CBGA-FM

Roger Bergeron applied for a 1000 watt (directional) radio station on 1250 kHz atMatane. The application was recommended for approval by the CBC Board of Governors in December.

CKBL signed on the air September 1. Roger Bergeron was manager.

Slogan: Serving Lower St. Lawrence, the North Shore and Matapedia Valley. 

Rene LaPointe was commercial manager.
 

Approval was granted for a transfer of control of La Compagnie de Radiodiffusion de Matane Ltee from Roger Bergeron and Rene Lapointe to Rene Lapointe and any one of the following: Octave Lapointe, Alphonse Lapointe, Roger Bergeron. 

CKBL received approval to increase power to 10,000 watts full-time and announced it would be operating with this upgrade as of September 6, from dual transmitters. It would also continue to supply programs to the French Radio Association network. 

In a print advertisement, the station claimed to serve serves six counties in Quebec and two in New Brunswick…north shore of the Gape Peninsula.

CKBL’s power increased to 5,000 watts. The station used a single directional antenna pattern for day and night operation.

CKBL was producing the daytime serial “La Marjolaine” and airing it over 17 other French stations.

Some of CKBL’s staff: Marcel Houle (announcer, with the station for 6 years), Jean Berger (announcer), Aline Gagne (singer and pianist), Jourdain Gagne (announcer, with the station for 7 years), Marcelle Carrier (librarian, with the station since 1947), Hipolito Piazalunga (operator, singer and instrumentalist), Armand Desrosiers (women’s commentator), Olivia Poitras (announcer) and Rene Lapointe (general manager, founder, owner). 

CKBL was listed as a CBC French affiliate, owned by La Compagnie de Radiodiffusion de Matane Limitee (Rene Lapointe 36.2%, Octave Lapointe 30.6%, G. A. Lebel 0.3% and Alphonse Lapointe 12.9%).

Rene Lapointe was president of the company and manager of CKBL. He was also production and program manager. 

According to Elliott-Haynes CKBL reached a total of 71,075 adult listeners every day. 

R. Lapointe was president and general manager of CKBL-Radio-TV. 
 

Ad: MATANE – This radio and television combination will sell your product in the important counties of Matane, Matapedia, North Gaspe, and the booming part of Saguenay. CKBL-TV 280,000 watts – CKBL Radio 5000 watts.

The power increase to 10,000 watts day and 5,000 watts night was now in effect.

Rene Lapointe was president of La Compagnie de Radio-diffusion de Matane Ltee and CKBL’s manager.   

La Compagnie de Radiodiffusion de Matane Ltee applied for a rebroadcaster of CKBL at Ste-Anne-des-Monts. The new transmitter would broadcast on 1340 kHz and have a power of 1,000 watts during the day and 250 watts at night. It would use an omni-directional antenna. 

The Ste-Anne-des-Monts rebroadcaster application was approved and CKGN-AM went on the air in 1968.

On June 9, the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation was given approval to acquire La Compagnie de Radiodiffusion de Matane Ltee. (CKBL-AM and TV) from Rene Lapointe, Octave Lapointe and Yvan Fortier.

The transfer of CKBL Radio and Television to the CBC was completed September 1. CKBL-AM became CBGA.

A rebroadcast transmitter was added at Ste-Anne-des-Monts on September 1.

CBGA was authorized to add a transmitter at Sept-Iles on 98.1 MHz with effective radiated power of 96,750 watts. A transmitter was also approved for Rimouski, operating on 1110 kHz with full-time directional power of 10,000 watts. A transmitter would be added at Lac-au-Saumon to rebroadcast the Rimouski signal – 97.3 MHz with ERP of 15 watts.
 

CBGA-9-FM Cloridorme, CBGA-10-FM Gaspé, CBGA-11-FM Mont-Louis-en-Haut, CBGA-12-FM Marsoui, CBGA-13-FM Gros-Morne, CBGA-14-FM Grande-Vallée and CBGA-15-FM L’Anse-à-Valleau opened on February 18.

On January 30, an increase in night-time power from 250 watts to 1,000 watts was approved for CBGA-4 Causapscal and CBGA-7 Sainte-Anne-des-Monts.  

On September 18, CBGA-8-FM Iles-de-la-Madeleine was authorized to decrease effective radiated power from 4,500 watts to 3,700 watts.  

On September 13, CBGA received permission to add an FM transmitter at Rivière-au-Renard on the frequency 92.5 MHz, with an effective radiated power of 40.9 watts to rebroadcast the programs of CBGA-10-FM Gaspé. The new transmitter would replace the existing CBGA-3 (AM). 

It was proposed that in addition to network and local programming, CBGA, CBSI-FM Sept-Iles, and CJBR Rimouski, would offer 12 hours and 10 minutes of inter-regional programming. The three stations would work together to produce these programs.

CBGA-3 (AM) was replaced by CBGA-3-FM on September 2.

On February 6, CBGA was authorized to add an FM transmitter at Lac-au-Saumon, operating on frequency 97.5 MHz with an effective radiated power of 1,690 watts. The new transmitter would replace the existing CBGA-4 (AM) Causapscal.

CBGA-4-FM at Lac-au-Saumon began broadcasting on August 12.

As of this year, CBGA operated the following transmitters: CBGA-1 New Carlisle (on air since November 16, 1981), CBGA-3-FM Rivière-au-Renard, CBGA-6 Murdochville (on air since August 30, 1967), CBGA-7 Sainte-Anne-des-Monts, CBGA-4-FM Lac-au-Saumon, CBGA-8-FM Îles-de-la-Madeleine (on air since July 11, 1973), CBGA-9-FM Cloridorme, CBGA-10-FM Gaspé, CBGA-11-FM Mont-Louis-en-Haut, CBGA-12-FM Marsoui, CBGA-13-FM Gros-Morne, CBGA-14-FM Grande-Vallée and CBGA-15-FM L’Anse-à-Valleau. CBGA broadcasts approximately 40 hours of local programming each week from Matane.

On November 14, CBGA was given approval to convert to the FM band, operating on 102.1 MHz with an effective radiated power of 42,930 watts. As an FM station, CBGA would continue to offer approximately 40 hours of local programming from Matane each week.

CBGA made the move to the FM band on July 7. 

On May 12 the CRTC renewed CBGA-FM’s licence. The renewal included the following rebroadcast transmitters: CBGA-1 New Carlisle, CBGA-3-FM Riviere-au-Renard, CBGA-4-FM Lac-au-Saumon, CBGA-6 Murdochville, CBGA-FM-7 Sainte-Anne-des-Monts, CBGA-FM-8 Iles-de-la-Madeleine, CBGA-FM-9 Cloridorme, CBGA-FM-10 Gaspe, CBGA-FM-11 Mont-Louis-en-Haut, CBGA-FM-12 Marsoui, CBGA-FM-13 Gros-Morne, CBGA-FM-14 Grande-Vallee, and CBGA-FM-15 L’Anse-a-Valleau. 

On August 9, the CRTC administratively renewed the licence of CBGA-FM (and its transmitters) to August 31, 2011.

On August 25, the CRTC administratively renewed the licence for CBGA-FM and its transmitters to March 1, 2013.

On October 28, the CRTC approved the applications by the CBC to amend the licence for CBGA-FM Matane.

in order to operate new transmitters at Chandler, New Carlisle, New Richmond, Percé and Port Daniel to rebroadcast the programming of its national French-language network service La Première Chaîne. The transmitter in Chandler will operate at 93.3 MHz (channel 227A) with an effective radiated power of 1,010 watts (non-directional antenna with an effective height of antenna above average terrain (EHAAT) of 13.8 metres). The transmitter in New Carlisle will operate at 98.7 MHz (channel 254A) with an ERP of 710 watts (non-directional antenna with an EHAAT of 94.9 metres). The transmitter in New Richmond will operate at 104.3 MHz (channel 282A) with an ERP of 1,030 watts (non-directional antenna with an EHAAT of 173.1 metres). The transmitter in Percé will operate at 104.5 MHz (channel 283B1) with an ERP of 980 watts (non-directional antenna with an EHAAT of 387 metres). The transmitter in Port Daniel will operate at 92.5 MHz (channel 223A) with an ERP of 920 watts (non-directional antenna with an EHAAT of 101.1 metres).

On February 22, the CRTC administratively renewed the licences for CBGA-FM Matane and its transmitters to August 31, 2013.

On April 11, the CRTC approved the application by the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation to amend the broadcasting licence for CBGA-FM Matane, in order to operate an FM rebroadcasting transmitter in Murdochville to replace the existing AM transmitter CBGA-6. The new transmitter would allow listeners to receive programming from La Première Chaîne originating from CBGA-FM. It would operate at 97.7 MHz (channel 249A) with an average effective radiated power of 98 watts (non-directional antenna with an effective height of antenna above terrain of 367.3 meters). The CBC stated that the operation of a new FM transmitter was necessary since the equipment for CBGA-6 was obsolete and would be dismantled. The CBC further submitted that this change would result in a better quality signal for listeners.

On May 28, the CRTC renewed the licence of CBGA-FM Matane and its transmitters CBGA-FM-1 New Carlisle, CBGA-3-FM Rivière-au-Renard, CBGA-4-FM Lac-au-Saumon, CBGA-FM-7 Sainte-Anne-des-Monts, CBGA-8-FM Iles-de-la-Madeleine, CBGA-9-FM Cloridorme, CBGA-10-FM Gaspé, CBGA-11-FM Mont-Louis-en-Haut, CBGA-12-FM Marsoui, CBGA-13-FM Gros-Morne, CBGA-14-FM Grande-Vallée, CBGA-15-FM L’Anse-à-Valleau, CBGA-16-FM Chandler, CBGA-17-FM New Richmond, CBGA-18-FM Percé, CBGA-19-FM Port-Daniel, CBGA-1 New Carlisle, and CBGA-6 Murdochville, for a five year term, to August 31, 2018.

On July 7, the CRTC approved the application for CBGA in order to operate a transmitter in Matapedia on 101.7 MHz with ERP of 268 watts (non-directional). 

On July 15 the CRTC approved CBGA’s application to operate a transmitter in Pointe-à-la-Garde, operating on 92.3 MHz with an average ERP of 1,930 watts (max. ERP of 4,740).

CBGA-1 (AM) Grande-Anse left the air in December as it had been replaced by new FM transmitters on Quebec’s side of Chaleur Bay.

On May 15, the CRTC approved the application for CBGA-14-FM Grande Vallée to decrease effective radiated power from 2,110 to 1,450 watts. CRTC approval was also given for CBGA-FM-21 Matapedia to lower antenna height and relocate the transmitter.

In April, the CRTC approved an increase in power for CBGA-FM-15 L’anse-a-Valleau from 83 to 250 watts with a decrease in EHAAT from 75.0 to 64.2 metres.

On May 24, the CRTC approved the CBC’s application to change the authorized contours of CBGA-FM-16 Chandler, by increasing the ERP from 1,010 to 1,530 watts, decreasing the EHAAT from 13.8 to 9.83 metres and changing the coordinates of the transmitter site. Approval was also granted for CBGA-FM-9 Cloridorme to increase power from 204 to 250 watts and to raise antenna height. CBGA-FM-12 Marsoui would be allowed to lower antenna height and increase ERP from 41 to 230 watts.

On July 27, the CRTC approved the CBC’s applications to change the authorized contours of the following transmitters: CBGA-FM-17 New Richmond would decrease effective radiated power from 1,030 to 700 watts and increase antenna height. CBGA-FM-18 Percé would decrease ERP from 980 to 780 watts and decrease antenna height. CBGA-FM-19 Port Daniel would decrease ERP from 920 to 775 watts and increase EHAAT. CBGA-11-FM Mont-Louis-en-Haut would increase ERP from 2,040 to 2,145 watts and increase EHAAT. CBGA-14-FM Grande-Vallée would decrease ERP from 2,110 to 730 watts and increase antenna height. CBGA-13-FM Gros-Morne would increase ERP from 40 to 210 watts and increase antenna height. CBGA-FM-1 New Carlisle would decrease ERP from 710 to 690 watts and decrease antenna height.