Rouge FM is a network of

French-language French ( or ) is a Romance language of the Indo-European family. It descended from the Vulgar Latin of the Roman Empire, as did all Romance languages. French evolved from Gallo-Romance, the Latin spoken in Gaul, and more specifically in No ...

adult contemporary Adult contemporary music (AC) is a form of radio-played popular music, ranging from 1960s vocal and 1970s soft rock music to predominantly ballad-heavy music of the present day, with varying degrees of easy listening, pop, soul, R&B, quie ...

radio station Radio broadcasting is transmission of audio (sound), sometimes with related metadata, by radio waves to radio receivers belonging to a public audience. In terrestrial radio broadcasting the radio waves are broadcast by a land-based radio ...

s broadcasting throughout

Quebec Quebec ( ; )According to the Canadian government, ''Québec'' (with the acute accent) is the official name in Canadian French and ''Quebec'' (without the accent) is the province's official name in Canadian English is one of the thirte ...

Canada Canada is a country in North America. Its ten provinces and three territories extend from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean and northward into the Arctic Ocean, covering over , making it the world's second-largest country by to ...

. Established in 1990 as RockDétente, they are owned by

Bell Media Bell Media Inc. (French: ) is a Canadian company formed by the amalgamation of several companies. Establishment (2011–13) On December 9, 2011, the Ontario Teachers' Pension Plan announced the sale of its majority stake in Maple Leaf Sports ...

. All "Rouge FM" stations broadcast in the same markets as Bell's

mainstream rock Mainstream rock (also known as heritage rock) is a radio format used by many commercial radio stations in the United States and Canada. Format background Mainstream rock stations represent the middle ground between classic rock and active ro ...

network, Énergie, although Énergie also has a few stations in markets not served by "Rouge FM". Although the stations concentrate on French

music, it would mix in

English English usually refers to: * English language * English people English may also refer to: Peoples, culture, and language * ''English'', an adjective for something of, from, or related to England ** English national ...

music as well, much like

Cogeco Cogeco Inc. is a Canadian telecommunications and media company. Its corporate offices are located at 1 Place Ville-Marie in Montreal, Quebec. The company is structured into three strategic business units (SBU); Cogeco Connexion, Breezelin ...

's "

Rythme FM Rythme FM is a network of French-language adult contemporary FM radio stations broadcasting in most major markets of Quebec. The network was created and owned by Cogeco. History The brand "Rythme FM" was introduced in January 1999 at CFGL- ...

" network, which has fewer stations than "Rouge FM". The flagship radio station is

Montreal Montreal ( ; officially Montréal, ) is the second-most populous city in Canada and most populous city in the Canadian province of Quebec. Founded in 1642 as '' Ville-Marie'', or "City of Mary", it is named after Mount Royal, the triple- ...

CITE-FM CITE-FM (107.3 MHz) is a French-language Canadian radio station located in Montreal, Quebec. Owned and operated by Bell Media, it airs an adult contemporary format. It is also the flagship station of the " Rouge FM" network, which operates acr ...

. The Astral jingles on this network are different from the adult hits jingles used by Astral's

English-language English is a West Germanic language of the Indo-European language family, with its earliest forms spoken by the inhabitants of early medieval England. It is named after the Angles, one of the ancient Germanic peoples that migrated to the i ...

adult contemporary stations, nut the network uses a very relaxing acoustic tune. On August 18, 2011, at 4:00 p.m. EDT, all RockDétente stations were rebranded as Rouge FM, when the longtime "RockDétente" branding was retired after a 21-year run. On most stations, the last song as "RockDétente" was " Pour que tu m'aimes encore" by

Celine Dion Céline Marie Claudette Dion ( ; born 30 March 1968) is a Canadian singer. Noted for her powerful and technically skilled vocals, Dion is the best-selling Canadian recording artist, and the best-selling French-language artist of all time. Her ...

, followed by a tribute of the branding. The first song under Rouge FM was "

I Gotta Feeling "I Gotta Feeling" is a song recorded by American group the Black Eyed Peas for their fifth studio album '' The E.N.D.'' (2009). It was written by the group members with the song's producers David Guetta and Frédéric Riesterer. The song was re ...

" by

Black Eyed Peas Black Eyed Peas (also known as The Black Eyed Peas) is an American musical group consisting of rappers will.i.am, apl.de.ap, Taboo. The group's line-up during the height of their popularity in the 2000s featured Fergie, who replaced Kim H ...

. Astral Radio Launches Rouge FM
/ref> After rebranding, most of the

soft rock Soft rock is a form of rock music that originated in the late 1960s in Southern California and the United Kingdom which smoothed over the edges of singer-songwriter and pop rock, relying on simple, melodic songs with big, lush productions. S ...

songs were dropped, leaving the "

" network to continue broadcasting them and moving "Rouge FM" towards a

hot adult contemporary Adult contemporary music (AC) is a form of radio-played popular music, ranging from 1960s vocal and 1970s soft rock music to predominantly ballad-heavy music of the present day, with varying degrees of easy listening, pop, soul, R&B, quiet ...

direction. By

2012 File:2012 Events Collage V3.png, From left, clockwise: The passenger cruise ship Costa Concordia lies capsized after the Costa Concordia disaster; Damage to Casino Pier in Seaside Heights, New Jersey as a result of Hurricane Sandy; People gat ...

, most of the

classic hits Classic hits is a radio format which generally includes songs from the top 40 music charts from the late 1960s to the early 2000s, with music from the 1980s serving as the core of the format. Music that was popularized by MTV in the early 198 ...

and ballads returned due to the 35th anniversary of flagship

, going towards its old RockDétente direction. From May 2011 to March

, the stations started identifying their call letters during

station identification Station identification (ident, network ID or channel ID or bumper) is the practice of radio and television stations and networks identifying themselves on-air, typically by means of a call sign or brand name (sometimes known, particularly in th ...

, and on April 27 to 29, 2012, the network was briefly rebranded Rose FM as a charitable promotion for

breast cancer Breast cancer is cancer that develops from breast tissue. Signs of breast cancer may include a lump in the breast, a change in breast shape, dimpling of the skin, milk rejection, fluid coming from the nipple, a newly inverted nipple, or ...

research. All stations carry most Rouge FM programming simultaneously except for CITF-FM in Quebec City, all of which is programmed locally except for a few networked programs.

RockVelours

From 2006 to 2010, Astral also programmed a

satellite radio Satellite radio is defined by the International Telecommunication Union (ITU)'s ITU Radio Regulations (RR) as a '' broadcasting-satellite service''. The satellite's signals are broadcast nationwide, across a much wider geographical area than t ...

channel for broadcast on

Sirius Canada Sirius Canada was a Canadian company, a partnership between Slaight Communications, the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation and Sirius Satellite Radio, which was one of three services licensed by the CRTC on June 16, 2005 to introduce satellite rad ...

and the American

Sirius Satellite Radio Sirius Satellite Radio was a satellite radio (SDARS) and online radio service operating in North America, owned by Sirius XM Holdings. Headquartered in New York City, with smaller studios in Los Angeles and Memphis, Sirius was officially lau ...

, using the same format as the RockDétente stations but branded as RockVelours ("Velvet Rock"). The channel was originally located on channel 192, but later moved to channel 88 by June

2008 File:2008 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: Lehman Brothers went bankrupt following the Subprime mortgage crisis; Cyclone Nargis killed more than 138,000 in Myanmar; A scene from the opening ceremony of the 2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing; ...

. Its logo was also updated to include the channel number switch. This channel was programmed separately from the terrestrial stations and was hosted by Mélanie Gagné and Jean-François Fillion. However,

Astral Media Astral Media Inc. was a Canadian media conglomerate. It was Canada's largest radio broadcaster, with 84 radio stations in eight provinces. Astral was also a major player in premium and specialty television in Canada, with 23 specialty channels ...

sold the channel to

in September

2010 File:2010 Events Collage New.png, From top left, clockwise: The 2010 Chile earthquake was one of the strongest recorded in history; The Eruption of Eyjafjallajökull in Iceland disrupts air travel in Europe; A scene from the opening ceremony of ...

, dropped the

artists, and renamed it L'Oasis francophone, having a similar fate made with Énergie² that time.

Rouge FM stations

Affiliates

* CFRT-FM 107.3,

Iqaluit Iqaluit ( ; , ; ) is the capital of the Provinces and territories of Canada, Canadian territory of Nunavut, its largest community, and its only city. It was known as Frobisher Bay from 1942 to 1987, after the Frobisher Bay, large bay on the c ...

Nunavut Nunavut ( , ; iu, ᓄᓇᕗᑦ , ; ) is the largest and northernmost territory of Canada. It was separated officially from the Northwest Territories on April 1, 1999, via the '' Nunavut Act'' and the '' Nunavut Land Claims Agreement Act'' ...

—community radio station that also carries some Rouge FM programming.

Former stations

CHOA-FM CHOA-FM is a Canadian radio station, broadcasting at 96.5 FM in Rouyn-Noranda, Quebec. The station has an adult contemporary format branded as ''Wow 96.5''. Owned and operated by Arsenal Media, the station aired an adult contemporary format f ...

96.5 / 103.5 / 103.9,

Rouyn-Noranda Rouyn-Noranda ( 2021 population 42,313) is a city on Osisko Lake in the Abitibi-Témiscamingue region of Quebec, Canada. The city of Rouyn-Noranda is a coextensive with a territory equivalent to a regional county municipality (TE) and census d ...

—owned by

, used RockDétente branding and imaging under license, discontinued the RockDétente branding in 2005 *

CJPN-FM CJPN-FM is a French-language radio station in Fredericton, New Brunswick, Canada, broadcasting at 90.5 FM. The station signed on in 1997 from its studios at Le Centre Communautaire Sainte-Anne (Fredericton). CJPN broadcasts to a population of 1 ...

90.5,

Fredericton Fredericton (; ) is the capital city of the Canadian province of New Brunswick. The city is situated in the west-central portion of the province along the Saint John River, which flows west to east as it bisects the city. The river is the do ...

New Brunswick New Brunswick (french: Nouveau-Brunswick, , locally ) is one of the thirteen provinces and territories of Canada. It is one of the three Maritime provinces and one of the four Atlantic provinces. It is the only province with both English and ...

—former community radio affiliate that carried RockDétente during the night but has dropped its programming

References

External links

Official website
{{DEFAULTSORT:Rouge fm Bell Media Canadian radio networks French-language radio in Canada Radio formats Soft adult contemporary radio stations in Canada Radio stations in Quebec