CHNO-FM - Switch To FM

Switch To FM

Haliburton applied to the CRTC to move both CHNO and CHYC to FM, which was approved on August 31, 1999. In November 1999, CHNO dropped its oldies format and adopted its new contemporary hit radio format and Z103 branding on the old AM frequency a few months before the station made its official move to FM. CHNO began testing its 103.9 FM signal just days before officially launching on February 3, 2000. The FM and AM signals aired simultaneously for a few weeks, and on February 29, the AM signal was closed permanently.

The station was originally licensed to broadcast at 100 kilowatts, but because of transmitter interference to the Greater Sudbury Airport the station's license was permanently amended to 11 kilowatts.

As a CHR station, Z103 hosted live-to-air programs from area nightclubs in the city, as well as syndicated shows such as the Rick Dees Weekly Top 40, American Top 40 and Canadian Hit 30 Countdown. Positioning slogans during the CHR period included "Sudbury's Best Music", "Today's Best Music" and "Sudbury's #1 Hit Music Station."

On November 9, 2001, Haliburton sold CHNO to Newcap Broadcasting. Despite no longer having common ownership, however, CHYC and CHNO continued to operate from the same studio facility at 493 Barrydowne Road in Sudbury until 2009.

Newcap and Rogers Media soon entered into a joint sales agreement, under which Rogers held responsibility for advertising sales on CHNO as well as on its own CJRQ, CIGM and CJMX. In 2002, however, Friends of Canadian Broadcasting filed a brief with the CRTC opposing the station's license renewal — FCB took the position that in practice, the agreement was extending well beyond advertising sales and into both program production and news gathering, and thus constituted an illegal de facto local management agreement. On January 31, 2005, the CRTC disallowed the agreement, ruling in its license renewals for the four stations that the agreement must be terminated no later than May 31 of that year.