The Team

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, with its flagship station being 1050 CHUM.

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

The network aired both original programming — its marquee Canadian sportscaster was Jim Van Horne — 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. However, "The Team" was 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. These stations, as well as one in Edmonton which had licensed the brand name but was owned by a different company, continue to use the Team branding as of 2008, but are no longer considered a network.

The Team stations

CHUM-owned

*Halifax - The Team 920 (became oldies, with some of its former talk programming)
*Kingston - The Team 1380 (reverted to oldies)
*Kitchener - The Team 1090 (reverted to oldies)
*Montreal - The Team 990 (retained "The Team")
*Ottawa - The Team 1200 (retained "The Team")
*Peterborough - The Team 1420 (reverted to oldies)
*Toronto - The Team 1050 (reverted to oldies "1050 CHUM")
*Vancouver - The Team 1040 (retained "The Team")
*Winnipeg - The Team 1290 (reverted to oldies)

Affiliates

CFAC in Calgary and CFRN in Edmonton were also affiliates of The Team, although the stations were not CHUM-owned — CFAC was owned by Rogers and CFRN by Standard Broadcasting. After the Team network folded, both stations retained the sports format, although CFAC adopted the name "The Fan 960", the branding used on Rogers' Fan 590 in Toronto. CFRN, now owned by Astral Media, continues to use the Team branding.