CFRB

CFRB went on the air in Toronto in 1927, founded by Edward Samuel "Ted" Rogers Sr., an electrical engineer better known today as the grandfather of the Rogers Communications empire. Rogers Sr. had, in 1925, developed a workable AC-powered vacuum tube that let radio receivers run off household electrical current instead of the noisy, short-lived batteries every earlier set required. He built his own manufacturing company to sell the sets, and started CFRB partly to give Toronto listeners something worth tuning into on them; the call letters are commonly said to stand for "Canada's First Rogers Batteryless."

From CFRB to NewsTalk 1010

Rogers died suddenly in 1939, and the station passed through owners including Jack Kent Cooke and later Standard Broadcasting, keeping its call sign and its identity as a heavyweight news and talk station for the rest of the century, built around personalities like longtime morning host Wally Crouter. In 2002 the station's owners rebranded its on-air identity as NewsTalk 1010, retiring the CFRB name from daily use even though the call letters remained on the broadcast licence.

Sources

• The Canadian Encyclopedia — Ted Rogers
• Wikipedia — CFRB

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