Radio Boom 97.3

CHBM-FM is a radio station in Toronto, Ontario, Canada owned by Astral Media, and the only adult hits station owned by Astral Media. It broadcasts an adult hits format at 97.3 FM and is branded as boom 97.3, Toronto's Greatest Hits, with a playlist focus from the 1970s-1990s. Like most Toronto radio stations, this station transmits from the CN Tower with an ERP of 28,900 watts.The station was launched in 1987 by Redmond Broadcasting, with the call letters CJEZ-FM, as an easy listening station, under the branding Easy 97. In the early 1990s, it changed its format to classic hits as Z 97.3FM. In 1995, Telemedia acquired the station, which soon after adopted the adult contemporary format with the branding 97.3 EZ Rock. It became the flagship when several other stations owned by Telemedia at the time broadcasting a similar format were also rebranded as EZ Rock.In 2002, Standard Radio bought Telemedia and kept CJEZ under their ownership, while some of the other EZ Rock stations were sold to either Rogers Communications or Astral Media.In 2007, Astral purchased Standard, resulting in the Standard-owned EZ Rock stations across Canada (including CJEZ) becoming under its ownership.In 2008, Humble Howard took over 97.3 EZ Rock's morning show in August. He replaced Stu Jeffries.In November 2009, Rick Hodge and Kim Stockwood left EZ Rock. A short time later midday announcer Darryl Henry was gone from the station as well.On December 26, 2009 at 9:00 a.m, after almost 15 years as an adult contemporary station, the station changed formats becoming an adult hits station (the first for the company, even though Astral is Canada's largest radio company) with the branding boom 97.3, Toronto's Greatest Hits, adopting the Boom FM branding used by some of Astral's small-market French-language stations in Quebec. This now puts itself in direct competition with CING-FM, which became a classic hits station a month earlier in November 2009. There was no change in local airstaff after the format flip. This leaves CHFI-FM as the only adult contemporary station in the Toronto radio market. However, CKDX-FM could now be known as a direct competitor to that station. Overall, Vancouver is still the largest market with only one adult contemporary radio station, which is CHQM-FM. The call letters were changed on December 27, 2009 to CHBM-FM. Even after the station switched to adult hits, the "boom 97.3" jingle sounds similar to that of Virgin Radio.The first song played on boom 97.3 was Don't Stop Believing by Journey. The last song played on 97.3 EZ Rock was Christina Aguilera's version of This Christmas three hours before the format flip. This is because the station played Christmas music for a month prior to the flip. It became Toronto's first adult hits station ever since former Jack FM station CJAQ-FM (now CKIS-FM) switched to mainstream rock in 2006. boom 97.3 became more successful than Toronto's original Jack FM station.A similar situation happened in Vancouver on Boxing Day 2002, when Rogers Media's former adult contemporary station CKKS-FM flipped to adult hits as Jack FM and months later became CKLG-FM. Ratings increased on the Jack FM station whereas some former CKKS-FM listeners moved to rival CHQM-FM, currently the only adult contemporary station in Vancouver. During the first book of boom 97.3, it debuted with a 9.3 share, slightly higher than what was 97.3 EZ Rock and one of the highest-rated books since 2005.On May 28, 2010, Astral Media launched CJOT-FM 99.7 in Ottawa as the new flagship station of EZ Rock, and it just took about most of the former jingles of CJEZ-FM, even the former EZRock.com website.CHBM is the only Boom FM station with an adult hits format, although its logo consists of the same font and 45 RPM insert device as its French-language counterparts.