Few radio signals have changed identity as often as CING-FM. Since going on air in 1976, the station now known as Energy 95.3 has been a beautiful music outlet, an oldies station, a dance station, a country station, a classic hits station, and more, before landing on the hot adult contemporary format it runs today.
Starting With The Carpenters
According to Wikipedia's history of the station, CING-FM launched on September 24, 1976 at 107.9 MHz in Burlington as a beautiful music station built around instrumental pop covers. The first song ever played on the frequency was fittingly gentle: "Sing" by The Carpenters. The station drifted toward oldies by 1980, then a soft adult contemporary and MOR hybrid through the late 1980s, before dance music crept into evening slots starting in 1989 and eventually took over the schedule entirely by September 1991.
From Shaw to Corus
Shaw Communications bought the station in 1997 and rebranded it Energy Radio with a shift toward mainstream contemporary hits, before spinning off its radio holdings into Corus Entertainment in 1999, which has owned the station ever since. CING moved to its current 95.3 MHz frequency on August 31, 2001, adopting a hot adult contemporary format that has, in one variation or another, defined it since.
A Decade of Format Whiplash
Between 2002 and 2019, the station cycled through country music, classic hits as "Vinyl 95.3," and two separate hot AC eras branded "Fresh FM" and "Fresh Radio." Corus finally returned to the Energy name on March 26, 2019, relaunching the station as Energy 95.3 and bringing in new morning hosts Tucker and Maura from sister station CKFM-FM in Toronto.
Broadcasting From Steeltown
Hamilton has long been known as Canada's Steeltown, home to the country's largest steel manufacturing industry along its harbor, and Energy 95.3 broadcasts across that industrial city and the wider Niagara region from its Corus-owned tower. It is a hot AC signal built for a working city's daily commute rather than a niche audience.
Why It's Worth Tuning In
Energy 95.3 is a station that has tried on nearly every format Canadian radio has to offer since 1976, settling into a hot adult contemporary sound that keeps Hamilton's Energy 95.3 morning drive moving with current hits and a touch of hometown steel-city energy.