The station was originally launched in 1943, broadcasting at 1450
AM in
Nobel, with the call sign
CFPS. Following the end of
World War II, the station's owner, Gordon Ellesworth Smith, wanted to affiliate the station with
CBC Radio's
Dominion Network, but without a feed line to get CBC programming to the station, this was not possible in Nobel, so in the summer of 1945, the station was shut down and moved to Orillia, where it relaunched on September 3 as 1450
CFOR. The station joined the Dominion Network the following year. In 1954, the station moved to 1570 AM. In 1957, a fire destroyed the station's transmitter building, but with help from other broadcasters, the station was back on the air within a day. Later that year, the station increased its signal power to 10,000
watts daytime and 5,000 watts nighttime.
Bob Hope, who was in
Toronto performing at the
Canadian National Exhibition, visited CFOR on September 4 of that year to officially launch the station's new transmitter. The Dominion Network dissolved in 1962 and the station's affiliation transferred to the main CBC Radio network. In 1964, the station dropped its CBC affiliation, and was sold to a consortium that included
Maclean-Hunter. In 1967, Maclean-Hunter became the station's sole owner. In 1976, the station was reacquired by local owners, who in turn sold it to
Telemedia in 1980. In 1993, the station moved to 105.9
MHz, adopting its current call sign and a
country format. The former CFOR call letters now belong to an FM radio station in
Maniwaki,
Quebec. Prior to CFOR's move to 105.9 (as
CICX) in 1993, the 105.9 frequency was occupied by a
CBC Radio transmitter, known as
CBCO, which moved to its current frequency. In 1996, the station switched to an
adult contemporary format using the "
EZ Rock" brand. In 2002, when Telemedia was acquired by Standard Broadcasting, CICX was one of the stations Standard immediately resold to
Rogers Communications. With the transaction, Rogers switched the station's branding to
105.9 Lite FM. In August 2003, Rogers switched the station to an
adult hits format as
Jack FM. On June 4, 2007,
Larche Communications announced a deal with Rogers to acquire CICX in exchange for Larche's existing
CIKZ-FM in
Waterloo. The transaction, which was approved by the CRTC on December 24, 2007, reunited CICX with its onetime sister station
CICZ-FM in nearby
Midland. On March 3, 2008, CICX dropped the Jack FM format and branding, picking up the KICX format from CICZ, and CICZ flipped to a
rock format. On May 21, 2008, the station was given approval to change its authorized contours by decreasing the average effective radiated power from 43,000 watts to 10,600 watts, by increasing the effective antenna height and by relocating the antenna. The station now shares its format and branding with
CICS-FM in
Sudbury, a station launched by Larche in August 2008. On August 9, 2017,
Bell Media announced that it would acquire CICX-FM. Bell Media received approval from the CRTC on February 14, 2018. On May 28, 2019, the station was renamed
Pure Country 106 as part of a nationwide rebranding. ==References==