The company dates back to 1980. The group's
Newfoundland and Labrador division, known as
Steele Communications, included all but two of the full-power commercial stations in that province. In the past, Newfoundland Capital acted as a
conglomerate with interests in diverse industries such as newspapers and freight transportation. The firm owns one asset unrelated to the broadcasting industry: a hotel in
Corner Brook, the Glynmill Inn, which is operated as part of the Steele Hotels group which includes other properties held directly by the Steele family. The Steele family also has private holdings in other industries which are entirely outside of the Newcap corporate umbrella. In 1986, NCCL received
CRTC approval to acquire its first radio station,
CHTN in
Charlottetown,
Prince Edward Island, from Northumberland Broadcasting Ltd. By 2008, Newcap would own over 70 radio stations, and flipped many radio stations from the AM band to the FM band. In July 2008, Newcap announced a deal to trade
CFDR in
Halifax to
Rogers Media in exchange for
CIGM in
Sudbury. Both stations were the sole remaining AM stations in their respective markets, and in both cases the current owner already had the maximum permitted number of
FM stations in the applicable market, whereas the acquirer only had a single FM station. Both companies successfully applied to move the stations to FM as part of the trade. Newcap flipped CIGM Sudbury to FM on August 25, 2009, and Rogers flipped CFDR Halifax to FM on August 7, 2009. On July 28, 2008, Newcap announced that it had a tentative deal to acquire 12 stations in
Ontario from
Haliburton Broadcasting Group, subject to CRTC approval, for $18.95 million. The company's application to acquire the Haliburton stations was formally published by the CRTC on November 13, 2008, but was subsequently withdrawn in January 2009. Newcap CEO
Rob Steele indicated that in light of the credit market crisis, the company did not feel that it was the right time to increase its debt load. In May 2011, Newcap announced that it was selling its two stations in
Winnipeg,
CKJS and
CHNK-FM, to
Evanov Communications; the sale was approved on October 24, 2011. In January 2013, the company announced it was exploring a possible sale of its remaining broadcasting assets in
Western Canada, consisting of 32 radio stations and two television stations, and six rebroadcasters associated with those stations. These stations are predominantly in
Alberta (including several stations in the
Lloydminster region on the Alberta/
Saskatchewan border), except for two stations in
British Columbia. The company announced in May 2013 it was no longer planning to sell its assets in Western Canada. If such a sale had occurred, Newcap suggested that the proceeds might be used to either fund acquisitions "closer to [Newcap's] base in Atlantic Canada", pay down debt, or return capital to shareholders. On August 26, 2013, Newcap Radio announced it would acquire four former
Astral Media radio stations in
Toronto and
Vancouver, including
CHBM-FM,
CKZZ-FM,
CHHR-FM and
CISL, along with
Bell Media's
CFXJ-FM, for $112 million. The deal was made in the wake of Bell Media's acquisition of Astral. The deal was approved by the
CRTC on March 19, 2014 and the sale closed on March 31, 2014. On April 25, 2017,
Rogers Media announced its intent to acquire
CISL from Newcap, who relaunched it as a
Sportsnet Radio sports talk station with rights to the
NHL's
Vancouver Canucks. On May 11, 2017, Newcap Radio announced its purchase of NL Broadcasting in
Kamloops and its three stations,
CHNL,
CKRV-FM, and
CJKC-FM. On May 2, 2018, cable radio broadcaster Stingray Digital announced its intent to acquire Newcap Radio for $506 million. On October 23, 2018, the CRTC approved Stingray's application to acquire Newcap. The sale was completed just days later on October 26, 2018, with the Steele family holding the largest stake in the company besides its founders. In 2019, Stingray began a broader strategy of networking morning and evening shows across groups of stations. This began with the syndication of CKMP/Calgary's
Katie & Ed morning show as an evening show across Stingray's CHR and hot AC stations,
CKGY-FM/Red Deer's
The Real Wake Up with Vinnie & Randi across its country and adult hits stations in rural Alberta, the midday show
The Paul McGuire Show across its country stations, and the
CIGV-FM/Penticton morning show (featuring former
CMT personality Casey Clarke) across Stingray's country stations in the
British Columbia Interior. The morning shows incorporate inserts from local hosts. In the case of
Katie & Ed, Stingray stated that the program would largely replace programming that had already been
voice-tracked. In late-March 2021, the company underwent a restructuring of some of its staff and local program directors, which resulted in layoffs. On April 5, 2021, Stingray launched
The Morning Breeze with Brad & Deb for its
The Breeze branded
soft adult contemporary stations
, which is networked out of
CKUL-FM/Halifax and incorporates local inserts. Stingray also introduced the networked evening program
Rock of the West (modelled after
Rock of the Atlantic) on its rock stations in Western Canada, which is hosted by Travis Currah of
CIZZ-FM/Red Deer. In June 2023, Stingray Radio's stations joined Bell Media's
iHeartRadio Canada service; it will still participate in
Radioplayer Canada. On May 13, 2025, Stingray closed its Lloydminster television stations
CITL-DT and
CKSA-DT, citing deteriorating economic conditions and other challenges facing the stations. ==Assets==