Toronto's Urban Radio Map

One of my favourite things to do during long distance and out of town road trips is to scan my radio’s FM dial in search of new stations offering their own unique brand of urban programming. I’ve been doing this for decades and it’s a joy to see that at least in my own city of Toronto, there is an extensive array of choices waiting for those who crave their own musical dose of urban musical flavours. Toronto is a melting pot of a wide variety of races and cultures so listening to urban radio here is an offering of a wide spectrum of urban music; Dance, Afro, Pop, Hip-hop and Hip-Pop, and yes, some Reggae, Soca, Funk, House, and many more. 

But scan your Toronto FM dial and you will hear for yourself that for the most part, urban musical flavours are delivered in bits and pieces all over the radio. Toronto listeners seeking urban and Black music programming are spoon-fed this music; it’s delivered in little bits and pieces on the FM spectrum. The common programming style of most Toronto FM radio stations is a musical mixture of Top 40, hits-pop and traditional rock with some urban flavours visited infrequently. 

Missing from our own Canadian radio spectrum is old school funk and soul, but this void is filled to some degree by Buffalo’s WBLK, an American Black radio station yes, but a fitting example of where authentic Black music lives and thrives. With very few exceptions, Toronto listeners seeking a pure urban musical experience have to seek out specialty shows to get satisfaction, especially Reggae, Soca, and surprisingly, even Hip-hop and Afro.

Being a Toronto resident for over 50 years, I will personally attest to the fact that Toronto listeners are used to accepting the scraps; after decades of being denied our own full-time commercial urban radio station, we tolerate this spoon-feeding, and for the most part, take what we can get. The exceptions are Toronto radio stations Flow 98.7, Vibe 105, and for those who can pick up the signal, Buffalo’s 93.7 WBLK; all three stations, for the most part, offer full-time around-the-clock urban music programming. 

However, there would be no mercy for WBLK, a cultured American entity rich in substance and delivery, that for decades unforgivingly reaped hundreds of thousands of Canadian advertising dollars away from the Toronto economy because of this city’s inability to create a similar model. It seemed somewhat suspect, but Toronto’s gift of its first full-time urban station, Flow 93.5, came at the expense of the subtraction of Buffalo’s WBLK. The two frequencies being so close meant that the two could not co-exist; one essentially would replace the other. WBLK, despite having an amazing signal strength that satisfied Toronto’s Black music tastes for decades, can no longer be received by the great majority of Toronto FM listeners because of the 2001 birth of Toronto’s CFXJ aka Flow 93.5 FM. 

Despite the loss, WBLK still stands unique in the eyes and ears of Toronto FM listeners. Culturally, it is still the closest model to a true Black radio station that this city has ever witnessed; no Canadian station can compare. Sadly, Toronto radio stations lack the qualification and fabric to even attempt to self-brand as a Black radio station and use the safe term ‘urban’ instead. The title is truly deserved because our culturally diverse city of Toronto is likely not rooted to support a full-time Black radio station like the soulful, culturally rooted and American WBLK. Arguably, an authentic Black radio station should be Black owned and operated, featuring primarily Black programmers and staff, and of course, be proud of their Blackness and unafraid to play all aspects of Black music and engage in Black political patter. 

In February, 2022, Flow 93.5, Toronto’s only full-time commercial radio station, shifted to a new frequency, taking over the 98.7 FM spot as G98.7, and rebranded today as Flow 98.7 FM. There’ a lot more to the Flow story that we will tell later in this series, but despite the switch from the 93.5 to the 98.7 FM frequency, the signal strength issue would still continue to linger for Flow despite no longer cohabitating with WBLK. The present 98.7 Flow signal may be strong in central Toronto areas, but in urban areas such as Scarborough and Pickering, there is interference from CBC Radio, you hear both stations flipping back and forth, rather irritating. In Toronto west-end outskirts like Mississauga and Brampton, the signal is mediocre at best, and constantly cuts in and out. The bottom line – it’s hard to compete for new and increased listenership in Toronto’s cutthroat market when you have a limited signal strength issue in prime areas where Black people live. 

We’ll give one more station a shout-out for now; Vibe 105, formerly CHRY, is a revamped version of a Toronto community radio station that dared to switch to an all-urban format. Located at Toronto’s prestigious York University, Vibe 105 is appreciated more now after years of delivering some really good urban shows intertwined between the typical whitewashed rock and pop Canadian campus station programming. Their new Vibe 105.5 format offers more urban flavours integrated into the daily programming, appropriate for the vast, diverse, ethnic and disenfranchised communities which they have made it an obligation to serve. With Vibe 105, we get a taste of what a Toronto full-time urban experience feels like, not bad so far as a personal listener. The Vibe 105 signal is modestly strong in Toronto’s West-end, and as you drive out of the city, the signal strength is about the same as commercial station Flow 98.7.

So let’s take a look at what you’re gonna get when you scan your Toronto FM dial left to right, but we’ll first pay homage to two radio stations that are no longer there to serve the urban and Black community. Let’s start at the far left of the dial with former Toronto campus station CKLN 88.1 FM.