in major markets across the country. The CFTR studios are located at the Rogers Building at Bloor and Jarvis Streets in downtown Toronto, while the station transmitter is located on the southern edge of Lake Ontario at Oakes and Winston Road (near the QEW and Casablanca Road) in nearby Grimsby. While CFTR broadcasts at the maximum power for Canadian AM stations, 50,000 watts, it must use a complicated directional antenna system to avoid interfering with other stations on 680 AM. In addition to a standard analog transmission, CFTR is simulcast on the second HD digital subchannel of CKIS-FM, and is available online. CityNews 680 is also simulcast on Bell Satellite TV channel 958. History Early years The station launched on August 8, 1962. Its original frequency was 1540 kHz, using the call letters CHFI, simulcasting the beautiful music of sister station CHFI-FM, one of Canada's first FM radio stations. Because 1540 is a clear-channel frequency assigned to stations in the United States and the Bahamas, CHFI was authorized to broadcast only during the daytime. In 1963, it sought to pay CHLO in St. Thomas, Ontario to move from 680 to another frequency, to free up 680 for CHFI's use. No deal was finalized, but, by 1966, the stations reached an agreement to share 680, and CHFI moved to 24-hour operation at that frequency. In 1971, so as to distinguish itself from CHFI-FM, the station changed its call letters to CFTR; the "TR" being a tribute to Ted Rogers, Sr., radio pioneer and father of controlling shareholder Ted Rogers. In 1972, CFTR abandoned the beautiful music simulcast of CHFI and adopted a Top 40 format. For many years, it was the primary competition to Toronto's original Top 40 station, CHUM. In 1973, programmer Chuck Camroux upped the ante in the Toronto radio "Rock and Roll Wars" by tweaking CFTR's notoriously bad signal, adding some reverb, and hiring new morning man Jim Brady to rival CHUM's Jay Nelson. Both stations hovered near one million listeners per week. Although