CFAN "99.3 The River" streams today's best country music live from Miramichi, New Brunswick, a Maritime Broadcasting System station named for the salmon river that defines the region. Press play on Radio Shuffle and it streams instantly, free, with no account or app download required.
From an AM signal in 1949 to an FM rebrand in 2003
The station's roots go back more than seventy years. According to Wikipedia's history of CFAN-FM, it first signed on April 4, 1949 as CKMR at 1340 AM, later moving to 790 AM, before the callsign changed to CFAN in 1973. The station stayed on AM for more than five decades until the CRTC approved a move to the FM band in July 2002, and on January 10, 2003 it relaunched at 99.3 MHz under the branding it still carries today, 99.3 The River, first promoted with the tagline "Miramichi's Best Music."
A format change that stuck
The station spent its early FM years as an adult contemporary outlet before a clean break on September 7, 2012, when it switched its format to country at 6 p.m. and adopted the slogan "Today's Best Country." The station kept its name and its river branding through the shift, a sign of how closely the identity was already tied to the Miramichi itself rather than any particular format.
Country radio in a region built on folk music and salmon
That river is not just a logo choice. New Brunswick's music scene, according to Wikipedia's overview of the province's music, is best known for country and bluegrass that blends Acadian, Irish, and Scottish influences, and Miramichi has carried that reputation for decades. The region also hosts the Miramichi Folksong Festival, founded in 1958 by folklorist Louise Manny and widely regarded as the oldest folk music festival in Canada, alongside a river famous worldwide for Atlantic salmon fishing. Country radio fits naturally into a place where fiddle tunes, river life, and small-town identity have always run together.
Listen free on Radio Shuffle
99.3 The River streams today's country hits from a station that has carried the Miramichi name on the air since 1949. Stream it free on Radio Shuffle, anywhere, any time, with no sign-up required.