CIQB-FM

Barrie, Ontario
Broadcast area	Central Ontario
Frequency	101.1MHz
Branding	Big 101
Programming
Format	Classic hits
Ownership
Owner	Corus Entertainment (591589 B.C. Ltd.)
Sister stations	CHAY-FM
History
First air date	August 1,1949 (AM) November1994 (FM)
Former call signs	CKBB (1949–1994)
Former frequencies	1230kHz (AM) (1949–1958) 950 kHz (1958–1994)
Technical information
Class	B
ERP	4,300watts average 7,500 watts peak
HAAT	303.5 meters (996 ft)
Links
Website	1011bigfm.com

CIQB-FM (101.1MHz) is acommercialradio station inBarrie, Ontario. The station uses the on-air brand nameBig 101 and is owned byCorus Entertainment, which also ownssister stationCHAY-FM. CIQB broadcasts aclassic hitsformat, switching toChristmas music for much of November and December.

On August 1, 1949, the station firstsigned on asCKBB. It was launched byRalph Snelgrove's Barrie Broadcasting Company atAM 1230. It was Barrie's first radio station, and was initially a mixture of music andtalk programming. It moved to 950 AM in 1958. In December 1983, the station was acquired by Kawartha Broadcasting, and in 1987, ownership passed to the broadcasting arm ofPower Corporation of Canada.

In November 1994, after more than 45 years on the AM dial, CKBB moved to FM asCIQB-FM at 101.1 MHz.^[1] The station became known asB101, originally airing ahot adult contemporary format. CIQB was acquired byCorus Entertainment in April 2000. On October 15,2000, the station shifted toadult contemporary, taking the format from sister stationCHAY-FM, which flipped totop 40 asEnergy Radio. The station reverted tohot AC in August2003 (when CHAY returned toAC), and finally to top 40 in2008. It was one of three top 40 stations owned by Corus radio along withCKQB-FM inOttawa andCKBT-FM inKitchener.

On April 1, 2016,Shaw Media was sold toCorus Entertainment. On July 27 of that year, CIQB's website was replaced with a countdown clock to July 29 at Noon, with CIQB itself running liners advising to listen at that specific time, claiming Barrie was about to get "bigger". At that time, after playing "Anybody Listening" byClassified, the station flipped toclassic rock, branded as101.1 Big FM. The first song on "Big" was "Big Time" byPeter Gabriel.^[2] The flip occurred in order to reduce the format overlap with sister station CHAY (which airs aHot AC format). With the change, morning host Dave Blezard moved to afternoons at CHAY, while CIQB's new airstaff was announced on August 2.^[3][4][5][6]

• Big 101
• CIQB-FM at The History of Canadian Broadcasting by theCanadian Communications Foundation
• Decision CRTC 94-627
• CIQB-FM in the REC Canadian station database

44°21′05″N79°41′54″W / 44.35139°N 79.69833°W /44.35139; -79.69833

• Radio stations in Barrie
• Corus Entertainment radio stations
• Classic hits radio stations in Canada
• Radio stations established in 1949
• 1949 establishments in Ontario

• Pages using gadget WikiMiniAtlas
• Articles with short description
• Short description matches Wikidata
• Articles using infobox radio station
• Coordinates on Wikidata