CFPG-FM (99.1 MHz, Country 99) is a commercial radio station in Winnipeg, Manitoba. Owned by Corus Entertainment, it broadcasts a country music format branded as "Country 99". Its transmitter is off St. Mary's Road in Duff Roblin Provincial Park, while its studios are co-located with its sister stations at 201 Portage in Downtown Winnipeg. ^[1]

History

CJZZ

The station signed on the air on February 28, 2003; 21 years ago (February 28, 2003). Its call sign was CJZZ-FM and it was owned by Canwest Communications. ^[2] The frequency was the former home in Winnipeg of all-news radio network CKO for a short period in 1988 and 1989.

CJZZ-FM aired a smooth jazz format from the Starbuck Communications Tower. But Canwest found this caused multipath interference to occur, so the company applied to the CRTC to broadcast from a new transmitter that Rogers Communications was constructing. ^[3] and to decrease the ERP from 100,000 to 63,700 watts. ^[4] At this time the station was branded as 99.1 Cool FM, a tie-in for co-owned cable TV station CoolTV.

CJGV

In September 2006, Corus Entertainment, already owner of Winnipeg's CJOB and CJKR-FM, announced it would buy CJZZ and Kitchener, Ontario's CKBT-FM, from CanWest, subject to CRTC approval. The transaction was approved by the CRTC on July 6, 2007. Corus Entertainment officially took ownership of CJZZ on July 29, 2007. On November 5, 2007, the station rebranded as Groove FM, and changed its call letters to CJGV-FM.

In April 2010, Corus Radio Winnipeg announced the future relocation of its radio broadcast facility to 1440 Rapelje Avenue (since renamed Jack Blick Avenue), as part of a lease agreement between Corus Entertainment and Cadillac Fairview. The relocation to studios and offices in Polo Park was originally slated for January 2011. CJOB, CJGV and CJKR would become the anchor tenants. Corus Radio Winnipeg planned to occupy the second floor of the three-story building, upsizing its radio, production and business operations to 17,500 square feet (1,630 m²). ^[1]

In August 2011, Corus filed an application with the CRTC to remove the requirement for the station to broadcast a specialty smooth jazz format, citing significant financial losses in recent years. ^[5] On November 30, 2011, the CRTC approved CJGV's application, although requiring it to maintain two hours of smooth jazz content per-week. ^[6]

Fresh FM, Peggy

On December 1, 2011, the station began playing Christmas music for the holiday season, and announced plans to flip to adult contemporary on January 1, 2012. On that date, CJGV flipped to a hot adult contemporary format branded as simply 99.1 FM, before ultimately adopting Corus's " Fresh FM" brand on February 14, 2012 at Noon; the first song under the brand was " All Good Things (Come to an End)" by Nelly Furtado. ^[7] On February 13, 2015, the station rebranded as 99.1 Fresh Radio, and switched to a modern adult contemporary format, and added more alternative songs. ^[8]

On December 25, 2016, at 5 p.m., following the conclusion of its Christmas music programming, CJGV re-launched as Peggy @ 99.1, an adult contemporary format featuring current music and past hits going back to the 1980s; the first song as "Peggy" was " Girls Just Want to Have Fun" by Cyndi Lauper. Corus described the station as reflecting "the positive, energetic and fun vibe of Winnipeg while giving listeners the music they want." ^{[9] [10] [11]} In March 2017, its call letters were changed to CFPG-FM to match the new branding.

Country music

On September 26, 2023, Corus confirmed it had released CFPG's on-air staff, announcing a "whole new sound" for the station to debut at a then-undisclosed time shortly thereafter. ^[12] After running jockless following the dismissals, the station began running Christmas music on November 23 at 4 p.m., dropping the regular "Peggy" format for good (although still using the sweepers and imagery of the branding in the interim). On December 1, Corus officially announced that the station would flip to country music as Country 99 on December 27, 2023, following the conclusion of its Christmas music programming. The change took place at Midnight on the date promised; the final song as "Peggy" was " Last Christmas" by Wham!, while the first song as "Country 99" was " Last Night Lonely" by Jon Pardi. ^{[13] [14]}

References

External links

• Peggy @ 99.1
• CJGV-FM in the REC Canadian station database

49°45′20″N 97°07′53″W / 49.75556°N 97.13139°W / 49.75556; -97.13139