CJBQ is a

Canadian Canadians (french: Canadiens) 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 ...

radio station licensed at Belleville,

Ontario Ontario ( ; ) is one of the thirteen provinces and territories of Canada.Ontario is located in the geographic eastern half of Canada, but it has historically and politically been considered to be part of Central Canada. Located in Central C ...

. It is owned by Quinte Broadcasting along with CIGL-FM and CJTN-FM. CJBQ broadcasts at 800 kHz at a power of 10 kW. The transmitter is located in Prince Edward County. The antenna is a six-tower array with differing patterns day and night, to protect Class-A clear-channel station

XEROK-AM XEROK-AM (800 Hertz, kHz) is a commercial radio, commercial radio station in Ciudad Juárez, Chihuahua (state), Chihuahua, Mexico. It is licensed to operate with a power of 150,000 watts on a carrier frequency of 800 kHz, although its new ...

in Ciudad Juárez,

Mexico Mexico ( Spanish: México), officially the United Mexican States, is a country in the southern portion of North America. It is bordered to the north by the United States; to the south and west by the Pacific Ocean; to the southeast by Guate ...

, as well as other Canadian and U.S. stations on the same frequency. Since the late 2000s, CJBQ is the only remaining Canadian AM radio station operating between

Ottawa Ottawa (, ; Canadian French: ) is the capital city of Canada. It is located at the confluence of the Ottawa River and the Rideau River in the southern portion of the province of Ontario. Ottawa borders Gatineau, Quebec, and forms the core ...

and the Greater Toronto Area. CJBQ's format includes

country A country is a distinct part of the world, such as a state, nation, or other political entity. It may be a sovereign state or make up one part of a larger state. For example, the country of Japan is an independent, sovereign state, whil ...

oldies Oldies is a term for musical genres such as pop music, rock and roll, doo-wop, surf music (broadly characterized as classic rock and pop rock) from the second half of the 20th century, specifically from around the mid-1950s to the 1980s, as wel ...

and

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 ...

. It is mostly locally programmed, with the exception of

John Tesh John Frank Tesh (born July 9, 1952) is an American pianist and composer of pop music, as well as a radio host and television presenter. He hosts the ''Intelligence for Your Life'' radio show. In addition, since 2014, he has hosted ''Intelligen ...

's syndicated program that airs during evenings. CJBQ also carries live broadcasts of

Belleville Senators The Belleville Senators are a professional ice hockey team in the American Hockey League (AHL) that began play in the 2017–18 season as the top minor league affiliate of the National Hockey League team, the Ottawa Senators. Based in Bellevi ...

hockey games.

History

The station launched in 1946 on AM 1230, and moved to its current frequency in 1957. An FM sister station, CJBQ-FM, was launched in 1962. Semi-satellites in Bancroft ( CJNH) and Trenton ( CJTN) were added in 1975 and 1979 respectively; the Bancroft station was sold in 2000. In the summer of 1970 a budding young

Peter Mansbridge Peter Mansbridge (born July 6, 1948) is a British-born Canadian retired news anchor. From 1988 to 2017, he was chief correspondent for CBC News and anchor of '' The National,'' CBC Television's flagship nightly newscast. He was also host of C ...

, then at

CBC radio CBC Radio is the English-language radio operations of the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation. The CBC operates a number of radio networks serving different audiences and programming niches, all of which (regardless of language) are outlined below ...

affiliate CHFC in Churchill,

Manitoba , image_map = Manitoba in Canada 2.svg , map_alt = Map showing Manitoba's location in the centre of Southern Canada , Label_map = yes , coordinates = , capital = Win ...

, answered a trade publication ad for a "Broadcast position available at CJBQ in Belleville, Ontario", only to have the station turn him down flat. He landed at CBC

owned-and-operated station In the broadcasting industry, an owned-and-operated station (frequently abbreviated as an O&O) usually refers to a television or radio station owned by the network with which it is associated. This distinguishes such a station from an network af ...

CBW 990 in

Winnipeg Winnipeg () is the capital and largest city of the province of Manitoba in Canada. It is centred on the confluence of the Red and Assiniboine rivers, near the longitudinal centre of North America. , Winnipeg had a city population of 749 ...

in 1971, crossing to television a year later and eventually taking the

national National may refer to: Common uses * Nation or country ** Nationality – a ''national'' is a person who is subject to a nation, regardless of whether the person has full rights as a citizen Places in the United States * National, Maryland, c ...

news anchor desk. CJBQ, CJTN and CJNH were private affiliates of

CBC Radio CBC Radio is the English-language radio operations of the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation. The CBC operates a number of radio networks serving different audiences and programming niches, all of which (regardless of language) are outlined below ...

. They lost this affiliation in 1984 when CBC added CBCP-FM, a

Peterborough Peterborough () is a cathedral city in Cambridgeshire, east of England. It is the largest part of the City of Peterborough unitary authority district (which covers a larger area than Peterborough itself). It was part of Northamptonshire until ...

-based rebroadcaster of CBL

Toronto Toronto ( ; or ) is the capital city of the Provinces and territories of Canada, Canadian province of Ontario. With a recorded population of 2,794,356 in 2021, it is the List of the largest municipalities in Canada by population, most pop ...

. The station subsequently adopted an

("hits of the present and past") format, which it retained until switching to a full time

format in 1993. Today the station's music format is predominantly gold-based AC spanning the 1960s through the 2010s, with some classic country and oldies mixed in, in addition to a continued heavy local news, talk and sports commitment; sister station CIGL-FM programs a more contemporary AC format. During the years when it was a CBC affiliate, CJBQ dayparted its music programming between

Top 40 In the music industry, the Top 40 is the current, 40 most-popular songs in a particular genre. It is the best-selling or most frequently broadcast popular music. Record charts have traditionally consisted of a total of 40 songs. "Top 40" or "conte ...

and

. It gained national prominence in the 1960s for its strident support of Canadian artists, programming as much as 40%

Canadian content Canadian content (abbreviated CanCon, cancon or can-con; ) refers to the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission (CRTC) requirements, derived from the Broadcasting Act of Canada, that radio and television broadcasters (inclu ...

in the era before it was mandated by the government. This practice led the Canadian music trade paper

RPM Revolutions per minute (abbreviated rpm, RPM, rev/min, r/min, or with the notation min−1) is a unit of rotational speed or rotational frequency for rotating machines. Standards ISO 80000-3:2019 defines a unit of rotation as the dimension ...

to dub Belleville "the capital of Canadian music" in 1966."Here & There,
''RPM'' magazine, 18 April 1966
p. 4.

Notable employees

* Jack Devine * Jack Miller

References

External links

CJBQ 800 AM
* * *
Radio locator information for CJBQ
{{DEFAULTSORT:Cjbq Jbq Jbq Radio stations established in 1946 1946 establishments in Ontario