CFOM-AM

Goodwill Broadcasters of Quebec Inc. applied for a 250 watt English language AM licence (1340 kHz). CKCV also applied for the same thing. The application by Goodwill was approved but a new technical brief would have to be filed that would be acceptable to the Department of Transport.

CJNT 1340 signed on the air with a power of 250 watts.

Narcisse Thivierge, 61, former manager of CHRC, was president of Goodwill Broadcasters of Quebec Inc.

Slogan: The Goodwill English Station of French Quebec.

Permission to operate CJNT on a bilingual basis was denied by the CBC Board. The station was licensed to broadcast in English only.

Guy Caron was appointed general manager of CJNT. The former manager of CJBR Rimouski got his start in radio in 1945 at CKCH Hull, where he was an announcer.

CJNT moved its studios and offices to 30 Garden Street in the Uptown part of Quebec City.

CJNT became a C.A.B. member.

The CBC Board approved the transfer of control of CJNT from Goodwill Broadcasters of Quebec Ltd. to two liberal Senators and Jean Paul St. Laurent, son of the Prime Minister. The Senators were H. Bouffard and J.M. Dessureault, both from Quebec.
CJNT applied for permission to broadcast in French. The CBC turned the application down because the station was originally licensed on the basis of representations made by the applicant concerning the area’s need of an English language station.

It was announced that CJNT would leave the air on November 30 unless the CBC changed its mind about refusing the English-language station permission to broadcast in French. Financial losses on station operations were also said to be the reason. They also said that unless the CBC or a group interested in an English-language station wanted to buy or rent it, CJNT would be forced to leave the air. When November 30 arrived, management announced the station would remain on the air but it was not known for how long.

The sale of CJNT was announced in February. A group headed by Peter N. Thomson planned to buy the station and the call letters would change to CHQC. The changes still required regulatory approval but administration and program changes were already underway at the station. Peter Thomson was the brother of CKVL Verdun’s manager – Corey Thomson, and a partner in the prominent investment firm of Nesbitt-Thomson & Co. Ltd. Thomson said the station’s programming would remain all-English and that it was now on the air from 7 a.m. to 11 p.m. daily. Bud Cockerton, former chief announcer with CJNT had been appointed acting manager of CHQC. George MacDonald joined from CFCF Montreal as chief announcer. In addition to his duties at CKVL, Corey Thomson would be retained by CHQC in an advisory capacity. It was said that a new program format was in the works, including music all day with a change in the evening to a combination of block programming and what would be known as “stay-at-home theatre”. Several evening hours would be devoted to dramatic and other radio-theatre type productions under the new plan.

An official application was filed with the CBC for the transfer of control of CJNT from The Goodwill Broadcasters of Quebec Inc. to Peter Nesbitt Thomson.

Ben Nadeau, formerly with CKCV, was named sales manager at CJQC.

A joint application by Famous Players Canadian Corp. and radio stations CHRC, CJNT and CKCV, for a television station at Quebec City was filed. The CBC Board of Governors approved the application. Corey Thomson of CKVL (and would soon become connected with CJNT/CJQC) was opposed to application because Famous Players was foreign controlled. Because of the change of ownership to come at CJNT, the station in the end would not be part of the TV ownership.

The transfer of control of CJQC (ex-CJNT) to Peter Nesbitt Thomson from Goodwill Broadcasters was approved by the CBC.

CJQC received approval for the operation of a 250 watt emergency transmitter.

CJQC 1340 and was owned by The Goodwill Broadcasters of Quebec Inc. (Peter Nesbitt Thomson 95.80%, Jean-Paul St. Laurent 2.00%, Hon. H. Bouffard 2.00%, W. Hoart Wert 0.10%, Jean Rivard 0.05% and Bryan T. Kerr 0.05%). CJQC was a CBC Trans-Canada affiliate.

Howard Wert was president of the company and George MacDonald was CJQC’s manager and production manager. John Anthony was news director.

In the spring, Harold Burnside became CJQC’s manager. He replaced George MacDonald who left for the production department at CJON in St. John’s. Burnside joined CJQC in 1955 as office manager and salesman.

Announcer Robert De La Durantage left CFOM for college. 

The Trans-Canada and Dominion networks of the CBC were merged in to a single service. (CFOM) had been the Trans-Canada station while CKCV was a Supplementary B affiliate of the Dominion network. With the network merger, (CFOM) remained the CBC (English) station in the Quebec City area.

The station became CFOM.

CFOM 1340 still had a full-time power of 250 watts. H. Lepage was president of The Goodwill Broadcasters of Quebec Inc. and Mary F. Bush was manager of CFOM. Bill Paton was program, music and sports director. Dave Foreman was morning man. Tom Pace was news director.

CFOM applied to move from 1340 to 1350 kHz and to increase power from 250 watts day and night (non-directional) to 1,000 day and night (DA-1), and asked for permission to air some French language programming. The BBG said it would only be concerned with the technical issues presented by the station. CFOM was the sole English language station in Quebec City and only one of two such stations in the province, outside of Montreal. According to station manager Mary Bush, adding French may be the only solution to the station’s financial plight. The BBG did approve the change of transmitter site, increase in power and change of frequency. The Board reserved decision on allowing some ads, news and weather in French in order to sustain operations.

The application by The Goodwill Broadcasters of Quebec to issue 2,000 common and 4,000 preferred shares and the transfer of 3,595 common and 9m576 preferred shares now held by Claire Fontaine Investments Corp. Ltd. was approved by the BBG to assure continuation of the station’s operation.

In addition to the financial troubles, the station was also being forced to seek out new studio and transmitter locations.

Henri Lepage was president of the company.

CFOM was to cease operations August 1 after almost 20 years of service to the steadily dwindling Enlgish language minority in Quebec City. The station had only about 12 employees in recent years.

It was announced that CFOM would not close on August 1. A citizens’ committee was organized to form a non-profit organization to continue the station’s operations. A fund-raising committee was set up to raise the capital needed to move the station. To give these people time, the owners agreed to keep CFOM open. As of July, the station had received 16,000 calls and petitions (about 40% French) to keep CFOM on the air.

The closure of CFOM was put off to September 1 but that date passed by. Janet Sharples who replaced Mary Bush as station manager said the closure was put off to at least the end of October because of an agreement between Goodwill Broadcasters and the CBC. In the meantime, a new group, largely financed by a Montreal consulting firm, proposed to build and operate a new English language radio station in Quebec City. The group planned to build, finance and operate the station for the CBC on a for fee basis once (or if) the CRTC approved a transfer of licence from Goodwill.

CFOM was granted a licence renewal to March 31, 1970.

Henri Lepage, 68, died suddenly on August 26, ending a 39 year association in an executive capacity with CHRC. Lepage had retired as general manager of CHRC in January, but remained on the board of directors. He founded CKRS Radio in 1946, then CKRS-TV, in 1955 (Rouyn-Noranda-Jonquiere). He continued as president of both stations up to the time of his death. Lepage was one of the founders of Television de Quebec Ltee in 1953, establishing CFCM-TV and three years later, CKMI-TV (Quebec City). He joined Narcisse Thivierge in founding CJNT Radio and was president of that station (now CFOM) at the time of his death. Henri was brother of Paul Lepage, who for many years was manager of CKCV (Quebec City). Henri Lepage entered the broadcasting business in 1930 when he was hired as secretary-treasurer for CHRC Ltee. In 1946, he became station manager, succeeding Thivierge. Lepage became general manager of CHRC-AM and FM in 1956.

On March 29, Dynamic Metals Inc. (33.33%), Norman M. Wright (30%), C.N. Lucas (13.33%), Owen Carter (13.33%) and Gerard Fortin (10%) were given approval to acquire The Goodwill Broadcasters of Quebec Inc., owner of CFOM.

On May 19, CFOM was authorized to change its studio location from 405 Pere Lelievre in Ville Vanier to 3780 Hamel Blvd. in Quebec City. A change of antenna site was also approved.

On July 18, The Goodwill Broadcasters of Quebec Ltd. was denied a transfer of 6,000 common and 12,476 preferred shares from the present shareholders to Deljean Inc. Because the ownership transfer was denied, it was announced that CFOM would go off the air effective August 8. As the city’s only English radio station, management said the CRTC wanted it to be all things to all Anglophones. At the same time, the Commission had never allowed the CBC to open an English station of its own in Quebec City, so CFOM had the burden of having to be an affiliated station. As a result, the station has never prospered.

A CBM Montreal rebroadcast transmitter for Quebec City was approved. It would broadcast on a frequency of 104.7 MHz with an effective radiated power of 100,000 watts. The CRTC suggested that AM service continue over CFOM as well.

The CFOM licence was renewed for one year to permit the CBC to continue using the station as a rebroadcaster of CBM.

CFOM (1340 kHz, 250 watts) had its licence revoked and it left the air.

The station returned to the air under CFOM calls and operated as a rebroadcaster of CBM 940 Montreal (English AM network). CBVE-FM 104.7 went on the air and eventually replaced CFOM-AM.