CKAC is a French-language Canadian radio station located in Montreal, Quebec. French (français, langue française) is one of the most important Romance languages, outnumbered in speakers only by Spanish and Portuguese. ... To meet Wikipedias quality standards and appeal to a wider international audience, this article may require cleanup. ... City motto: Concordia Salus (Latin: Well-being through harmony) Province Quebec Mayor Gérald Tremblay Area  - % water 366. ... Motto: Je me souviens (French: I remember) Official languages French Capital Quebec City Largest city Montreal Lieutenant-Governor Lise Thibault Premier Jean Charest (PLQ) Parliamentary representation  - House seat  - Senate seats 75 24 Area  - Total  - % water Ranked 2nd 1,542,056 km² 11. ...

Owned and operated by Corus Entertainment, the station broadcasts on 730 kHz with a power of 50,000 watts as a clear channel (class A) station, using a slightly directional antenna pointing east (towards Montreal) with the same pattern day and night. Corus Entertainment (TSX: CJR.NV.B) NYSE: CJR is a Canadian entertainment company, headquarted in Calgary, Alberta, which owns television networks, digital music channels and 50 radio stations across Canada. ... A kilohertz (kHz) is a unit of frequency equal to 1,000 hertz (1,000 cycles per second). ... The watt (symbol: W) is the SI derived unit of power. ... Clear channel stations are AM radio stations that are designated as such so that only one or two 50,000 watt powerhouses operate at night on each designated frequency, covering a wide area via sky wave propagation. ... Log-periodic dipole array A directional antenna is an antenna which transmits or receives maximum power in a particular direction. ...

The station has a format mixing news/talk and sports, with some music (mostly oldies) during weekends. It is the radio flagship of the Montreal Canadiens (NHL hockey), the Montreal Alouettes (CFL football) and the Montreal Impact (USL First Division soccer). A radio format or programming format describes the overall content broadcast on a radio station. ... Talk radio is a radio format which features discussion of topical issues. ... Oldies is a generic term commonly used in the United States to describe a radio format that concentrates on popular Top 40 music from the 1950s, 1960s and/or 1970s, as well as such music itself. ... A flagship is the ship used by the commanding officer of a group of naval ships. ... The Montreal Canadiens are the oldest established National Hockey League franchise, and one of the most successful in all of North American sports history. ... The modernized NHL shield logo debuted in 2005, replacing the orange and black shield, which had been used since the leagues inception. ... Ice hockey, known simply as hockey in areas where it is more common than field hockey, is a team sport played on ice. ... The Montreal Alouettes (French, Alouettes de Montréal) are a Canadian Football League team based in Montreal, Quebec. ... The Canadian Football League (CFL; French: Ligue canadienne de football) is a professional league located entirely in Canada that plays Canadian football. ... Canadian football is a sport in which two teams of twelve players each compete for territorial control of a field of play 110 yards (100. ... The Montreal Impact (French: Impact de Montréal) is a soccer team in the North American USL First Division. ... The United Soccer Leagues First Division is a professional mens soccer league in North America. ... Federation Internationale de Football Association (FIFA) Asian Football Confederation (AFC) Confederation of African Football (CAF) Confederation of North, Central American and Caribbean Association Football (CONCACAF) Union of European Football Associations (UEFA) South American Football Confederation (CONMEBOL) Oceania Football Confederation (OFC) The Current Rules of the Game (LOTG) The Rec. ...

Current hosts

Pierre Trudel is the weekday morningman, replacing Mario Langlois who quit in December 2005. Controversial psychiatrist Pierre Mailloux hosts an afternoon open-line show dealing mostly with personal problems; former politician Jean Cournoyer and former union leader Gérald Larose host a mid-morning open-line show dealing with political issues. Dr. Pierre Mailloux (better known as Doc Mailloux or Docteur Mailloux) is a psychiatrist hosting a long-running French-language talk show on CKAC radio in Montreal, with a large audience. ... To meet Wikipedias quality standards, this article or section may require cleanup. ... Gérald Larose (born 1945) is a Quebec union activist and professor, and former head of the Confédération des syndicats nationaux. ...

Jacques Fabi, who was CKAC's all-night host from 1977 to January 2006, has now been promoted to middays, and hosts a program dealing with news issues of the day; his nighttime show was partly replaced by a shorter early night open-line show hosted by Roger Drolet, with the remainder of nighttime programming now being "best-of" reruns.

Michel Villeneuve, Christian Gauthier, Jean Chartrand and Ron Fournier all have daily sports talk shows during weekday evenings.

Serge Plaisance hosts an oldies music show on weekend afternoons and evenings, while André Pelletier continues to host a weekend overnight open-line show. Oldies is a generic term commonly used in the United States to describe a radio format that concentrates on popular Top 40 music from the 1950s, 1960s and/or 1970s, as well as such music itself. ...

History

Early days

CKAC is famous for being the first French-language radio station in the entire world. The construction of the station was announced on May 3, 1922, and it started to regularly broadcast on September 22, 1922, as reported by daily newspaper La Presse, which created the station and owned it until 1969. La Presse, founded in 1884, is a large-circulation French-language daily newspaper published in Montreal, Quebec. ...

While some sources indicate that the station started to broadcast on October 2, 1922, that date actually refers to an official inauguration concert, and not to the actual beginning of regular programming. A concert is a live performance, usually of music, before an audience. ...

The station was originally on 430 metres (833 kHz) and had a power of 2,000 watts. In 1925, the station switched to its current frequency of 730 kHz, using a power of 1,200 watts. It shared time with CFCF (now CINW) until 1928, at which point it became the only station on that frequency. Power was increased to 5,000 watts fulltime on October 19, 1929, using an omnidirectional antenna from a new transmitter site located in Saint-Hyacinthe. CKAC applied to increase its power to 50,000 watts the following year, but this application was denied by government authorities. CINW is an English language Canadian radio station located in Montreal, Quebec. ... An omnidirectional antenna is an antenna system which radiates maximum power uniformly in all directions. ... Saint-Hyacinthe (Ville de) town in southwestern Quebec east of Montreal on the Yamaska River. ...

The station became an affiliate of the CBS network in 1929. This affiliation was established to broadcast concerts from renowned American orchestras on CKAC. CKAC also created its own orchestra that year, which would produce concerts aired on American stations twice a week until 1933. (CKAC did keep its CBS affiliation until the late 1940s.) CBS (formerly an acronym for Columbia Broadcasting System) is a major television network and radio broadcaster in the United States. ...

Radio dramas appeared on CKAC in 1931 and would continue to be heard for many years thereafter, until they were phased out as television was introduced and became popular. Radio drama (audio drama), which had its greatest popularity in the United States and in most other countries before the spread of television, depends on dialogue, music and sound effects to help the listener imagine the story in her or his minds eye. In the television era, some audio...

Golden age

In 1950, CKAC increased its daytime power to 10,000 watts (nighttime power remained at 5,000 watts), and the station began to broadcast 24 hours a day.

On October 1st of that same year, CKAC began to air the "Le Chapelet en famille" (the "Family Rosary Hour") as recited by archbishop Paul-Emile Léger in the Marie-Reine-du-Monde Cathedral, and this program proved so popular that competitors actually lobbied hard to get permission to simulcast that program -- to no avail. (The program disappeared in 1970 as religious practice declined precipitously in the late 1960s in Montreal and elsewhere in Quebec and ratings were down, but this provoked many complaints among still devout Catholics.) In Christianity, an archbishop is an elevated bishop. ... The Cathedral-Basilica of Marie-Reine-du-Monde (Mary, Queen of the World) in Montreal, Quebec, Canada, is the seat of the Roman Catholic archdiocese of Montreal. ... Simulcast is a contraction of simultaneous broadcast, and refers to programs or events broadcast across more than one medium at the same time. ...

On March 13, 1958, CKAC raised its power to 50,000 watts fulltime, using a directional antenna pointing east using two towers, as it moved to its current transmitter site located in Sainte-Marthe-sur-le-Lac, just west of the Island of Montreal. The station now had one of the best signals in Eastern Canada, which was quite an exceptional situation for a privately-owned station as most good AM frequencies were assigned to CBC stations. Log-periodic dipole array A directional antenna is an antenna which transmits or receives maximum power in a particular direction. ... The Island of Montreal (in French, île de Montréal), in extreme southwestern Quebec, Canada, is located at the confluence of the Saint Lawrence and Ottawa Rivers. ... AM radio is radio broadcasting using Amplitude Modulation. ... The Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (CBC), a Canadian crown corporation, is the countrys national radio and television broadcaster. ...

CKAC faced serious competition which intensified in the 1960s as new French-language stations such as CKVL (opened in 1946), CJMS (opened in 1954) and CKLM (opened in 1962) were attracting listeners. While none of these stations had a signal nearly as impressive as CKAC (especially considering nighttime signal restrictions), this was not yet a problem for these stations as urban sprawl was still minimal. CINF is a French language Canadian radio station located in Montreal, Quebec. ... CJMS 1280 was a French language Canadian radio station located in Montreal, Quebec. ... Urban sprawl is a term for the expansive, rapid, and sometimes reckless, growth of a greater metropolitan area, traditionally suburbs (or exurbs) over a large area. ...

However, CKAC quickly regained the first place in ratings in 1970, due to the crucial role its highly-regarded news service had in keeping listeners informed during the October Crisis, in which the (now long-defunct) terrorist and separatist Front de libération du Québec movement kidnapped and murdered provincial Labour Minister Pierre Laporte. Military cordon in support of police taking surrender of terrorist Liberation cell, December 3, 1970 The October Crisis was a series of dramatic events triggered by two terrorist kidnappings in the province of Quebec, Canada, in October 1970, which ultimately resulted in a brief invocation of the War Measures Act... Terrorism is the unconventional use of violence for political gain. ... The Quebec sovereignty movement is a political movement aimed at attaining sovereignty for Quebec, a province of the Canadian federation. ... The Front de libération du Québec (Quebec Liberation Front), commonly known as the FLQ, was a socialist and nationalist terrorist group founded in the 1960s, during the early days of the Quebec independence movement. ... Pierre Laporte (February 25, 1921 - October 1970), was a Canadian politician who was assassinated by members of the terrorist group, the Front de Libération du Québec (Quebec Liberation Front). ...

The station was sold from Power Corporation (which bought La Presse and CKAC in 1968) to Telemedia in 1969, and CKAC became the flagship of the new Télémédia network, which also included CHLN 550 in Trois-Rivières, CHLT 630 in Sherbrooke, and the now-defunct CKCV 1280 in Quebec City, CKCH 970 in Hull (now Gatineau) and CJMT 1420 in Chicoutimi (now Saguenay). Power Corporation is a major Canadian company with interests in a number of industries, such as media, pulp and paper, and finance. ... Telemedia was a Canadian media company, which had holdings in radio, television and magazine publishing. ... The front of the Ursulines Monastary, on Ursulines Street. ... CHLT is a television station. ... Downtown Sherbrooke with the Saint-François River in the foreground Sherbrooke (2001 population 75,916, post-merger population 141,200) is a city in south-eastern Quebec, Canada. ... Motto: « Don de Dieu feray valoir Â» (I shall put Gods gift to good use) Site in the province of Québec Official logo Provincial region Province Country Capitale-Nationale Québec Canada Gentilé Québécois, Québécoise Mayor Jean-Paul LAllier 1989-Dec. ... Motto: Ursus super montem ivit Area: 342. ... Saguenay (officially Ville de Saguenay) is a city (2001 pop. ...

From 1970 until the late 1980s, CKAC was regularly one of the very few stations in Canada to attract over one million listeners according to BBM ratings and regularly made millions of dollars in profits every year, as it was home to such famous and renowned hosts as long-time morningman Jacques Proulx, mid-morning host Suzanne Lévesque and 1980s midday host Pierre Pascau.

CKAC became the radio flagship of the MLB Montreal Expos (who became the Washington Nationals after the 2004 season) in 1972 and broadcasted post-season games in addition to all (or in the last years, most) Expos regular-season games until 2003, with legendary play-by-play host Jacques Doucet describing over 5,500 games. Major League Baseball (MLB) is the highest level of play in professional baseball in the world. ... The Montreal Expos were a Major League Baseball team located in Montreal, Quebec, Canada from 1969 to 2004. ... Major league affiliations National League (1969-present) East Division (1969-present) Major league titles World Series titles (0) None NL Pennants (0) None East Division titles (1) [1][2] 1981 Wild card berths (0) None [1] - In 1981, a players strike in the middle of the season forced the season... Play-by-play, in broadcasting, means the reporting of a sporting event with a voiceover describing the details of the action of the game in progress. ... Jacques Doucet (born on March 8, 1940, in Montreal) was for 33 years, from 1972 to 2004, the legendary French radio play-by-play voice for the Montreal Expos. ...

The station got an FM sister station in 1977, when Telemedia launched CITE-FM on 107.3 MHz. (The two stations became competitors in May 2005; for more information, please see "Recent decline and sale to Corus Entertainment" section.) Roberts FM radio FM radio is a broadcast technology invented by Edwin Howard Armstrong that uses frequency modulation to provide high-fidelity sound over broadcast radio. ... In broadcasting, a sister station is a broadcast station which is owned by the same company that owns a different station. ... CITE-FM is a French language Canadian radio station located in Montreal, Quebec. ... MegaHertz (MHz) is the name given to one million (106) Hertz, a measure of frequency. ...

Telemedia/Radiomutuel merger

CKAC ran into ratings difficulties in the early 1990s, mostly because of a resurgence from CJMS. These difficulties had a disproportionate economic impact on CKAC because of the recession that was particularly difficult in Montreal, and Quebec in general. In addition, radio in Quebec was generally suffering from the appearance of the new Télévision Quatre Saisons TV network, which provoked a severe advertising price war. CJMS 1280 was a French language Canadian radio station located in Montreal, Quebec. ... A recession is usually defined in macroeconomics as a fall of a countrys real Gross Domestic Product in two or more successive quarters of a year. ... TQS is a French-language commercial television network in Quebec. ... Generally speaking, advertising is the promotion of goods, services, companies and ideas, usually by an identified sponsor. ... Price war is a term used in business to indicate a state of intense competitive rivalry accompanied by a multi-lateral series of price reductions. ...

Because of these factors, Telemedia merged its Quebec AM radio operations with Radiomutuel on September 30, 1994 to form the new Radiomédia network, and six AM stations across Quebec closed that very same day at 6 PM, including competitor CJMS 1280. Radiomutuel acquired 50 % of CKAC, with the remainder still being owned by Telemedia (both companies continued to compete on the FM side).

While CKAC survived thanks to its superior signal (compared to CJMS), most of the new programming included hosts from CJMS, and the merged newsroom was dominated by former Radiomutuel journalists.

The merger did help CKAC to regain many of its lost listeners and market shares, but still CKAC did not dominate in ratings as it used to do. Even the format switch of competitor CKVL to all-news radio in late 1999 did not prop up CKAC in any significant manner. CKAC actually started to lose significant numbers of listeners to La Première Chaîne (CBF-FM 95.1) in the early 2000s. All-news radio is a radio format devoted entirely to discussion and broadcast of news. ... La Première Chaîne is the news and information service of la Société Radio-Canada, the French-language public broadcaster in Canada. ... CBF-FM is a French language Canadian radio station located in Montreal, Quebec. ...

Recent decline and sale to Corus Entertainment

In 2001, Astral Media (successor of Radiomutuel) got permission from the CRTC (Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission) to buy Telemedia's Quebec radio properties, which included the RockDétente network as well as 50 % of the Radiomédia network. However the Competition Bureau, another federal agency, partially blocked the deal over concentration of ownership issues, and ordered Astral Media to sell Radiomédia stations, which were temporarily put into trusteeship. Astral Media Inc. ... The Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission (CRTC, in French Conseil de la radiodiffusion et des télécommunications canadiennes) was established in 1968 by the Canadian Parliament to replace the Board of Broadcast Governors. ... RockDétente is a network of French-language adult contemporary radio stations broadcasting throughout the province of Quebec. ...

A first attempt failed when TVA (Quebecor) and Radio Nord Communications were refused permission by the CRTC in June 2003 to buy the stations, because of ownership concentration concerns. A second deal was announced in September 2003 with businessmen Gaétan Morin and Sylvain Chamberland, but a month later popular CKAC morningman Paul Arcand unexpectedly announced his departure from the station, and in late November Corus Entertainment announced that it would launch a new news/talk format on CHMP-FM 98.5 (then CKOO-FM) in January 2004, with Arcand as its morningman. Jean Lapierre, who was the afternoon drive host, also announced his departure as he returned to active politics; as a result Morin and Chamberland exercised their option to cancel their acquisition, paying a million-dollar fee to do so. TVA is a private commercial Canadian French-language television network based in Quebec. ... Quebecor (written without an accent on the first e, even in French) is a Quebec-based company with two main spheres of activity: Quebecor World is the largest commercial printing company in the world, with 39 000 employees around the world. ... Radio-Nord is a Canadian broadcasting group based in Gatineau, Quebec, with offices in Montreal and Rouyn-Noranda. ... Corus Entertainment (TSX: CJR.NV.B) NYSE: CJR is a Canadian entertainment company, headquarted in Calgary, Alberta, which owns television networks, digital music channels and 50 radio stations across Canada. ... CHMP-FM is a French language Canadian radio station located in Montreal, Quebec. ... Jean Lapierre The Honourable Jean-C. Lapierre, PC, MP, LLL (born May 7, 1956) is a Canadian politician, born in Bassin, Quebec Lapierre is a prominent member of the Liberal Party of Canada and Paul Martins political lieutenant in Quebec. ...

Astral Media then concluded in March 2004 an exchange of assets deal with Corus Entertainment; the latter publicly announced in June its intention of dramatically reducing programming expenses if the deal was approved, most notably by shutting down the CKAC newsroom. In business and accounting an asset is anything owned, whether in possession or by right to take possession, by a person or a group acting together, e. ... Corus Entertainment (TSX: CJR.NV.B) NYSE: CJR is a Canadian entertainment company, headquarted in Calgary, Alberta, which owns television networks, digital music channels and 50 radio stations across Canada. ...

Despite widespread opposition against that deal, the known existence of at least four other serious and much less controversial contenders to buy the Radiomédia stations, and numerous allegations to the effect that Corus Entertainment's offer was actually part of a larger plan to prevent any meaningful competition to its new FM talk format (as Corus seemed to try to weaken and steal listeners from CKAC and not from the increasingly popular CBF-FM, and its sales representatives claimed to clients that they would be better advised to buy advertising at CHMP-FM and not CKAC as they pretended the latter was going to close shortly no matter what would happen), the deal was approved in January 2005 by the CRTC in the midst of strong rumours that Astral Media would close CKAC if the deal was not approved. The deal took effect a few months later after a failed attempt by CKAC employees to appeal the decision to the Federal Cabinet. Competition is the act of striving against another force for the purpose of achieving dominance or attaining a reward or goal, or out of a biological imperative such as survival. ... Talk radio is a radio format which features discussion of topical issues. ... The Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission (CRTC, in French Conseil de la radiodiffusion et des télécommunications canadiennes) was established in 1968 by the Canadian Parliament to replace the Board of Broadcast Governors. ... Astral Media Inc. ... The Cabinet of Canada (French: Cabinet du Canada) plays an important role in the Canadian government in accordance with the Westminster System. ...

On May 30, 2005, Corus Entertainment closed the reputed CKAC newsroom in favour of the lowly-regarded CINF (Info 690) newsroom, which now produces newscasts for all French-language Corus Entertainment stations under the name "Corus Nouvelles". CKAC now has only 424,100 listeners according to BBM ratings issued on December 5, 2005. CINF is a French language Canadian radio station located in Montreal, Quebec. ... BBM is the name of the blues/rock band formed in 1994 by artists Jack Bruce, Ginger Baker, and Gary Moore. ...

Trivia

• CKAC is one of the few privately-owned clear channel (class A) radio stations in North America that never used any of the (analogue) AM stereo systems.

• Call letters CKAC refer to "Canadian Kilocycle Amérique Canada" (and not "Canadian Kilocycle Alternate Current" as it is sometimes erroneously alleged).

Clear channel stations are AM radio stations that are designated as such so that only one or two 50,000 watt powerhouses operate at night on each designated frequency, covering a wide area via sky wave propagation. ... World map showing North America A satellite composite image of North America. ... For the Analog Science Fiction and Science Fact publication, see Astounding Magazine. ... AM stereo is any of a number of mutually-incompatible techniques for broadcasting two_channel audio in the mediumwave band in a manner that is compatible with receivers designed for standard amplitude modulation. ...

External links

• CKAC 730 AM (official website)