CKAC is a French-language radio station located in Montreal, Quebec, Canada. Owned by Cogeco, the station operates as a commercial traffic information service branded as Radio Circulation 730. Its studios are located at Place Bonaventure in Downtown Montreal, and its transmitter is located in Saint-Joseph-du-Lac.

CKAC was officially launched on October 2, 1922, under the ownership of the local newspaper La Presse, as the first ever Francophone radio station in North America. CKAC had historically been a dominant station in its early years, with its listenership fuelled by popular programming such as a Sunday church broadcast, news coverage, as well as its broadcast rights to the Montreal Expos of Major League Baseball. In 1968, the station and La Presse was acquired by the Power Corporation of Canada, and CKAC was in turn sold to Telemedia the following year, becoming the flagship of a provincial network of stations.

By the 1990s, the station had begun to lose its dominance due to competing stations and other factors, resulting in a decision by Telemedia to merge its radio network with competing chain Radiomutuel as Radiomédia, and CKAC becoming a joint venture of the two owners. Radiomutuel's CJMS was shut down, and much of its programming and personalities were moved to CKAC. In 2001, Radiomutuel's successor, Astral Media, announced its intent to acquire the remainder of the Radiomédia network and CKAC. However, the acquisition was blocked by the Competition Bureau, resulting in the stations instead being sold in 2004, to Corus Entertainment as part of a larger exchange of assets between the two companies. CKAC became the flagship and provider of talk radio programming to the Corus Québec network, but its newsroom was later shut down in favor of that of its new sister station CINF (later CHMP-FM). In 2007, the station flipped to a sports radio format.

In 2010, Corus sold all of its Quebec radio stations to Cogeco. The following September, CKAC dropped its sports format and switched to traffic information programming, broadcasting live traffic reports for the Montreal area throughout the day.

Previous hosts

Previous hosts on the station included: Michel Langevin and Gabriel Grégoire (morning show), Mario Langlois (mid-mornings), Jean-Charles Lajoie (early afternoons), Michel Villeneuve (afternoon drive), Jean Chartrand (early evenings), Ron Fournier (late evenings), Marc Bryson (weekends) and Jacques Fabi (weeknights).

History

Early days

thumb|Recording of «Radio Petit Monde» in 1943

The construction of CKAC was announced on May 3, 1922, by daily newspaper La Presse, which created the station and owned it until 1969. On-air testing began by mid-September 1922, and the station was officially inaugurated on October 2, although regular programming had already begun on September 27. CKAC was the first francophone radio station in North America. Power was increased to 5,000 watts (full-time) on October 19, 1929, using a new transmitter site located in Saint-Hyacinthe. The Radiomédia network became known as the Corus Québec network, and CKAC continued to be the flagship of the network as it continued to be the source of talk programming for Corus' talk stations outside of Montreal. However ratings continued to suffer, and CKAC fell well below the 500,000 listeners mark according to BBM ratings.

All-sports era

The format switch to all-sports was announced on March 1, 2007, and took effect on April 2, 2007. Sister station CHMP-FM became the co-flagship of the Corus Québec network. The long-time tradition of airing news bulletins on the 45th minute of the hour, a practice that was begun in 1972, was ended. Music programming also disappeared from the station's schedule for the first time ever, except for late-night Souvenirs Garantis oldies programming. Before April 2, 2007, the station had a news/talk format with sports talk in the evenings and some music (mostly oldies) during weekends.

CKAC was the radio flagship of the Montreal Canadiens (NHL hockey), the Montreal Alouettes (CFL football), the Montreal Impact (NASL soccer) and the Toronto Blue Jays (MLB baseball). The station broadcast all Canadiens and Alouettes games, and all Impact games except for regular season road games; the number of Blue Jays games aired is limited to only a few per year.

On April 30, 2010, it was announced that Cogeco will acquire all radio stations owned by Corus in Quebec for $80 million, pending CRTC approval. However, Cogeco must either apply with the CRTC for an exemption from the common ownership policy, or sell off some of these (or Cogeco's own stations) to a third party as they will be over the maximum allowable number of stations in Montreal, Quebec City and Sherbrooke. Corus is selling off their Quebec radio stations, as they are less profitable than Corus's stations in other parts of Canada.

On December 17, 2010, the CRTC approved the sale of most of Corus' radio stations in Quebec, including CKAC, to Cogeco. The same decision, however, also denied Cogeco's request to convert Sherbrooke station CKOY-FM 104.5 to a repeater of CKAC. (That station would later be re-called CJTS-FM before closing down in 2011).

End of all-sports era and transition to traffic information

On September 2, 2011, at exactly 10 am, CKAC dropped its all-sports format. A recorded announcement from Cogeco vice president Richard Lachance was played, announcing a new traffic information format that would launch at 4:30 am on September 6. Branded as Radio Circulation 730, the new format is being subsidized by the Quebec government, and will feature round-the-clock traffic updates from around Montreal, and it has become Canada's first radio station entirely dedicated to traffic and weather (because AM730 adds some Vancouver's news from CKNW in between). This relaunch superseded an application Cogeco had filed with the CRTC earlier in the year to reactivate the former CINF (Info 690) transmitter for a similar format (while maintaining all-sports on CKAC). Unlike Cogeco's original plans for 690 kHz, CKAC's traffic radio service operates 24 hours a day, with live announcers on the air between 6:00 and 1:00 (non-holiday weekdays are 90' earlier). Pre-recorded announcements detailing overnight road closures and detours are played when live announcers are not on the air.

Effective September 6, some of CKAC's sports programming and airstaff have moved over to CHMP, along with Montreal Canadiens and Montreal Alouettes broadcasts.

After playing a wide variety of continuous music over Labour Day weekend, Radio Circulation 730 made its debut at 4:30 am on September 6, as announced. The first announcer heard on the air was Michel Millard.

Alongside the original (and ultimately abandoned) application to place traffic information on 690, Cogeco also planned on an English-language traffic radio service for 940 previously used by CINW. However, that frequency was awarded instead to Paul Tietolman, for a francophone news-talk radio service.

Rebroadcasters

The following community-owned rebroadcasters are currently listed with the CRTC as rebroadcasting CKAC. Although traffic information for the Montreal area has little apparent relevance to these communities, no changes to this transmitter list (if any) following CKAC's 2011 format change have yet been published.

Transmitters

See also

  • CHMJ, former sister station in Vancouver that also carried an all-traffic format.

References

  • CKAC history - Canadian Communications Foundation
  • CKAC history - Fondation Des Communications Canadiennes