CIRR-FM
LGBT radio station in Toronto
CIRR-FM (103.9 MHz, 103.9 Proud FM) was a radio station in Toronto, Ontario. Owned by Evanov Communications, it broadcast a rhythmic contemporary format with a focus on the area's LGBT community. Launching on April 16, 2007, it was the first radio station in Canada targeted specifically to an LGBT audience, and the first commercial, terrestrial radio station in the world to target such an audience. It was one of six stations in Toronto that reports to Nielsen BDS' Canadian Top 40 airplay panel.
Originally broadcasting from Toronto's Church and Wellesley neighbourhood, CIRR's studios were subsequently located on Dundas Street West in the Eatonville neighbourhood of Toronto, while its transmitter was located atop the Sheraton Centre on Queen Street West in downtown Toronto across from Toronto City Hall.
On August 16, 2023, Evanov announced that the station would be shut down effective September 1, with its staff reassigned to sister station CIDC-FM.
History
Application and launch
The application was filed by Rainbow Media Group, a partnership between Evanov Radio Group and other private investors, in 2005, and was approved by the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission on April 5, 2006. The company planned a format featuring a mix of popular and classic music (with daytime focused primarily towards current and classic hits, and evenings featuring more specialty rhythmic, dance, and world music), with spoken word programming oriented towards Toronto's LGBT community (including at least 7 hours of news programming, and 21 hours of talk/information programming per week). The station also promised to fund a $5,000 annual scholarship to journalism, art or music students at Humber College and Carleton University, and a $30,000 stage showcase for musical artists at Toronto's Pride Week celebrations. Programming would be partially overseen by a community advisory committee. The company first applied for this licence in 2000, but was denied in favour of Milestone Radio's CFXJ, Canada's first urban music station.
“CIRR-FM” enters the record as lGBT radio station in Toronto. Crown Archives preserves that source wording while asking what CIRR-FM, LGBT and radio can confirm, complicate or overturn.
Why this record matters
“CIRR-FM” is worth following because a concise public description often conceals a longer documentary argument. Here, CIRR-FM, LGBT and radio provides the most credible route into that argument.
Maps, plans, fabric surveys and administrative records can establish how the site’s name, extent and function changed over time. The source revision retrieved here is dated Mar 10, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q2931545. Authority coordinates are 43.666, -79.381. 3 of 3 selected statements include explicit references; 1 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 2007, 2023, 2005 and 2006.
A single description cannot reconcile every naming convention, rebuilding phase or administrative transfer associated with a place. The lead is largely declarative, so disagreement and counter-evidence require a deliberate search beyond the opening account. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.
How to read it
Treat names, boundaries and functions as historically changeable. Maps, plans, inventories and administrative records can clarify what the place meant at different dates.
- Historic place names
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Contemporary maps, plans, listed-building records, estate papers and the responsible local or national archive.
Three-step research path
- Establish the record: confirm the title “CIRR-FM”, its source revision and the description used here.
- Expand the search: follow CIRR-FM primary sources, CIRR-FM archive and CIRR-FM research across catalogues and specialist indexes.
- Test the account: compare the strongest cited source with the responsible institution’s current record and note any disagreement.
Questions for further research
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Search terms from this dossier
This entry incorporates text from “CIRR-FM” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.