Corus Québec, formerly Radiomédia, was 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 ...

news/talk Talk radio is a radio format containing discussion about topical issues and consisting entirely or almost entirely of original spoken word content rather than outside music. They may feature monologues, dialogues between the hosts, interviews ...

radio network There are two types of radio network currently in use around the world: the one-to-many (simplex communication) broadcast network commonly used for public information and mass media, mass-media entertainment, and the two-way radio (Duplex (teleco ...

serving most of

Quebec Quebec is Canada's List of Canadian provinces and territories by area, largest province by area. Located in Central Canada, the province shares borders with the provinces of Ontario to the west, Newfoundland and Labrador to the northeast, ...

. The network and most of its affiliates were owned by

Toronto Toronto ( , locally pronounced or ) is the List of the largest municipalities in Canada by population, most populous city in Canada. It is the capital city of the Provinces and territories of Canada, Canadian province of Ontario. With a p ...

-based

Corus Entertainment Corus Entertainment Inc. (often simply known as Corus) is a Canadian mass media and television production company. The company was founded in 1987 as Shaw Radio Ltd. as a subsidiary of Shaw Communications and was spun-off from Shaw in 1999. It h ...

Stations

The network had four co-

flagship A flagship is a vessel used by the commanding officer of a group of navy, naval ships, characteristically a flag officer entitled by custom to fly a distinguishing flag. Used more loosely, it is the lead ship in a fleet of vessels, typically ...

s: * CFOM-FM 102.9 in

Quebec City Quebec City is the capital city of the Provinces and territories of Canada, Canadian province of Quebec. As of July 2021, the city had a population of 549,459, and the Census Metropolitan Area (including surrounding communities) had a populati ...

for Souvenirs Garantis Classic hits programming *

CHMP-FM CHMP-FM (98.5 Hertz, MHz) is a French language talk radio, talk radio station serving the Greater Montreal Area and licensed to the off-Island suburb of Longueuil, Quebec, Longueuil. Owned and operated by Cogeco, it broadcasts with an effective r ...

98.5 in

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 ...

(officially licensed to

Longueuil Longueuil () is a city in the province of Quebec, Canada. It is the seat of the Montérégie, Montérégie administrative region and the central city of the urban agglomeration of Longueuil. It sits on the South Shore (Montreal), south shore o ...

) for talk programming *

CKAC CKAC is a Canadian French, French-language radio station located in Montreal, Quebec, Canada. Owned by Cogeco, the station operates as a commercial travelers' information station, traffic information service branded as ''Radio Circulation 730''. ...

730 AM in

for

sports talk Sports radio (or sports talk radio) is a radio format devoted entirely to discussion and broadcasting of sport, sporting events. A widespread programming genre that has a narrow audience appeal, sports radio is characterized by an often-low comed ...

CINF CINF was a French language Canadian radio station located in Montreal, Quebec. Owned and operated by Corus Quebec, it broadcast on 690 kHz with a power of 50,000 watts as a clear channel (class A) station, using a slightly directional antenna ...

690 AM

for

all-news radio All-news radio is a radio format devoted entirely to the discussion and broadcast of news. All-news radio is available in both local and radio syndication, syndicated forms, and is carried on both major US satellite radio networks. All-news sta ...

Other stations included: * CFEL-FM 102.1 in

Lévis Lévis () is a city in eastern Quebec, Canada, located on the south shore of the St. Lawrence River, opposite Quebec City. A ferry links Old Quebec with Old Lévis, and two bridges, the Quebec Bridge and the Pierre-Laporte Bridge, connect we ...

* CIME-FM 103.9 in

Saint-Jérôme Saint-Jérôme () ( 2021 population 80,213) is a suburban city located about northwest of Montreal on the Rivière du Nord. It is part of the North Shore sector of Greater Montreal. It is a gateway to the Laurentian Mountains and its reso ...

* CJRC-FM 104.7 in

Gatineau Gatineau ( ; ) is a city in southwestern Quebec, Canada. It is located on the northern bank of the Ottawa River, directly across from Ottawa, Ontario. Gatineau is the largest city in the Outaouais administrative region of Quebec and is also p ...

* CHLT-FM 107.7 in

Sherbrooke Sherbrooke ( , ) is a city in southern Quebec, Canada. It is at the confluence of the Saint-François River, Saint-François and Magog River, Magog rivers in the heart of the Estrie administrative region. Sherbrooke is also the name of a territ ...

* CHLN-FM 106.9 in

Trois-Rivières Trois-Rivières (, ; ) is a city in the Mauricie administrative region of Quebec, Canada. It is located at the confluence of the Saint-Maurice River, Saint-Maurice and Saint Lawrence River, Saint Lawrence rivers, on the north shore of the Sain ...

On February 5, 2009, it was announced that these four stations would introduce a classic hits music format similar to the one currently used at CFOM-FM 102.9 in

, effective March 28. However, according to the

Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission The Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission (CRTC; ) is a public organization in Canada tasked with the mandate as a regulatory agency tribunal for various electronic communications, covering broadcasting and telecommunic ...

(CRTC) website, Corus intends to continue to operate those stations under a news/talk format for CRTC regulatory purposes, as the new music programming will air only from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. weekdays and 9 a.m. to 6 p.m. on weekends. Stations not owned and operated by

can also be affiliates, such as CKRS-FM 98.3 in Saguenay, CFYX-FM 93.3 in

Rimouski Rimouski ( ; ) is a city in Quebec, Canada. Rimouski is located in the Bas-Saint-Laurent region, at the mouth of the Rimouski River. It has a population of 48,935 (as of 2021). Rimouski, whose motto is ''Legi patrum fidelis'' (Faithful to ...

, CHNC-FM 107.1 in New Carlisle and CFGT-FM 104.5 in

Alma Alma or ALMA may refer to: Arts and entertainment * ''Alma'' (film), a 2009 Spanish short animated film * ''Alma'', an upcoming film by Sally Potter * ''Alma'' (Oswald de Andrade novel), 1922 * ''Alma'' (Le Clézio novel), 2017 * ''Alma'' ( ...

. CHRC 800 AM in

was previously part of the Corus Québec network, but the station was sold in 2008 by Corus to a group of local businessmen; it no longer has any links with Corus. CKRS-FM was sold in November 2010 to a local group, Radio Saguenay; it is unknown if any Corus Québec programming still airs on that station.

Creation of Radiomédia

The Radiomédia network was created to succeed to the now-defunct Télémédia and Radiomutuel networks, which merged on September 30, 1994. This merger resulted in six AM stations closing in Quebec on that very same day at 6 p.m. (Eastern Daylight Time), and is referred to in Quebec radio circles as "le vendredi noir" ("Black Friday"). The six AM stations closed were : * CJMS 1280 AM in Montreal (Radiomutuel) * CJRP 1060 AM in Quebec City (Radiomutuel) * CKCH 970 AM in Gatineau (Télémédia) * CJRS 1510 AM in Sherbrooke (Radiomutuel) * CJTR 1140 AM in Trois-Rivières (Radiomutuel) * CJMT 1420 AM in Chicoutimi (Télémédia) In each case, the station with the best signal remained open and the other one was closed. While in most markets the station that remained open was also both the oldest and the more successful according to recent BBM ratings, this was not the case everywhere—CJTR in Trois-Rivières had recently surpassed CHLN in ratings for the first time in many years, and CKCH in Gatineau (opened in 1933) had much more of a history than CJRC, which opened only in 1968. The Radiomédia network, along with CKAC in Montreal and CHRC in Quebec City, were now owned in equal shares by

Telemedia Telemedia was a Canadian media company, which had holdings in radio, television and magazine publishing. The company was launched in 1968 by Philippe de Gaspé Beaubien, when he purchased CKAC in Montreal from Power Corporation of Canada. CKAC r ...

and Radiomutuel. Telemedia retained full ownership of CHLT in Sherbrooke and CHLN in Trois-Rivières, while Radiomutuel retained full ownership of CJRC in Gatineau and CKRS in Saguenay. Both companies continued to compete against each other on the FM dial, with Telemedia still owning the

RockDétente Rouge FM (or Rouge) is a network of French-language adult contemporary radio stations broadcasting throughout Quebec, Canada. Established in 1990 as RockDétente, they are owned by Bell Media. All "Rouge" stations broadcast in the same markets a ...

network and Radiomutuel owning the

Énergie Énergie is a Canadian radio network of French-language mainstream rock outlets broadcasting throughout the province of Quebec and portions of eastern Ontario, in Eastern Canada. They offer a personality-driven mix of francophone and anglophon ...

network, this while both FM networks were now getting their news services from the Radiomédia newsrooms.

Change to Corus Québec

After

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 channel ...

(successor to Radiomutuel) bought all Telemedia Quebec radio properties in 2001, it was forced by the

Competition Bureau The Competition Bureau () is the independent law enforcement agency in charge of regulating competition in Canada, responsible for ensuring that markets operate in a competitive manner. Headed by the Commissioner of Competition, the agency is ...

to sell their AM stations due to concentration of ownership concerns. After two failed attempts (see article on

for more details), a deal with

was finally approved in early 2005 and took effect in May of that year. Corus Entertainment, which already owned

all-news All-news radio is a radio format devoted entirely to the discussion and broadcast of news. All-news radio is available in both local and radio syndication, syndicated forms, and is carried on both major US satellite radio networks. All-news sta ...

station

(Info 690) in Montreal, promptly renamed Radiomédia as Corus Québec, and simultaneously dismantled the local CKAC newsroom, even though that newsroom was much more respected by listeners than the one from Info 690. News bulletins on the Corus Québec network were now provided by CorusNouvelles, which consists of the old Radiomédia team outside of Montreal combined with the Info 690 team in Montreal. Production of CorusNouvelles would shift to

in January 2010, following the closure of CINF and its English-language sister station,

CINW CINW was the final call sign used by an English language AM radio station in Montreal, Canada, which, along with French-language sister station CINF, ceased operations at 7:00 p.m. ET on January 29, 2010. Owned and operated by Corus Qu ...

940 AM.

Sale to Cogeco

On April 30, 2010, it was announced that all Corus Québec stations, with the exception of CKRS, will be sold to Cogeco for $80 million, pending

CRTC The Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission (CRTC; ) is a public organization in Canada tasked with the mandate as a regulatory agency tribunal for various electronic communications, covering broadcasting and telecommunic ...

approval. Corus's reason for the sale is that their Quebec radio stations are less profitable than their stations in other parts of Canada. However, Cogeco must either apply with the CRTC for an exemption from the common ownership policy, or sell off some of these (or their own) stations as they will be over the maximum allowable number of stations in Montreal, Quebec City, and Sherbrooke. On June 25, it was reported that Corus has agreed to sell CKRS to Radio Saguenay, a local business group; the sale of that station was approved by the CRTC in November 2010. The sale of the Corus Québec stations to Cogeco has been approved by the CRTC on December 17, 2010, on the condition that Cogeco-owned CJEC-FM and Corus-owned CFEL-FM and CKOY-FM (since re-called CJTS-FM) be sold to another party by December 2011. On November 9, 2011, it was announced that Cogeco would sell CFEL-FM and CJEC-FM to Leclerc Communication Inc., a company owned by Quebec City businessman Jacques Leclerc, owner of Laura Secord Chocolates and Biscuits Leclerc. CJTS-FM would cease operations on December 6, 2011, when Cogeco was unable to find a buyer for the station by the deadline. The CorusNouvelles news service will also be converted to a new division, Cogeco Nouvelles, with CHMP-FM being the flagship. On January 13, 2011, competing broadcaster

announced that they will seek legal action to stop the sale of these stations to Cogeco, citing the fact that it would own more stations than Astral in the Montreal market, making the competition unfair. Cogeco chief executive Louis Audet said that he expects the transaction to close by February 1, and that the case filed by Astral is "without merit and the company will vigorously challenge them with a view to having them dismissed by the court."

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Corus Quebec Defunct Canadian radio networks Radio stations in Quebec Former Corus Entertainment subsidiaries French-language radio in Canada Radio stations established in 1994 Radio stations disestablished in 2011

Stations

Creation of Radiomédia

Change to Corus Québec

Sale to Cogeco

See also

References