The station first aired in 1957 as 550 AM CFBR, a sister station to CHNO and a private affiliate of Radio-Canada. CHNO had previously been a bilingual station; when CFBR went to air, CHNO became full-time English. The FBR in the station's callsign stood for F. Baxter Ricard, who owned the stations with his wife Alma Ricard. The licensing of CFBR, which took over the Radio-Canada affiliation from CHNO, made Ricard the first commercial broadcaster in Canada licensed to operate two AM radio stations in the same city.