CHPR-FM is a Canadian radio station, which airs at 102.1 FM in

Hawkesbury, Ontario Hawkesbury is a town along the Ottawa River in the United Counties of Prescott and Russell in Eastern Ontario, Canada. Hawkesbury is the third most bilingual town in Ontario, with about 70% of its inhabitants being fluent in English and French. ...

. Owned and operated by

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, Breezeline (p ...

following its 2018 acquisition of most of the stations formerly owned by

RNC Media RNC Media (formerly ''Radio-Nord Communications'') is a Canadian broadcasting group based in Westmount, Quebec, with offices in Gatineau and Rouyn-Noranda. The company operates five television stations and several radio stations, mostly in Quebe ...

, the station airs a

francophone The Francophonie or Francophone world is the whole body of people and organisations around the world who use the French language regularly for private or public purposes. The term was coined by Onésime Reclus in 1880 and became important a ...

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 1980s to the present day, with varying degrees of easy listening, pop, soul ...

format branded as ''Wow 104,9 102,1 FM''. The station airs a mix of locally produced programming and

simulcasting Simulcast (a portmanteau of "simultaneous broadcast") is the broadcasting of programs or events across more than one resolution, bitrate or medium, or more than one service on the same medium, at exactly the same time (that is, simultaneously) ...

of RNC's

CJLA-FM CJLA-FM is a French-language Canadian radio station located in Lachute, Quebec. Owned and operated by Cogeco following its 2018 acquisition of most of the stations formerly owned by RNC Media, it broadcasts on 104.9 MHz using an omnidirectiona ...

Lachute Lachute () is a town in southwest Quebec, Canada, northwest of Montreal, on the Rivière du Nord (Laurentides), Rivière du Nord, a tributary of the Ottawa River, and west of Mirabel International Airport, the Mirabel International Airport. It i ...

, Quebec. Despite simulcasting the majority of its programming, CHPR-FM is one of only four all-francophone commercial radio stations licensed to communities in Ontario; the other three stations are all in

Northeastern Ontario Northeastern Ontario is a secondary region of Northern Ontario in the Canadian province of Ontario, which lies north of Lake Huron and east of Lake Superior. Northeastern Ontario consists of the districts of Algoma, Sudbury, Cochrane, Timisk ...

and are owned by Le5 Communications. CHPR-FM is also Cogeco's only broadcasting property outside Quebec, apart from its cable systems.

History

CHPR was originally launched in 1976 as a

daytimer A clear-channel station is a North American AM radio station that has the highest level of protection from interference from other stations, particularly from nighttime skywave signals. This classification exists to ensure the viability of cross ...

on 1110 kHz

AM radio AM broadcasting is radio broadcasting using amplitude modulation (AM) transmissions. It was the first method developed for making audio radio transmissions, and is still used worldwide, primarily for medium wave (also known as "AM band") transmi ...

(to protect WBT

Charlotte, North Carolina Charlotte ( ) is the List of municipalities in North Carolina, most populous city in the U.S. state of North Carolina and the county seat of Mecklenburg County, North Carolina, Mecklenburg County. The population was 874,579 at the 2020 United ...

and KFAB

Omaha, Nebraska Omaha ( ) is the List of cities in Nebraska, most populous city in the U.S. state of Nebraska. It is located in the Midwestern United States along the Missouri River, about north of the mouth of the Platte River. The nation's List of United S ...

) to rebroadcast the programming of

Cornwall Cornwall (; or ) is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in South West England. It is also one of the Celtic nations and the homeland of the Cornish people. The county is bordered by the Atlantic Ocean to the north and west, ...

's CFIX. In 1983, ownership of the stations was transferred to Guy Vaillancourt, who also owned CJLA. Due to the area's unique circumstances as a predominantly

franco-ontarian Franco-Ontarians ( or if female, sometimes known as ''Ontarois'' and ''Ontaroises'') are Francophone Canadians that reside in the province of Ontario. Most are French Canadians from Ontario. In 2021, according to the Government of Ontario, ther ...

community with limited local media service due to the region's proximity to the

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 ...

market, the station was also licensed at that time to launch a low power FM repeater to improve reception and provide a nighttime service. Vaillancourt shutdown CFIX that year, and subsequently transferred CHPR's programming source to CJLA. In 1985, he committed to produce 32 hours per week of local programming on CHPR, with CJLA providing the station's programming the rest of the time. In 1987, the FM transmitter increased its signal to 780

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. The AM transmitter was discontinued at that time. Also that year, CHPR and CJLA affiliated with the Radiomutuel network. The following year, the stations were acquired by Radio Fusion, a subsidiary of RNC Media. In 1997, RNC Media became the direct licensee of the stations after a corporate reorganization. CHPR was also licensed to increase its signal to 3 kW, and to reduce its local programming to 15 hours per week.Decision CRTC 97-49
/ref> In the fall of

2006 2006 was designated as the International Year of Deserts and Desertification. Events January * January 1– 4 – Russia temporarily cuts shipment of natural gas to Ukraine during a price dispute. * January 12 – A stampede during t ...

, the station changed to a more

oldies Oldies is a term for musical genres such as pop music, rock and roll, doo-wop, surf music from the second half of the 20th century, specifically from around the mid-1950s to the 1980s, as well as for a radio format playing this music. Since 2 ...

-leaning AC format as Lov Radio, even though the AC currents remain on the station. The station rebranded as Planète Lov' in August

2008 2008 was designated as: *International Year of Languages *International Year of Planet Earth *International Year of the Potato *International Year of Sanitation The Great Recession, a worldwide recession which began in 2007, continued throu ...

, because of RNC rebranding most of their stations to the Planète name. By

2010 The year saw a multitude of natural and environmental disasters such as the 2010 Haiti earthquake, the Deepwater Horizon oil spill, and the 2010 Chile earthquake. The 2009 swine flu pandemic, swine flu pandemic which began the previous year ...

, CHPR-FM decreased the amount of oldies played on the station.

References

External links

*

Planète 104,9 102,1 FM
CHPR-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:Chpr-Fm Hpr Hpr Hpr Hpr Hawkesbury, Ontario Radio stations established in 1976 1976 establishments in Ontario