CHAY-FM

CHAY-FM

City of license	Barrie, Ontario
Broadcast area	Central Ontario
Branding	93.1 Fresh Radio
Slogan	Love The Music
Frequency	93.1 MHz (FM)
First air date	May 21, 1977
Format	Hot adult contemporary
ERP	100,000 watts
HAAT	303.5 meters (996 ft)
Class	C1
Callsign meaning	"Chay" is a Huron greeting loosely translated to "good day."
Owner	Corus Entertainment (Corus Premium Television Ltd.)
Sister stations	CIQB-FM
Webcast	Listen Live
Website	931freshradio.ca

CHAY-FM is a Canadian radio station in Barrie, Ontario broadcasting at 93.1 FM. The station airs a hot adult contemporary format using its on-air brand name as 93.1 Fresh Radio. The station is owned by Corus Entertainment which also owns sister station CIQB-FM as well as other Corus radio stations across Canada.

History

CHAY-FM signed on with a hybrid easy listening/beautiful music format on May 21, 1977, but changed to more of an adult contemporary format the following decade with the decline of beautiful music on FM radio. The station initially broadcast from a 1,000 foot tower just south of Barrie that it shared with local television station CKVR-TV. Later that year, on September 27, a small plane crashed into the tower, destroying the building and killing everyone on board. Toronto station CHIN-FM assisted CHAY in temporarily restoring its signal until the tower was replaced one year later.

In 1989, CHAY-FM moved from a traditional easy listening format to more of a mainstream adult contemporary format. Throughout the transition period, the station continued to attract an audience of a quarter million listeners per week.

On October 15, 2000, CHAY-FM flipped from adult contemporary to a contemporary hit radio format as "Energy 93.1" simulcasting some programming from its sister station CING-FM in Burlington, Ontario. By 2003, the station returned to its adult contemporary format as The New CHAY 93.1 FM, in 2008 the station was rebranded to FM93 "Barrie's Fresh Music Mix" but kept the same adult contemporary format.

On March 11, 2011, the station flipped to an adult hits format as "CHAY TODAY @ 93.1 FM"; by summer 2014, the station moved back to an upbeat mainstream adult contemporary format.

On May 15, 2015, CHAY-FM re-branded under Corus's Fresh Radio brand as "93.1 Fresh Radio" with a hot adult contemporary format, after the station's rebranding, CHAY-FM became the eighth Corus radio station to adopt the "Fresh Radio" branding.

External links

• Official website
• History on CHAY 93.1 FM - Canadian Communications Foundation
• Query the REC's Canadian station database for CHAY-FM