Q107 signed on the air at 9 a.m. on May 22, 1977. The first song played on the station was "Hard Rock Town" by Murray McLauchlan, although the station officially signed on with Deodato's "Also sprach Zarathustra". Q107 debuted with an album rock format, part of the numerous "Superstars" formatted stations developed by Lee Abrams in the US, one in each major radio market. Roughly 1,000 songs revolved in a playlist in a revolving card category system based on media sales data. Platinum albums were category B1 or B2. Golden oldies were D1 or D2. Canadian content was another. Most of the music library was locked in the back and not accessible to anyone except the music director and his assistant. Announcers would pull albums from a shelf in the control room limited to about 1,000. The original lineup for announcers was John Rode in mornings, Murray Smith in late mornings, Program Director Dave Charles in early afternoons, John Donabie in afternoon drive, Mary-Ann Carpentier in evenings and Scott Marwood in nights. At 2 am, Marwood featured "Odds & Ends" a full album played in its entirety from his personal collection. CILQ's original owner was CFGM Broadcasting, a division of J. Allan Slaight's Slaight Communications. The station was acquired by Western International Communications in 1985 when Slaight bought Standard Broadcasting, and became part of Corus Entertainment in 2000 when WIC's assets were divided between Corus and Canwest Global. Although ostensibly in a mainstream rock format as of 1996, Q107 reconverted to a classic rock format on September 1, 2000. On April 7, 2014, CILQ-FM switched back to a mainstream rock format and adopted a new slogan: "Toronto's Rock Station". Since 2015, Q107 has been adding more pop music to their playlist, and although classic rock still makes up a good portion of their playlist, the station has more of a classic hits feel to it. As of 2016, Q107 had dropped the "rock" reference from their slogan and began billing itself as "Great Hits & Real Classics". As of September 24, 2018, the station returned to playing mainstream rock and reintroduced the “Toronto’s Rock Station” slogan.
Programming
Notable personalities associated with the station have included: Byrd, John Donabie, the duo of Jesse Dylan and Gene Valaitis, Scruff Connors, Joey Vendetta, Brother Jake Edwards, Jane Hawtin, Earl McCrae, John Derringer, Bill Carroll, Maureen Holloway, Andy Frost, Bob "Iceman" Segarini, Lee "Beef" Eckley, Rory O'Shea, Jonny "Gonzo" Mark, Joanne Wilder, Howard "The Hungryman" Cogan, Steve Anthony, Dusty Shannon, Alice Cooper, legendary Canadian rocker Kim Mitchell, with Al Joynes and Jennifer Valentyne. In September 1997, Q107 became the first Canadian radio stations to air The Howard Stern Show, syndicated from New York City. Stern was taken off Q107 in November 2001. Each weekend there used to be a theme. They play songs that fall within the theme at least once each hour. Q107 aired Psychedelic Psunday from 1985 to 2018, in which the DJs play classic rock songs from the psychedelic era of 1965 through 1975. The program was hosted by Andy Frost, who anchored the bulk of the show. A variety of other station jocks have hosted portions of the show over the years. Jeff Woods hosts a show called Records and Rockstars to give listeners the background stories to some of their favourite music. On August 10, 2005, the station sparked controversy when it aired a recording of a Rolling Stones concert from 2002. The Stones were appearing in concert in Toronto the same evening, and many listeners had interpreted advance promotion for the broadcast as implying that Q107 would in fact be airing live from that evening's concert. Although he denied that the station intended to give that impression, station manager JJ Johnston apologized to listeners two days later. In early 2009, the station introduced Nights with Alice Cooper, airing from 9pm to 2am on Saturday nights.
During the late 1980s and early 1990s, the on-air personalities maintained a feud with CHUM-FM, referring to it as "SCUM FM", a holorime wordplay on its rival station's oft-pronounced call letters. The station itself was referred to as "SCREW 107" in retaliation.
