.gif)
CINF (AM)
Encyclopedia
CINF was a French language
Canadian radio station
located in Montreal
, Quebec
.
Owned and operated by Corus Quebec
, it broadcasted on 690 kHz
with a power of 50,000 watt
s as a clear channel (class A) station, using a slightly directional antenna
solely for the purpose of improving reception in downtown Montreal.
The station had carried an all-news
format
since December 1999
, identifying itself as "Info 690". Before that date, the station was known as CKVL and was on 850 kHz; it then had a news/talk
format. Along with longtime English-language sister station CINW, it ceased operations at 7:00 p.m. ET on January 29, 2010.
/English
), but the majority of programming was in French and it was largely perceived by listeners as a Francophone station. The call sign
stood for "Canadian Kilocycle Verdun Lakeshore". Programming on CKVL was varied, as it was then typical, and numerous radio drama
s were aired.
An FM sister station
, CKVL-FM (CKOI-FM
since 1976) was created sometime between 1947 and 1957. In any case, CKVL-FM was a full-time simulcast of CKVL until 1970.
By 1948, CKVL was broadcasting on 980 kHz, and operated 24 hours per day.
In 1954, CKVL moved to 850 kHz and increased its power to 5,000 watts full time. The 980 kHz frequency would later be re-activated when CKGM
went on the air in 1959.
Following the advent of television
, the station was forced to redefine itself and some Top 40 programming appeared with Léon Lachance, whose show was highly popular with both linguistic groups.
CKVL became in January 1958 the first privately owned station in Montreal and all of Quebec to operate with 50,000 watts daytime (competitor CKAC
increased its power to 50,000 watts full time two months later). The station's nighttime power remained at 5,000 watts, and was only increased to 10,000 watts in the 1960s.
CKVL innovated with the first open line talk show in Quebec in 1959, hosted by "Madame X" (Reine Charrier). Efforts by Jack Tietolman to open a French-language television station failed, as the licence was given to Télé-Métropole (CFTM-TV
); that station opened in 1961 and became the flagship of the TVA television network.
(and future Social Credit
) politician Yvon Dupuis
as morningman. Music programming mixing Top 40 hits with Adult contemporary music
completed the schedule. The proportion of talk shows would increase over the next years, but at least some music would remain until 1999.
Sister station CKVL-FM started its own programming in 1970, using an automated
oldies
format.
New efforts by owner Jack Tietolman to get a television licence failed again in 1974. A licence was attributed by the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission (CRTC) to another group (Télé Inter-Cité Québec Ltée), which managed to go bankrupt before even getting the station on the air. That same year, CKVL introduced all-news
programming for its AM and PM drives (using respectively the names "Québec-matin" and "Québec-soir"), but high costs and less-than-satisfactory results provoked the end of that experiment the following year.
A long labour strike affected programming in 1976. CKVL also officially became a unilingual French station that year, as the CRTC forbade bilingualism on privately owned radio stations (unless a station would get a special dispensation).
Starting in 1978, CKVL started to lose money, due to declining listening combined with high labour costs. After being one of the most listened-to stations in Montreal in the 1950s and 1960s, strong competition from CKAC (and to a lesser extent from CJMS
and FM
stations) combined with the station's signal being inaudible at night in many parts of the Montreal market due to urban sprawl
, resulted in a long decline in BBM
ratings which would, along with corresponding financial losses, last until 1990.
In 1979, CKVL tried to replace its Top 40/AC music programming with country music
. That experiment failed and country music was later replaced with the "Solid Gold" concept, initially mixing current hits with oldies and subsequently moving to a more traditional oldies format.
In 1981, CKVL committed a famous April Fool's hoax
as it claimed that Prime Minister
Pierre Trudeau
had announced his resignation, and got an imitator posing as Trudeau to do an "exclusive interview" in which "Trudeau" claimed he was tired of dealing with political issues such as the Constitution
and also "le poisson de Terre-Neuve" ("fish from Newfoundland"; April's Fool day is known in French as "Poisson d'Avril" -- "Fish of April"). Seemingly unoriginal at first glance, the prank was made famous by the fact that it succeeded in catching provincial Liberal leader Claude Ryan
off-guard, as he quickly congratulated Trudeau for his long career, this right in the middle of a provincial election campaign.
CKVL converted to AM stereo
on February 27, 1989, but technical difficulties resulted in it never being properly implemented. The station would revert to mono
in 1995.
The station implemented drastic budget cuts in 1990, which resulted in the number of unionized employees fall from 76 to 18, although CKVL did manage to recruit a new morningman by poaching Pierre Pascau from CKAC. The station's newsroom was also closed, effective in May 1991, with news being subsequently supplied by the Canadian Press
NTR audio service. While these changes helped to stop financial losses, they would prove insufficient to actually get the station profitable.
CKVL and sister station CKOI-FM were sold to Metromedia CMR in 1992. That company, owned by Pierre Arcand and Pierre Béland, already owned CIQC
and CFQR-FM
-- two stations that Jack Tietolman coincidentally tried to buy in 1963, with approval being refused by governmental authorities. One of Tietolman's last acts as owner was to sign controversial host André Arthur
as midday host on CKVL.
CKVL applied to move to FM on 95.1 MHz in 1996, despite the fact that the CRTC still generally forbade owners at the time to operate more than one FM station per market, in an attempt to solve its coverage problems. The application was denied on July 4, 1997, and the 95.1 MHz frequency was awarded to the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation
(French : Société Radio-Canada), which moved CBF
there from its 690 kHz clear channel frequency.
Some important programming changes were implemented in 1998. André Arthur became morningman in January (he also continued to be heard during middays). In July, legendary late evening host Roger Drolet was fired, and Gaétan Bacon was hired to do an oldies music show during weekday afternoons.
Later that year, CKVL applied to move to 690 kHz. CKVL changed its plans numerous times regarding the future format of the station : initially no particular change was planned, then the station planned to move to a news-focused talk format, and the day public audiences began, plans were changed again and were now to implement a traditional all-news
format similar to the one of WINS
in New York City
or CFTR
in Toronto
. The application was officially approved by the CRTC on June 21, 1999. As the CRTC usually rejects applications that are constantly modified, and given the history of hostility between the CRTC and André Arthur, there was strong speculation that the CRTC wanted CKVL to fire Arthur as a condition to grant the frequency change (his contract would be bought back by the station on October 20, 1999.)
CKVL's regular programming ceased unceremoniously with an infomercial
that ended at midnight on Monday, December 13, 1999. The new all-news format began 35 hours later (Tuesday, December 14, 1999 at 11 a.m.) on the 690 kHz frequency from brand-new studios located in downtown Montreal. The station concurrently changed its call sign to CINF, but would identify itself on the air as "Info 690". The station's anglophone
AM sister station underwent similar changes at the very same time: CIQC became officially known as CINW (940 News), that station's frequency was changed from 600 kHz to 940 kHz, and an all-news format was also implemented to replace the previous CIQC news/talk format.
The old 850 kHz signal remained on the air as a temporary simulcast
until it was shut down on Easter Sunday, 2000 (April 23) around 8:30 p.m.. The 850 kHz frequency has not been re-activated in the Montreal area. While many different applications have been made for new AM
stations since that time, all applicants (either successful or not) asked for other frequencies, namely 650, 1400, 1410, 1450, 1570, 1610, 1650 and 1690 kHz.
In 2001, Metromedia CMR sold all its radio properties (including CINF) to Corus Entertainment
.
On January 1, 2002, the station's city of licence became Montreal (it had always officially been Verdun until then), as a result of forced municipal mergers which made Verdun a Montreal borough.
After Corus Entertainment acquired CKAC
in 2005, CINF began to supply news bulletins to its long-time competitor, as the CKAC newsroom was closed for budgetary reasons on May 30, 2005. In September 2005, the all-news format of anglophone sister station CINW was abandoned in favour of news/talk, but the all-news format remained on CINF.
In February 2009, Corus announced a restructuring plan to address massive financial losses accumulated at the station since the 1999 format change. Info 690 lost over 7 million dollars over the last eight years and as a result twelve jobs were eliminated.
, Corus announced it would shut down CINF, along with sister AM station CINW (the latter being the descendant of the first radio station in Canada
), citing that the stations were unprofitable.
At 10 a.m., an audio loop of Yves Bombardier, General Manager of CINF, CHMP and CKAC, informed listeners that CINF was closing down permanently, and inviting listeners to tune in to CHMP. CINW would air a similar audio loop for their own listeners.
At 7 p.m. both stations went dark entirely; the licenses for both stations was returned to the CRTC for cancellation. On June 8, 2010, the CRTC approved the revocation of both licences.
Later that year, Cogeco
acquired Corus' Quebec stations; the sale included the transmitter sites and equipment in Kahnawake used for CINF and CINW, but not the licenses, as they were submitted to the CRTC for cancellation.
stations for the Montreal area, in conjunction with Transports Québec
. The French language service was to broadcast at 690 kHz, the former frequency for CINF. Both stations were expected to sign on in fall 2011, with broadcast hours from 4:30 a.m. to 1 a.m. on weekdays, and from 6 a.m. to 1 a.m. on weekends. Interestingly, while new licenses were to have been issued for both stations, the new licensee for the new station is "Metromedia CMR Broadcasting Inc.", which was the prior licensee for CINF. On July 8, 2011, these applications for 690 kHz and 940 kHz were withdrawn to a later date. On July 29, 2011, the CRTC began taking other applications for the two frequencies, which left Cogeco's plans for the stations in doubt. On September 2, 2011, it was announced that Cogeco's former sports radio station, CKAC, will assume the all-traffic format, beginning September 6, 2011, leading to Cogeco dropping its bid for 690.
On September 7, 2011, the CRTC announced the applicants for the 690 frequency: Paul Tietolman (the son of Jack Tietolman), for a francophone news-talk format; Evanov Communications, for a francophone LGBT
-based radio station; and Bell Media, as a new frequency for CKGM, currently at 990 kHz.
On November 21, 2011, CKGM's relocation from 990 to 690 was approved by the CRTC; after the move is made, Evanov will be assigned the 990 frequency for their station.
French language
French is a Romance language spoken as a first language in France, the Romandy region in Switzerland, Wallonia and Brussels in Belgium, Monaco, the regions of Quebec and Acadia in Canada, and by various communities elsewhere. Second-language speakers of French are distributed throughout many parts...
Canadian radio station
Radio station
Radio broadcasting is a one-way wireless transmission over radio waves intended to reach a wide audience. Stations can be linked in radio networks to broadcast a common radio format, either in broadcast syndication or simulcast or both...
located in Montreal
Montreal
Montreal is a city in Canada. It is the largest city in the province of Quebec, the second-largest city in Canada and the seventh largest in North America...
, Quebec
Quebec
Quebec or is a province in east-central Canada. It is the only Canadian province with a predominantly French-speaking population and the only one whose sole official language is French at the provincial level....
.
Owned and operated by Corus Quebec
Corus Québec
The Corus Québec network, previously known as the Radiomédia network as it used to be called until May 2005, was a French-language Canadian news/talk radio network serving most of Quebec...
, it broadcasted on 690 kHz
Hertz
The hertz is the SI unit of frequency defined as the number of cycles per second of a periodic phenomenon. One of its most common uses is the description of the sine wave, particularly those used in radio and audio applications....
with a power of 50,000 watt
Watt
The watt is a derived unit of power in the International System of Units , named after the Scottish engineer James Watt . The unit, defined as one joule per second, measures the rate of energy conversion.-Definition:...
s as a clear channel (class A) station, using a slightly directional antenna
Directional antenna
A directional antenna or beam antenna is an antenna which radiates greater power in one or more directions allowing for increased performance on transmit and receive and reduced interference from unwanted sources....
solely for the purpose of improving reception in downtown Montreal.
The station had carried an all-news
All-news radio
All-news radio is a radio format devoted entirely to discussion and broadcast of news.All-news radio is available in both local and syndicated forms, and is carried in some form on both major US satellite radio networks...
format
Radio format
A radio format or programming format not to be confused with broadcast programming describes the overall content broadcast on a radio station. Radio formats are frequently employed as a marketing tool, and constantly evolve...
since December 1999
1999 in radio
The year 1999 in radio involved some significant events.-Events:*January 1 - 102.1 The Zone stopped played at 6AM and 102.1 FM played a stunt of waves and announcement voice over of our newest radio station....
, identifying itself as "Info 690". Before that date, the station was known as CKVL and was on 850 kHz; it then had a news/talk
Talk radio
Talk radio is a radio format containing discussion about topical issues. Most shows are regularly hosted by a single individual, and often feature interviews with a number of different guests. Talk radio typically includes an element of listener participation, usually by broadcasting live...
format. Along with longtime English-language sister station CINW, it ceased operations at 7:00 p.m. ET on January 29, 2010.
Early years
CKVL was founded by Jack Tietolman and Corey Thomson and opened on November 3, 1946. The station was originally on 990 kHz, and operated with 1,000 watts as a daytimer. The station was bilingual (FrenchFrench language
French is a Romance language spoken as a first language in France, the Romandy region in Switzerland, Wallonia and Brussels in Belgium, Monaco, the regions of Quebec and Acadia in Canada, and by various communities elsewhere. Second-language speakers of French are distributed throughout many parts...
/English
English language
English is a West Germanic language that arose in the Anglo-Saxon kingdoms of England and spread into what was to become south-east Scotland under the influence of the Anglian medieval kingdom of Northumbria...
), but the majority of programming was in French and it was largely perceived by listeners as a Francophone station. The call sign
Call sign
In broadcasting and radio communications, a call sign is a unique designation for a transmitting station. In North America they are used as names for broadcasting stations...
stood for "Canadian Kilocycle Verdun Lakeshore". Programming on CKVL was varied, as it was then typical, and numerous radio drama
Radio drama
Radio drama is a dramatized, purely acoustic performance, broadcast on radio or published on audio media, such as tape or CD. With no visual component, radio drama depends on dialogue, music and sound effects to help the listener imagine the characters and story...
s were aired.
An FM sister station
Sister station
In broadcasting, sister stations or sister channels are radio and/or television stations operated by the same ownership....
, CKVL-FM (CKOI-FM
CKOI-FM
CKOI-FM is a French-language Canadian radio station located in Montreal, Quebec.Owned and operated by Cogeco, it broadcasts on 96.9 MHz from the roof of the CIBC Tower in Downtown Montreal with an effective radiated power of 307,000 watts using an omnidirectional antenna...
since 1976) was created sometime between 1947 and 1957. In any case, CKVL-FM was a full-time simulcast of CKVL until 1970.
By 1948, CKVL was broadcasting on 980 kHz, and operated 24 hours per day.
In 1954, CKVL moved to 850 kHz and increased its power to 5,000 watts full time. The 980 kHz frequency would later be re-activated when CKGM
CKGM (AM)
CKGM branded on-air as TSN Radio 990 is an English language Canadian radio station located in Westmount, Quebec but licensed in Montreal...
went on the air in 1959.
Following the advent of television
Television
Television is a telecommunication medium for transmitting and receiving moving images that can be monochrome or colored, with accompanying sound...
, the station was forced to redefine itself and some Top 40 programming appeared with Léon Lachance, whose show was highly popular with both linguistic groups.
CKVL became in January 1958 the first privately owned station in Montreal and all of Quebec to operate with 50,000 watts daytime (competitor CKAC
CKAC (AM)
CKAC is a French-language Canadian radio station located in Montreal, Quebec, currently broadcasting a traffic information format as Radio Circulation 730....
increased its power to 50,000 watts full time two months later). The station's nighttime power remained at 5,000 watts, and was only increased to 10,000 watts in the 1960s.
CKVL innovated with the first open line talk show in Quebec in 1959, hosted by "Madame X" (Reine Charrier). Efforts by Jack Tietolman to open a French-language television station failed, as the licence was given to Télé-Métropole (CFTM-TV
CFTM-TV
CFTM-DT channel 10, is the flagship of the TVA television network, located in Montreal, Quebec.-History:It opened on February 19, 1961, a few weeks after CFCF-TV went on the air for the first time. It was owned by Joseph Alexandre DeSève and his company, Télé-Métropole...
); that station opened in 1961 and became the flagship of the TVA television network.
1968 to 1992
In 1968, CKVL abandoned its variety format in favour of a hybrid talk/music format, with weekday daytime programming being all-talk with a high proportion of open-line shows, including the famous Jacques Matti / Hélène Fontaine duo and former LiberalLiberal Party of Canada
The Liberal Party of Canada , colloquially known as the Grits, is the oldest federally registered party in Canada. In the conventional political spectrum, the party sits between the centre and the centre-left. Historically the Liberal Party has positioned itself to the left of the Conservative...
(and future Social Credit
Ralliement créditiste du Québec
The Ralliement créditiste du Québec was a provincial political party in Quebec, Canada that operated from 1970 to 1978. It promoted social credit theories of monetary reform, and acted as an outlet for the expression of rural...
) politician Yvon Dupuis
Yvon Dupuis
Yvon Dupuis, PC is a former Canadian politician.-Political career:Born in Montreal, Dupuis was educated at Collège de Varennes in Longeuil, Quebec, and worked as an insurance agent and as the owner of two music stores prior to running for elected office.He was first elected to the National...
as morningman. Music programming mixing Top 40 hits with Adult contemporary music
Adult contemporary music
Adult contemporary music is a broad style of popular music that ranges from lush 1950s and 1960s vocal music to predominantly ballad-heavy music with varying degrees of rock influence, as well as a radio format that plays such music....
completed the schedule. The proportion of talk shows would increase over the next years, but at least some music would remain until 1999.
Sister station CKVL-FM started its own programming in 1970, using an automated
Automation
Automation is the use of control systems and information technologies to reduce the need for human work in the production of goods and services. In the scope of industrialization, automation is a step beyond mechanization...
oldies
Oldies
Oldies is a term commonly used to describe a radio format that concentrates on music from a period of about 15 to 55 years before the present day....
format.
New efforts by owner Jack Tietolman to get a television licence failed again in 1974. A licence was attributed by the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission (CRTC) to another group (Télé Inter-Cité Québec Ltée), which managed to go bankrupt before even getting the station on the air. That same year, CKVL introduced all-news
All-news radio
All-news radio is a radio format devoted entirely to discussion and broadcast of news.All-news radio is available in both local and syndicated forms, and is carried in some form on both major US satellite radio networks...
programming for its AM and PM drives (using respectively the names "Québec-matin" and "Québec-soir"), but high costs and less-than-satisfactory results provoked the end of that experiment the following year.
A long labour strike affected programming in 1976. CKVL also officially became a unilingual French station that year, as the CRTC forbade bilingualism on privately owned radio stations (unless a station would get a special dispensation).
Starting in 1978, CKVL started to lose money, due to declining listening combined with high labour costs. After being one of the most listened-to stations in Montreal in the 1950s and 1960s, strong competition from CKAC (and to a lesser extent from CJMS
CJMS (defunct)
CJMS 1280 was a French language Canadian radio station located in Montreal, Quebec.The station went on the air on April 25, 1954. CJMS got an FM sister station in 1964 as CJMS-FM began operations. The AM station adopted a highly popular Top 40 format in the 1960s and became the flagship of the ...
and FM
FM broadcasting
FM broadcasting is a broadcasting technology pioneered by Edwin Howard Armstrong which uses frequency modulation to provide high-fidelity sound over broadcast radio. The term "FM band" describes the "frequency band in which FM is used for broadcasting"...
stations) combined with the station's signal being inaudible at night in many parts of the Montreal market due to urban sprawl
Urban sprawl
Urban sprawl, also known as suburban sprawl, is a multifaceted concept, which includes the spreading outwards of a city and its suburbs to its outskirts to low-density and auto-dependent development on rural land, high segregation of uses Urban sprawl, also known as suburban sprawl, is a...
, resulted in a long decline in BBM
Bureau of Broadcast Measurement
BBM Canada, also known as BBM, is an audience measurement organization for Canadian television and radio broadcasting.BBM was established on May 11, 1944 as a division of the Canadian Association of Broadcasters. The organization was originally known as the "Bureau of Broadcast Measurement", and...
ratings which would, along with corresponding financial losses, last until 1990.
In 1979, CKVL tried to replace its Top 40/AC music programming with country music
Country music
Country music is a popular American musical style that began in the rural Southern United States in the 1920s. It takes its roots from Western cowboy and folk music...
. That experiment failed and country music was later replaced with the "Solid Gold" concept, initially mixing current hits with oldies and subsequently moving to a more traditional oldies format.
In 1981, CKVL committed a famous April Fool's hoax
Hoax
A hoax is a deliberately fabricated falsehood made to masquerade as truth. It is distinguishable from errors in observation or judgment, or rumors, urban legends, pseudosciences or April Fools' Day events that are passed along in good faith by believers or as jokes.-Definition:The British...
as it claimed that Prime Minister
Prime Minister of Canada
The Prime Minister of Canada is the primary minister of the Crown, chairman of the Cabinet, and thus head of government for Canada, charged with advising the Canadian monarch or viceroy on the exercise of the executive powers vested in them by the constitution...
Pierre Trudeau
Pierre Trudeau
Joseph Philippe Pierre Yves Elliott Trudeau, , usually known as Pierre Trudeau or Pierre Elliott Trudeau, was the 15th Prime Minister of Canada from April 20, 1968 to June 4, 1979, and again from March 3, 1980 to June 30, 1984.Trudeau began his political career campaigning for socialist ideals,...
had announced his resignation, and got an imitator posing as Trudeau to do an "exclusive interview" in which "Trudeau" claimed he was tired of dealing with political issues such as the Constitution
Constitution of Canada
The Constitution of Canada is the supreme law in Canada; the country's constitution is an amalgamation of codified acts and uncodified traditions and conventions. It outlines Canada's system of government, as well as the civil rights of all Canadian citizens and those in Canada...
and also "le poisson de Terre-Neuve" ("fish from Newfoundland"; April's Fool day is known in French as "Poisson d'Avril" -- "Fish of April"). Seemingly unoriginal at first glance, the prank was made famous by the fact that it succeeded in catching provincial Liberal leader Claude Ryan
Claude Ryan
Claude Ryan, was a Canadian politician and leader of the Parti libéral du Québec from 1978 to 1982. He was also the National Assembly of Quebec member for Argenteuil from 1979 to 1994.-Early life and career:...
off-guard, as he quickly congratulated Trudeau for his long career, this right in the middle of a provincial election campaign.
CKVL converted to AM stereo
AM stereo
AM stereo is a term given to a series of mutually incompatible techniques for wireless radio broadcasting stereo audio in the AM band in a manner that is compatible with standard AM receivers...
on February 27, 1989, but technical difficulties resulted in it never being properly implemented. The station would revert to mono
Monaural
Monaural or monophonic sound reproduction is single-channel. Typically there is only one microphone, one loudspeaker, or channels are fed from a common signal path...
in 1995.
The station implemented drastic budget cuts in 1990, which resulted in the number of unionized employees fall from 76 to 18, although CKVL did manage to recruit a new morningman by poaching Pierre Pascau from CKAC. The station's newsroom was also closed, effective in May 1991, with news being subsequently supplied by the Canadian Press
Canadian Press
Canadian Press Enterprises Inc. is the entity which "will take over the operations of the Canadian Press" according to a November 26, 2010 article in the Toronto Star...
NTR audio service. While these changes helped to stop financial losses, they would prove insufficient to actually get the station profitable.
Post-Tietolman era
CINW (AM)
CINW was an English language Canadian radio station located in Montreal, Quebec.Owned and operated by Corus Quebec, it broadcasted on 940 kHz with a power of 50,000 watts as a clear channel station, using a slightly directional antenna solely for the purpose of improving reception in downtown...
and CFQR-FM
CFQR-FM
CKBE-FM is an English language Canadian radio station located in Montreal, Quebec.Owned and operated by Cogeco, it broadcasts on 92.5 MHz with an effective radiated power of 41,400 watts using an omnidirectional antenna...
-- two stations that Jack Tietolman coincidentally tried to buy in 1963, with approval being refused by governmental authorities. One of Tietolman's last acts as owner was to sign controversial host André Arthur
André Arthur
André Arthur is a Canadian radio host and politician. He was the independent Member of Parliament for the riding of Portneuf—Jacques-Cartier from 2006 to 2011...
as midday host on CKVL.
CKVL applied to move to FM on 95.1 MHz in 1996, despite the fact that the CRTC still generally forbade owners at the time to operate more than one FM station per market, in an attempt to solve its coverage problems. The application was denied on July 4, 1997, and the 95.1 MHz frequency was awarded to the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation
Canadian Broadcasting Corporation
The Canadian Broadcasting Corporation, commonly known as CBC and officially as CBC/Radio-Canada, is a Canadian crown corporation that serves as the national public radio and television broadcaster...
(French : Société Radio-Canada), which moved CBF
CBF-FM
CBF-FM-10 in Sherbrooke and CBF-FM-8 in Trois-Rivières were once full satellites of CBF-FM, but have been separately licenced since 2000 , despite still having rebroadcaster-like callsigns...
there from its 690 kHz clear channel frequency.
Some important programming changes were implemented in 1998. André Arthur became morningman in January (he also continued to be heard during middays). In July, legendary late evening host Roger Drolet was fired, and Gaétan Bacon was hired to do an oldies music show during weekday afternoons.
Later that year, CKVL applied to move to 690 kHz. CKVL changed its plans numerous times regarding the future format of the station : initially no particular change was planned, then the station planned to move to a news-focused talk format, and the day public audiences began, plans were changed again and were now to implement a traditional all-news
All-news radio
All-news radio is a radio format devoted entirely to discussion and broadcast of news.All-news radio is available in both local and syndicated forms, and is carried in some form on both major US satellite radio networks...
format similar to the one of WINS
WINS (AM)
WINS , known on-air as "Ten-Ten Wins", is a radio station in New York City, owned by CBS Radio. WINS's studios are in the combined CBS Radio facility at 345 Hudson Street in the TriBeCa section of Manhattan, and transmitting towers in Lyndhurst, New Jersey.WINS is one of the nation's oldest...
in New York City
New York City
New York is the most populous city in the United States and the center of the New York Metropolitan Area, one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the world. New York exerts a significant impact upon global commerce, finance, media, art, fashion, research, technology, education, and...
or CFTR
CFTR (AM)
CFTR, broadcasting under the brand 680News, is an all-news radio station based in Toronto, Ontario, Canada, which broadcasts live 24 hours a day, 7 days a week at 680 kHz on the AM dial...
in Toronto
Toronto
Toronto is the provincial capital of Ontario and the largest city in Canada. It is located in Southern Ontario on the northwestern shore of Lake Ontario. A relatively modern city, Toronto's history dates back to the late-18th century, when its land was first purchased by the British monarchy from...
. The application was officially approved by the CRTC on June 21, 1999. As the CRTC usually rejects applications that are constantly modified, and given the history of hostility between the CRTC and André Arthur, there was strong speculation that the CRTC wanted CKVL to fire Arthur as a condition to grant the frequency change (his contract would be bought back by the station on October 20, 1999.)
All-news era
Infomercial
Infomercials are direct response television commercials which generally include a phone number or website. There are long-form infomercials, which are typically between 15 and 30 minutes in length, and short-form infomercials, which are typically 30 seconds to 120 seconds in length. Infomercials...
that ended at midnight on Monday, December 13, 1999. The new all-news format began 35 hours later (Tuesday, December 14, 1999 at 11 a.m.) on the 690 kHz frequency from brand-new studios located in downtown Montreal. The station concurrently changed its call sign to CINF, but would identify itself on the air as "Info 690". The station's anglophone
English language
English is a West Germanic language that arose in the Anglo-Saxon kingdoms of England and spread into what was to become south-east Scotland under the influence of the Anglian medieval kingdom of Northumbria...
AM sister station underwent similar changes at the very same time: CIQC became officially known as CINW (940 News), that station's frequency was changed from 600 kHz to 940 kHz, and an all-news format was also implemented to replace the previous CIQC news/talk format.
The old 850 kHz signal remained on the air as a temporary simulcast
Simulcast
Simulcast, shorthand for "simultaneous broadcast", refers to programs or events broadcast across more than one medium, or more than one service on the same medium, at the same time. For example, Absolute Radio is simulcast on both AM and on satellite radio, and the BBC's Prom concerts are often...
until it was shut down on Easter Sunday, 2000 (April 23) around 8:30 p.m.. The 850 kHz frequency has not been re-activated in the Montreal area. While many different applications have been made for new AM
AM broadcasting
AM broadcasting is the process of radio broadcasting using amplitude modulation. AM was the first method of impressing sound on a radio signal and is still widely used today. Commercial and public AM broadcasting is carried out in the medium wave band world wide, and on long wave and short wave...
stations since that time, all applicants (either successful or not) asked for other frequencies, namely 650, 1400, 1410, 1450, 1570, 1610, 1650 and 1690 kHz.
In 2001, Metromedia CMR sold all its radio properties (including CINF) to Corus Entertainment
Corus Entertainment
Corus Entertainment Inc. is a publicly traded Canadian media and entertainment conglomerate.Corus is a leading Canadian specialty television and radio producer, with additional assets in pay television, advertising services, television broadcasting, children's book publishing and children's...
.
On January 1, 2002, the station's city of licence became Montreal (it had always officially been Verdun until then), as a result of forced municipal mergers which made Verdun a Montreal borough.
After Corus Entertainment acquired CKAC
CKAC (AM)
CKAC is a French-language Canadian radio station located in Montreal, Quebec, currently broadcasting a traffic information format as Radio Circulation 730....
in 2005, CINF began to supply news bulletins to its long-time competitor, as the CKAC newsroom was closed for budgetary reasons on May 30, 2005. In September 2005, the all-news format of anglophone sister station CINW was abandoned in favour of news/talk, but the all-news format remained on CINF.
In February 2009, Corus announced a restructuring plan to address massive financial losses accumulated at the station since the 1999 format change. Info 690 lost over 7 million dollars over the last eight years and as a result twelve jobs were eliminated.
Closure
On January 29, 20102010 in radio
The following events occurred in radio in 2010.-Events:*Date Unknown: CHOI/Quebec City flips from Alternative Rock to News/Talk.*January 4: KJCS/Lufkin, Texas goes silent....
, Corus announced it would shut down CINF, along with sister AM station CINW (the latter being the descendant of the first radio station in Canada
Canada
Canada is a North American country consisting of ten provinces and three territories. Located in the northern part of the continent, it extends from the Atlantic Ocean in the east to the Pacific Ocean in the west, and northward into the Arctic Ocean...
), citing that the stations were unprofitable.
At 10 a.m., an audio loop of Yves Bombardier, General Manager of CINF, CHMP and CKAC, informed listeners that CINF was closing down permanently, and inviting listeners to tune in to CHMP. CINW would air a similar audio loop for their own listeners.
At 7 p.m. both stations went dark entirely; the licenses for both stations was returned to the CRTC for cancellation. On June 8, 2010, the CRTC approved the revocation of both licences.
Later that year, Cogeco
Cogeco
Cogeco Inc. is a Canadian media and communications company. The name is an acronym for Compagnie Générale de Communication .-History:...
acquired Corus' Quebec stations; the sale included the transmitter sites and equipment in Kahnawake used for CINF and CINW, but not the licenses, as they were submitted to the CRTC for cancellation.
Future of 690
In May 2011, Cogeco announced that they have planned to sign on two new AM traffic information radioHighway advisory radio
Travelers Information Radio Stations , are sometimes also called Highway Advisory Radio Stations by Departments of Transportation in the United States. These radio stations are licensed low-power AM radio stations set up by local transport departments to provide bulletins to motorists and other...
stations for the Montreal area, in conjunction with Transports Québec
Transports Québec
Le ministère des Transports du Québec , known by its short form name Transports Québec, is a Quebec government ministry responsible for transport infrastructure and law in Quebec, Canada....
. The French language service was to broadcast at 690 kHz, the former frequency for CINF. Both stations were expected to sign on in fall 2011, with broadcast hours from 4:30 a.m. to 1 a.m. on weekdays, and from 6 a.m. to 1 a.m. on weekends. Interestingly, while new licenses were to have been issued for both stations, the new licensee for the new station is "Metromedia CMR Broadcasting Inc.", which was the prior licensee for CINF. On July 8, 2011, these applications for 690 kHz and 940 kHz were withdrawn to a later date. On July 29, 2011, the CRTC began taking other applications for the two frequencies, which left Cogeco's plans for the stations in doubt. On September 2, 2011, it was announced that Cogeco's former sports radio station, CKAC, will assume the all-traffic format, beginning September 6, 2011, leading to Cogeco dropping its bid for 690.
On September 7, 2011, the CRTC announced the applicants for the 690 frequency: Paul Tietolman (the son of Jack Tietolman), for a francophone news-talk format; Evanov Communications, for a francophone LGBT
LGBT
LGBT is an initialism that collectively refers to "lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender" people. In use since the 1990s, the term "LGBT" is an adaptation of the initialism "LGB", which itself started replacing the phrase "gay community" beginning in the mid-to-late 1980s, which many within the...
-based radio station; and Bell Media, as a new frequency for CKGM, currently at 990 kHz.
On November 21, 2011, CKGM's relocation from 990 to 690 was approved by the CRTC; after the move is made, Evanov will be assigned the 990 frequency for their station.
External links
- Info 690 (former website) (redirects to 98,5 FM)
- CINF history at Canadian Communications FoundationCanadian Communications FoundationThe Canadian Communications Foundation is a history of Canadian broadcasting for radio and television chronicles and documents. It also provides a history of radio and television stations, including networks, programs, broadcasters and many others....