CHRL-FM

Fernand Levesque applied for an AM licence at the CBC’s May meeting but the proposal was recommended for denial. The application was reheard at the June meeting and was recommended for approval. The new station would operate with a full-time power of 250 watts on a frequency of 1340 kHz.

Roberval Radio Inc. was formed by local residents Cyrille Potvin, Eugene Robitaille, George Gagnon as Fernand Lévesque in September.

Twelve new shareholders joined the corporation.

On May 23, CHRL signed on the air. Studios were on top floor of the White Maison Hotel. L. Morin was manager.

In the past, the CBC Board approved the formation of a second French radio network – the French Radio Association Ltd. The six stations in the network were now (late 1950) broadcasting commercials for a dozen national sponsors. The stations were CKVL Verdun, CKCV Quebec, CHLT Sherbrooke, CHEF Granby, CJSO Sorel and CHLN Trois-Rivieres. There were also two supplementary stations – CHRL Roberval and CHGB La Pocatiere. The network signed its first commercial contract in October of 1948. In 1949, the group broadcast 44 hours of commercial programming and 132 1/2 hours of sustaining programs.

On October 1, CHRL began broadcasting from new studios on first floor of a building owned by Alfred Blackburn. Fire destroyed the building on October 14. The station operated temporarilly from the Diana Theatre.

In January, CHRL moved back to the Blackburn building.

CHRL applied for a power increase to 1,000 watts and a change of frequency to 910 kHz. The CBC deferred the application but later approved it.

On March 21, CHRL moved to 910 kHz and increased power to 1,000 watts (directional at night).

Approval was given for the issuance of 50 common shares and the redemption of 13 common shares. Later in the year, approval was given for the redemption of 69 common shares in Radio Roberval Inc. 

Slogan: Voice of Lake St. John.

On September 23, studios moved to first floor of the Case Popular building.

CHRL operated as an independent station with no network affiliation and was owned by Radio Roberval Inc. (G. Gagnon 13.1%, C. Potvin 13.1%, E. Robitaille 13.1%, R. Lefebvre 3.2%, A. Fradet 4.3%, 26 other shareholders 53.2%).

Georges Gagnon was president of the company and Wilfrid Mondoux was CHRL’s manager. 

J. Bordeleau was manager. 

Benoît Levesque’s Radio Roberval inc. purchased CHRL on August 9.

Studios moved to first floor of Greenberg Stores building.

CHRL was denied a licence for a satellite transmitter at Dolbeau.

The station was now an affiliate of the CBC’s French language network.

Benoit Levesque was president of Radio Roberval Inc. and manager of CHRL. 

CHRL began automated programming in the spring. 

CHRL was on the air 18 hours a day, was a CBC affiliate, and programmed a mix of music, news and community events. The station was automated about 50% of the time on weekdays and completely on weekends, except for 30 minutes of coverage of a local auction on Saturdays. 

CHRL affiliated with the Télémédia network on March 1.

On August 30, CHRL 910 increased power from 1,000 watts day and night to 10,000 watts day and 2,500 watts night. With the increase, CHRL continued to operate with an omni-directional pattern during the day, directional at night.

On February 12, Radio Roberval Inc. was granted approval to increase CHRL’s night-time power from 2,500 watts to 10,000 watts in order to improve service in the St-Felicien area. Power would now be 10,000 watts day and night.

CHRL was authorized to change its network affiliation from Radio-Canada to Telemedia.

In March, CHRL moved from the Greenberg building to a new facility on Saint-Joseph boulevard. 

On March 6, the CRTC renewed the broadcasting licence for CHRL to September 30, 1989.

On June 26, Benoît Levesque died. His son, Marc-Andre Levesque took control of CHRL.

Radio Roberval inc. was purchased by Gestion Germaine Lévesque Inc. (50%) and André Tremblay (50%).

On September 4, CHRL was given approval to move to the FM dial, operating on 99.5 MHz with an average effective radiated power of 16,600 watts.

CHRL 910 was replaced by CHRL-FM 99.5. 

On October 7 the CRTC renewed CHRL-FM’s licence until August 15, 2015. 

99.5 CHRL becomes known as Planete 99.5.

On August 20 the CRTC approved the application by Groupe Radio Antenne 6 inc. to amend the authorized contours of the French-language commercial radio programming undertaking CHRL-FM Roberval by decreasing the average effective radiated power from 16,600 watts to 15,031 watts (maximum ERP of 50,000 watts with an effective height of the antenna above average terrain of 149.4 metres).

On October 11, the CRTC approved the application by Cogeco inc. on behalf of its subsidiary Cogeco Media Inc. for authority to acquire CHRL-FM and several other stations from RNC Media Inc.