CBJ-FM is a

French-language French ( or ) is a Romance language of the Indo-European family. Like all other Romance languages, it descended from the Vulgar Latin of the Roman Empire. French evolved from Northern Old Gallo-Romance, a descendant of the Latin spoken in ...

Canadian Canadians () are people identified with the country of Canada. This connection may be residential, legal, historical or cultural. For most Canadians, many (or all) of these connections exist and are collectively the source of their being ''C ...

radio station Radio broadcasting is the broadcasting 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 rad ...

located in

Saguenay, Quebec Saguenay ( , , ) is a city in the Saguenay–Lac-Saint-Jean region of Quebec, Canada, on the Saguenay River, about north of Quebec City by overland route. It is about upriver and northwest of Tadoussac, located at the confluence with the St. ...

. Owned and operated by the government-owned

Canadian Broadcasting Corporation The Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (), branded as CBC/Radio-Canada, is the Canadian Public broadcasting, public broadcaster for both radio and television. It is a Crown corporation that serves as the national public broadcaster, with its E ...

(French: Société Radio-Canada), it broadcasts on 93.7

MHz The hertz (symbol: Hz) is the unit of frequency in the International System of Units (SI), often described as being equivalent to one event (or cycle) per second. The hertz is an SI derived unit whose formal expression in terms of SI base u ...

with an

effective radiated power Effective radiated power (ERP), synonymous with equivalent radiated power, is an IEEE standardized definition of directional radio frequency (RF) power, such as that emitted by a radio transmitter. It is the total power in watts that would ha ...

of 50,000

watt The watt (symbol: W) is the unit of Power (physics), power or radiant flux in the International System of Units (SI), equal to 1 joule per second or 1 kg⋅m2⋅s−3. It is used to quantification (science), quantify the rate of Work ...

s ( class B) using an

omnidirectional antenna In radio communication, an omnidirectional antenna is a class of antenna (electronics), antenna which radiates equal radio power in all directions perpendicular to an Cartesian coordinate system, axis (azimuthal directions), with power varying wi ...

. The station has an ad-free

news News is information about current events. This may be provided through many different Media (communication), media: word of mouth, printing, Mail, postal systems, broadcasting, Telecommunications, electronic communication, or through the te ...

talk Talk may refer to: Communication * Communication, the encoding and decoding of exchanged messages between people * Conversation, interactive communication between two or more people * Lecture, an oral presentation intended to inform or instruct ...

format Format may refer to: Printing and visual media * Text formatting, the typesetting of text elements * Paper formats, or paper size standards * Newspaper format, the size of the paper page Computing * File format, particular way that informatio ...

and is part of the

Ici Radio-Canada Première Ici Radio-Canada Première (formerly Première Chaîne) is a Canadian French-language radio network, the news and information service of the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (known as Société Radio-Canada in French), the public broadcaster of ...

network, which operates across Canada. The station originated in 1933 as CRCS, owned and operated by the CRBC and based in

Chicoutimi Chicoutimi ( , ) is the most populous borough (arrondissement) of the city of Saguenay in Quebec, Canada. It is situated at the confluence of the Saguenay and Chicoutimi rivers. During the 20th century, it became the main administrative and ...

(which became part of Saguenay in 2002). It became CBJ when the CRBC became the CBC. Originally located on 1580

kHz The hertz (symbol: Hz) is the unit of frequency in the International System of Units (SI), often described as being equivalent to one event (or cycle) per second. The hertz is an SI derived unit whose formal expression in terms of SI base uni ...

, the station moved to FM in 1999. The AM signal was a 50,000-watt clear channel station from 1977 onward, and was well known as an extremely reliable DX signal at night. It was often used by people who wanted to receive Première Chaîne when they were travelling just about anywhere in the eastern half of

North America North America is a continent in the Northern Hemisphere, Northern and Western Hemisphere, Western hemispheres. North America is bordered to the north by the Arctic Ocean, to the east by the Atlantic Ocean, to the southeast by South Ameri ...

. The frequency has been reactivated by

CKDO CKDO (1580 kHz) is a commercial AM radio station in Oshawa, Ontario, Canada, serving the eastern suburbs of the Greater Toronto Area. The station airs a classic hits–oldies format and is owned by Durham Radio Inc. CKDO is one of only two ...

Oshawa Oshawa is a city in Ontario, Canada, on the Lake Ontario shoreline. It lies in Southern Ontario, approximately east of downtown Toronto. It is commonly viewed as the eastern anchor of the Greater Toronto Area and of the Golden Horseshoe. It ...

(10,000 watts). The station's current local programs are ''Y'a des matins'', in the morning from 6:00 a.m. to 9:00 a.m., and ''Style libre'' in the afternoon from 3:30 p.m. to 6:00 p.m. The Saturday morning program, ''Samedi et rien d'autre'', originates from

CBF-FM CBF-FM is a French-language radio station licensed to Montreal, Quebec, Canada. Owned and operated by the government-owned Canadian Broadcasting Corporation, it transmits on 95.1 MHz from the Mount Royal candelabra tower with an effective radia ...

Montreal Montreal is the List of towns in Quebec, largest city in the Provinces and territories of Canada, province of Quebec, the List of the largest municipalities in Canada by population, second-largest in Canada, and the List of North American cit ...

. On public holidays, its local programs are replaced with local shows airing provincewide produced by different outlets in turn (except Montreal and Quebec City).

Transmitters

Technical information

Because of deficiencies with the main FM signal which did not exist when the station was on AM, in the 2000s CBJ-FM operated a relay, CBJ-FM-6, to serve nearby

La Baie La Baie (, ) is one of three boroughs in the city of Saguenay, Quebec, Canada. It was created during Quebec's municipal reorganization in 2002. From 1976 to 2001, it was known as the Town of La Baie, a municipality composed of the Grande-Bai ...

, now part of Saguenay. That relay was one of the few co-channel relays used in Canada, meaning that it had also operated on 93.7 MHz; this solution was chosen to permit people to listen to the station in their cars continuously between Chicoutimi and La Baie without having to switch to a new frequency, de facto extending the main signal of CBJ-FM. CBJ-FM-6 used a

directional antenna A directional antenna or beam antenna is an antenna that radiates or receives greater radio wave power in specific directions. Directional antennas can radiate radio waves in beams, when greater concentration of radiation in a certain directio ...

with an average effective radiated power of 16 watts and a peak effective radiated power of 86 watts ( class A1). On May 22, 2014, the CRTC approved the CBC's application to change the FM frequency of CBJ-FM-6 La Baie from 93.7 MHz to 102.1 MHz and to increase the maximum ERP from 85.7 to 544 watts. A technical change for CBJ-FM-6 was approved on September 13, 2016, to increase the average effective radiated power (ERP) from 98 to 194 watts (maximum ERP increasing from 544 to 1,138 watts) and by decreasing the effective height of antenna above average terrain from . On May 22, 1984, the CRTC approved the CBC's application to add low-power AM transmitters at Petit-Saguenay on 1140 kHz (CBJ-5) and L'Anse-Saint-Jean on 990 kHz (CBJ-4) both with the power of 40 watts. On April 29, 2003, the CBC received approval from the CRTC to convert CBJ-4 L'Anse-Saint-Jean from the AM band (990 kHz) to the FM band at 101.9 MHz. The new transmitter CBJ-FM-4 would replace the AM transmitters CBJ-4 L'Anse-Saint-Jean and CBJ-5 Petit-Saguenay. On August 27, 2020, the CRTC approved the CBC's application to add a new FM transmitter at Petit-Saguenay. The new transmitter will operate at 101.3 MHz (channel 267A1) with an effective radiated power of 250 watts (non-directional antenna with an effective height of the antenna above average terrain of . The call sign will be CBJ-FM-5. CBJ-2 operating at 1140 kHz in Chapais, Quebec located about 40 kilometers from Chibougamau is the last remaining AM transmitter to rebroadcast CBJ-FM. The Chapais transmitter may no longer be needed after the CBC received CRTC approval to increase the power of CBJ-FM-1 Chibougamau from 420 to 30,682 watts, increasing the average ERP from 420 watts to 12,075 watts, replacing the existing non-directional antenna with a new directional elliptically polarized antenna and by decreasing the effective height of the antenna above average terrain from 110.0 to 108.5 metres and changing the transmitter class from A to B.Broadcasting Decision CRTC 2022-122
CBJ-FM Saguenay and its transmitter CBJ-FM-1 Chibougamau – Technical changes, ''CRTC'', May 6, 2022

References

External links

Ici Radio-Canada Première

CBJ-FM
at The History of Canadian Broadcasting by the

Canadian Communications Foundation The Canadian Communications Foundation (CCF) was a Canadian nonprofit organization which documented the history of broadcasting in Canada, particularly radio and television networks, programs and broadcasters. The organization was established in ...

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Cbj-Fm BJ BJ Canadian Radio Broadcasting Commission BJ Radio stations established in 1933 1933 establishments in Quebec