About "101.3 Virgin Radio"

101.3 Virgin Radio: Halifax's Hit Music Station

101.3 Virgin Radio is a commercial FM radio station licensed to Halifax, Nova Scotia, broadcasting a contemporary hit radio (CHR) format at 101.3 MHz under the call letters CJCH-FM. Owned by Bell Media, it is part of the national Virgin Radio network, one of the most recognized hit-music brands in Canadian radio. The station's roots, however, stretch back more than eighty years: it was established on November 14, 1944, as an AM station founded by The Halifax Chronicle, and its call letters still carry the newspaper's name, The Chronicle Herald. It became 101.3 The Bounce in 2008 and rebranded as 101.3 Virgin Radio on July 29, 2016.

History: from the Chronicle to the FM dial

CJCH was established on November 14, 1944, by The Halifax Chronicle at 1320 AM, the second radio station to sign on in Halifax after CHNS, which had been founded in 1926. In 1945 the station was authorized to increase its power and move to the lower frequency of 920 kHz. By the 1960s it was broadcasting with 10,000 watts by day and 5,000 watts by night, and in 1961 it put a television station on the air, CJCH-TV, which became a CTV Network affiliate later that year.

Through the 1960s and 1970s, CJCH was a popular Top 40 station, the first in the Halifax area to play all contemporary hits, and it carried on a spirited rivalry with CHNS in the format. In 1970 the radio and television stations were acquired by Toronto-based CHUM Limited. In 1978 CJCH received a power boost to 25,000 watts around the clock, making it Halifax's second-highest-powered AM station. In 1983 it began broadcasting in AM stereo, the first station in Atlantic Canada to do so.

As contemporary music listening shifted to the FM dial in the 1980s, CJCH changed course. In 1987 it flipped to an oldies-based adult contemporary format aimed at listeners who had grown up with the station and were now over forty. In August 1993 it switched to classic rock as "Arrow 92," with Arrow standing for All Rock and Roll Oldies; in January 1994 the moniker became "All Rock and Roll Oldies 92/CJCH." In May 1995 it flipped to a hybrid talk and oldies format, and by the end of that year talk programming had taken over the entire schedule under the brand "News/Talk Radio 920/CJCH."

The Team 920 and oldies years

In 2001, CHUM Limited launched a sports radio network known as The Team, and CJCH joined it on May 7 of that year as "The Team 920." The network experiment was short-lived: on August 27, 2002, The Team was shut down and CJCH flipped to an oldies format as "AM 920/CJCH, Yesterday's Favourites." When rival CHNS moved to the FM band in July 2006 and adopted classic rock, CJCH became the only oldies station in Halifax. Its oldies format was distinguished by a mid-morning call-in program called The Hotline, hosted by Rick Howe, which served as the city's open line for local debate.

Moving to FM: the birth of 101.3 The Bounce

In 2007, CTVglobemedia acquired CJCH and its sister station CIOO. On August 31, 2007, the company applied to the CRTC to move CJCH to 101.3 FM; approval came on November 30, 2007. The application had originally indicated the station would keep its oldies format, but CHUM's successor had other plans. After a three-week Industry Canada test period on 101.3 FM beginning May 8, 2008, the end came for the AM signal: on May 30, 2008, at 10:00 a.m., the last oldies song finished playing on 920 CJCH and the station went silent on AM. The new FM station launched immediately with a Top 40/CHR format branded as 101.3 The Bounce, its first song Kanye West's "Stronger."

The Bounce was aimed squarely at Halifax's youth market, launching with three weeks of commercial-free music. Program director Rob Basile promised the station would be fully committed to delivering the hottest hit music, naming artists like Usher, Nelly Furtado, and Timbaland as the sound of the new station. The Bounce competed directly with CKHZ-FM, which leaned toward rhythmic and dance product for young adults; the Bounce's logo and fonts were patterned after CHBN in Edmonton, then under the same ownership. When CKHZ moved to an Adult Top 40 direction in March 2013, the Bounce leaned more rhythmic while staying within mainstream CHR, partly to avoid overlapping with co-owned CIOO-FM. On April 1, 2011, Bell Canada completed its acquisition of CTVglobemedia and named the new division Bell Media, bringing the Bounce into the Bell Media Radio family.

Rebranding as 101.3 Virgin Radio

On July 26, 2016, CJCH began promoting a "major change" to take place on July 29 at 1:00 p.m. At that moment, after playing "Sorry" by Justin Bieber, the station rebranded as 101.3 Virgin Radio, becoming the ninth station in Canada to carry the Virgin branding; CFCA-FM in Kitchener rebranded the same day. The first song on Virgin, at both stations, was "This Is What You Came For" by Calvin Harris and Rihanna.

The Virgin Radio brand is Bell Media's national CHR network, and the Halifax rebrand brought the station in line with sister Virgin stations in markets from Vancouver to Montreal. The station has kept the Top 40/CHR format under the Virgin banner ever since, remaining Halifax's mainstream hit-music outlet. When Bell Media announced in February 2024 that it would sell forty-five of its one hundred and three radio stations to seven buyers, CJCH-FM was not among the stations sold and remains a core Bell Media Radio property.

Programming

101.3 Virgin Radio programs a contemporary hit radio format built around the biggest current pop, hip-hop, and dance hits, supported by the Virgin Radio network's national programming and Bell Media's syndication through Orbyt Media. Like its Virgin siblings across Canada, the station blends high-energy music presentation with local Halifax personalities, contests, and community events, and it has long been a visible sponsor of concerts and youth-oriented happenings around the Halifax Regional Municipality. The station carries Premiere Networks affiliations and streams nationally through Bell Media's iHeartRadio Canada platform.

Ownership and sister stations

The station is owned by Bell Media, operating as Bell Media Radio. Its Halifax sisters include CIOO-FM (Move 100) and CJCH-DT, the CTV Atlantic television station, a relationship that dates back to the days when the radio and TV stations shared the CJCH call letters and CHUM ownership. The studios and offices are located at the intersection of Russell and Agricola streets in Halifax, behind the CJCH-DT television facility.

Signal and coverage

CJCH-FM is a Class C1 station broadcasting at 101.3 MHz with an effective radiated power of 43,000 watts vertical and 100,000 watts horizontal, from a transmitter on Washmill Lake Drive in Clayton Park, with a tower height above average terrain of 160.1 metres. Its broadcast area covers the Halifax Regional Municipality and surrounding communities, and its powerful signal is one of the strongest commercial FM signals in the province.

How to listen

Tune in at 101.3 FM in the Halifax area, or stream live at iheartradio.ca/virginradio/halifax. The station can be reached by phone at 902-453-2524. From its 1944 debut as a newspaper-owned AM voice to its current life as a national-brand hit-music station, CJCH has remained one of Halifax's defining broadcast properties for more than eight decades.