Okay, it might be a little soon to write about CKFG (G98.7) Toronto’s unique new hybrid of Urban AC and Caribbean music. The recently launched station is still in that on-air signal testing phase that marks new Canadian signals. It’s only segueing music and liners. The official launch, as well as the ample community service component that the station is promising, is scheduled for November.

But after the array of core artists on the front page of its website, I couldn’t wait to hear G98.7. Radio law has usually allowed for only a handful of different artist pictures shared between every station in a format. But it seems safe that no other website’s artist photos include Bob Marley, Yolanda Adams, Usher, Alison Hinds, Rihanna, Marvin Gaye, K’naan, Kirk Franklin, Stevie Wonder, Miriam Makeba, Drake, and Aretha Franklin.

The Caribbean influence has long informed the entire Toronto radio dial, in ways mostly good (Bob Marley as an AC and Hot AC core artist long before any U.S. format besides Alternative came to grips with him), but occasionally goofy (Boney M and “Hands Up [Give Me Your Heart],” were also far bigger in Canada than the U.S.). When the need for an Urban station in Toronto was discussed in the ’80s and ’90s, it was often envisioned as heavily Caribbean-flavored and eclectic.

But by the time CFXJ (Flow 93.5) arrived in 2001 as the market’s first Urban FM, there was a lot of Hip-Hop and R&B music throughout the market, including longtime Adult Top 40 CHUM-FM (which even had a “Quiet Storm” briefly) and Top 40 CKIS (Kiss 92.5, now in its second pass at the format). Flow 93.5 reflected Toronto’s burgeoning Hip-Hop scene, but it was never this kind of eclectic, and was always caught between multiple constituencies. It has, over the last decade, drifted back and forth between Urban and Rhythmic Top 40. When it became a sister station of CHUM-FM, Flow briefly became part of a four-way Rhythmic Pop battle, but has since rebranded itself as “Hip Hop and R&B.”

That scenario has played out in markets from Halifax, N.S., to Vancouver, B.C., to Calgary, Alberta. Those markets all got R&B/Hip-Hop-leaning stations in the early ’00s (Calgary even had two), which either went away or evolved to Mainstream CHR. While stations often try to find a workable area between the eclecticism that serves them in Canada’s comparative license process and what you can actually make a living at, there’s been a definite subtext of “this time, for real” in the application process and publicity leading up to G98.7’s launch.

Even a typical Urban AC is hard to bring off in Canada, with so many mainstay records that were never exposed on the radio at the time. If G98.7 succeeds with the eclectic mix promised by the website and its license proposal, they’ll have something that America hasn’t had on the commercial FM band for years, a progressive R&B outlet. They’ll also have a brand that could find an online following well outside Toronto because of its uniqueness.

Here’s G98.7 (in test mode) at 3 p.m. on October 10:

Shabba Ranks, “Mr. Loverman”
Third World, “1865 (96 Degrees In The Shade)”
Barrington Levy, “Living Dangerously”
Al Green, “Let’s Stay Together”
Michael Jackson, “Rock With You”
L.T.D., “(Every Time I Turn Around) Back In Love Again”
Stephanie Mills, “Sweet Sensation”
Chaka Demus & Pliers, “Murder She Wrote”
Unknown, “Dance and Join In The Party”
Akon, “Don’t Matter”
Cham f/Rihanna, “Boom Boom”
Mario, “Let Me Love You”
Beyoncé & Sean Paul, “Baby Boy”
112, “Peaches & Cream”
Shalamar, “A Night To Remember”
Taarrus Riley, “She’s Royal”
Dawn Penn, “You Don’t Love Me (No No No)”