CFMI first signed on in early 1970. Over the years, the station added FM transmitters in most of British Columbia. On July 26, 2011, CFMI-FM received Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission approval by increasing New Westminister's transmitter to the average effective radiated power from 37,000 to 53,000 watts, by decreasing the effective height of antenna above average terrain from 686 to 386.4 meters and by relocating its transmitter. On July 15, 2014, CFMI-FM dropped the wordClassic from its name and shifted its format from classic rock to mainstream rock; such a move was also implemented on CILQ-FM in Toronto, which is also owned by Corus. As of November 2016, the station shifted to "classic rock and the greatest hits of the 70's, 80's and 90's".
HD Programming
On October 13, 2015, CFMI-HD was launched as the first Canadian HD service west of Ontario:
HD3 carries sister station CHMJ AM 730; this began on July 3, 2016 due to AM730's transmitter being damaged by the 2016 Burns Bog fire.
Overview
The station signed on with a very-short-lived country music format. This was followed by a light-popular music format. CFMI was distinguished in its earlier years by being a technical innovator of early automation systems. Stereo automation systems of the day relied heavily on reel-to-reel tape machines for music. CFMI's automation had no reel machines, but relied totally on cartridge carousels, which allowed greater programming flexibility, but no broadcast cartridges of the day could reproduce quality stereo. The response of CFMI's engineers was to invent a new cartridge that could: the Aristocart. Parent companyWestern International Communications went on to develop a manufacturing division, exporting these improved cartridges to broadcasters around the world. Today's broadcasters use computer systems with large hard drives to reproduce music digitally, and have no need of tape systems. But in its heyday, the Aristocart was an improvement to a technical problem shared by all commercial stereo broadcasters. Among CFMI's programming innovations was Discumentary, a one-hour musical documentary of programming featuring a particular artist or a particular theme. This was developed in response to the CRTC's requirement for foreground programming. The Discumentary programs were written by Paul Wiggins and voiced by Dave McCormick, then Terry David Mulligan and syndicated throughout Canada, and broadcast internationally on the Anik D satellite. Later, CRTC regulations phased out the need for foreground programming, and CFMI phased out Discumentary.
Rebroadcasters
CFMI also operates on a number of low-power FM transmitters and cable channels.
Alberta
British Columbia
Newfoundland and Labrador
Saskatchewan
Washington State
Comcast Cable Channel 979 - Puget Sound area of Western Washington. As of June 17th 2019, Comcast discontinued carriage of CFMI and all other over the air radio stations.
