The Team (corporately styled as The TEAM) was a Canadian sports radio network, which broadcast from 2001 to 2002. It was owned and operated by CHUM Limited, based on the existing format of their Ottawa station The Team 1200, and incorporated virtually all of the company's AM radio stations across Canada. It was dissolved as a national network in 2002 amid poor ratings, although a few of its former stations retained the sports format and Team branding as standalone entities.

History

The Team logo, branded for 1050 Toronto

The network was launched on May 7, 2001, but struggled to build an audience in many cities. In Toronto, for example, the network had to compete against Telemedia's The Fan 590, and found that much of its potential audience had already built a strong sense of loyalty to the more established station. The switch of 1050 CHUM, the network's flagship station, away from its popular former oldies format was also controversial.

The network aired both original programming — its marquee Canadian sportscaster was Jim Van Horne, while other programs were hosted by Paul Romanuk, Mike Richards and Gene Valaitis^[1] — and syndicated sports programming from the United States, such as The Jim Rome Show.

In August 2002, after just over a year on the air, CHUM pulled the plug and most of the network's stations reverted to their old pre-Team formats.^[1] However, the sports format and the Team branding were retained in Ottawa, where it had already been the station's established format before the network was launched, and in Montreal and Vancouver, where it was also successful in the ratings. Most of these stations, and one in Edmonton which had licensed the brand name but which at the time was owned by a different company, continued to use the Team branding as of early 2011, but were no longer considered a network.

All of the stations, save the former Calgary affiliate, are now owned by CHUM's successor Bell Media. In 2011, some of these stations were rebranded and integrated into a new TSN Radio network, starting with Toronto's radio station CHUM on April 13, 2011;^[2] the Winnipeg and Montreal stations were added shortly thereafter, with Ottawa and Edmonton stations added in 2013. The two Bell Media-owned sports radio stations in Vancouver, while sharing some programming with the TSN Radio stations, retained the Team branding until September 8, 2014, when they were both re-branded as TSN Radio.^[3]

The Team stations

Later

Vancouver's CFTE, a sister station to CKST, also converted to the Team branding in 2009, airing a similar but distinct schedule of sports programming from its sister. Meanwhile, CHUM's Winnipeg AM station CFRW returned to an all-sports format on September 27, 2010, at the time, the station was known as "Sports Radio 1290" (without any Team branding).^[5] The station was subsequently relaunched as TSN Radio 1290 on October 5, 2011.^[6]

Following the 2007 acquisition of CHUM by CTVglobemedia, majority owner of TSN, there had been occasional reports about CTV potentially using the remaining Team stations and/or the 1050 frequency in Toronto to launch a new sports radio station in Toronto or full radio network using TSN content and personalities.^[7] Plans on launching a new TSN Radio brand began in January 2011 and Toronto's radio station CHUM (1050 AM) became the first station under the new TSN Radio network as TSN Radio 1050 on April 13, 2011.^[2][8] CTVglobemedia was purchased by Bell Canada Enterprises in early 2011 and became Bell Media; the company completed its purchase of Astral Media, owner of The Team's former Edmonton affiliate CFRN, in July 2013.

References