Pembroke, Ontario is not the kind of town that usually gets its own dedicated radio identity built from scratch. But that is exactly what happened when 104.9 myFM signed on the air, part of a company that started with a single license and grew into one of Ontario's steadiest small-market broadcasting success stories.
Built by Two Founders, One License at a Time
According to the Canadian Communications Foundation's history of My Broadcasting Corporation, founders Jon Pole and Andrew Dickson set up the company in 2003 and filed for their first FM license that same fall. The CRTC approved a station in Renfrew in April 2004, and CHMY-FM launched that August playing adult contemporary music. Pembroke followed close behind: CIMY-FM received its own CRTC license in 2005, becoming the second link in what would grow into a chain branded across Ontario as "myFM."
A Regional Growth Story
Over the next several years, MBC expanded steadily into other small Ontario markets, including Strathroy, Exeter, Gananoque, St. Thomas, Alliston, Milton, and Peterborough. By 2021 the company operated roughly 15 myFM-branded stations, and it landed on Canada's list of Fastest-Growing Companies for nine consecutive years through 2019. When the CRTC approved MBC's St. Thomas application in 2010, the regulator specifically pointed to "MBC's experience in operating small-market stations," a track record built in places like Pembroke first.
Serving the Ottawa Valley
CIMY-FM broadcasts from studios on Julien Street in Pembroke, with its transmitter on Round Lake Road near the Trans-Canada Highway, running at an effective radiated power of 17,900 watts. The station sits in the Ottawa Valley, a stretch of the province wedged between the bigger media markets of Ottawa and North Bay, according to Wikipedia's entry on the station. In 2011 the station received CRTC approval to boost its power, extending its reach further across that in-between territory it was built to serve.
What's on the Dial Today
The format has stayed adult contemporary from day one, focused on familiar hits and an easy-listening mix aimed at a broad local audience rather than a narrow demographic. It is small-town radio in the best sense: built by people who bet on Pembroke and the surrounding Ottawa Valley having room for a station of their own, and grew a company out of proving that bet right.