CJCL Sportsnet 590 The Fan

CJCL (590 AM, Sportsnet 590 The Fan) is a Canadian sports radio station in Toronto, Ontario. Owned and operated by Rogers Radio, a division of Rogers Sports & Media since 2002, CJCL's studios are located at the Rogers Building at Bloor and Jarvis in downtown Toronto, while its transmitters are located near Grimsby atop the Niagara Escarpment. It is the flagship station for the Toronto Blue Jays, and also airs games from the Toronto Raptors, Toronto Maple Leafs, Buffalo Bisons and Buffalo Bills. CJCL is a Infinity Sports Network affiliate. The station was originally owned by longtime sportscaster Foster Hewitt and began broadcasting on February 21, 1951, as CKFH 1400 before moving to 1430 AM in 1960. Telemedia acquired the station in 1981 and relaunched it as CJCL. During its early life, the station aired news and sports, Top 40, country music, adult contemporary and talk radio formats. It adopted the current sports format on September 4, 1992, as The Fan 1430 as Canada's first all-sports radio station before swapping frequencies with CKYC 590, acquired in 1994 by Telemedia, on February 6, 1995, adopting The Fan 590 branding. After Telemedia was sold to Standard Broadcasting, Rogers acquired CJCL in 2002. CJCL operates at 50,000 watts, the highest power permitted for AM stations, around the clock. The station's signal is directional from north to south to protect various lower-powered radio stations east and west of the station. Even with this restriction, due to its location near the bottom of the AM dial, as well as its transmitter power and height, CJCL covers most of southern Ontario during the day. Although it is not a clear-channel station, at night it can be heard across most of eastern Canada with a good radio. CJCL is simulcast across Canada on Bell Satellite TV channel 959, and on Shaw Direct channel 868. It is also carried on the 3rd HD digital subchannel of CKIS-FM.