CHIQ-FM

CJQM-AM began broadcasting on November 1, and was followed a short time later by CJQM-FM. CJQM-FM broadcast on a frequency of 94.3 MHz with an effective radiated power of 6,500 watts. Studios and offices were on the ground floor of the Confederation Building at 457 Main Street. CJQM was an independent station with no network affiliation.

CJQM was licensed to Winnipeg Broadcast Associates Ltd. which had direct ties to Vancouver Broadcast Associates, owner of CHQM Radio. Musician and entertainment mogul Jack Shapira was key among those in the group that obtained the Winnipeg licences. CJQM-AM-FM was a clone of the Vancouver station, and had a good music format. All but morning and afternoon drive times were automated and voice-tracked by CHQM personalities. Almost all control for the CJQM stations rested with Vancouver management. The format and CHQM voice-tracked announcers would not be a success in the Winnipeg market.

Winnipeg Broadcasting Associates was given permission to sell CJQM-AM-FM to QM Winnipeg Ltd. Jack O. Blick, who sold CJOB Radio to Frank Griffiths in 1961, may have been involved in the new CJQM’s new ownership.

Don Croston was president of QM Winnipeg and H. Roy Priddle was named general manager of the stations.

CJQM-FM was broadcasting in stereo.

At some point after the sale, the call letters were changed to CFRW-AM and FM.

Studios and offices moved from the Confederation Building to the former CKY-AM facility in the London Building at 432 Main Street.

QM Winnipeg Ltd. was purchased by Radio Winnipeg Ltd.

On March 21, Hector F. Dougall’s application to purchase shares in Radio Winnipeg Ltd. was denied. He had proposed to acquire 51,453 class A and 1,148,272 class B shares. Dougall owned stations in Thunder Bay, Ontario.

On October 31, Dougall had his application to acquire 100% of Radio Winnipeg Ltd. denied. Shareholders would have been Hector Fraser Dougall, Elizabeth Christine Dougall and Scott Burton Dougall.

On March 30, Jim Pattison’s CJOR Ltd. of Vancouver was allowed to purchase CFRW-AM-FM from C.H. Flintoft, trustee of the estate of Radio Winnipeg Ltd., a bankrupt. 

Jack R. Stewart, vice president of CJOR Ltd., announced the appointment of T.N. (Tiff) Trimble as general manager of CFRW-AM-FM, effective March 5, the date the CRTC approved the transfer of the Winnipeg stations to CJOR Ltd.

In October, CHUM Limited agreed to purchase CFRW-AM and FM.

The sale of CFRW-AM and FM by Pattison Broadcasting Ltd. to CHUM Ltd. was approved July 5 and completed July 31.

CFRW-FM became CHIQ-FM.

CHIQ was authorized to increase effective radiated power from 6,500 watts to 100,000 watts from a new transmitter site. There would also be a change in programming. 

Joe Andrews (Malysa) joined CHIQ-FM to host the 6-10 p.m. shift Monday thru Wednesday, and 6 a.m. to noon on weekends.

Studios moved from 432 Main St. to 1445 Pembina Highway.

On January 11, the CRTC renewed CHIQ-FM’s licence until September 30, 1985.

CHUM (Manitoba) Ltd. and all of the other CHUM Group companies were amalgamated. CFRW-FM became a division of CHUM Ltd. 

Mike O’Brien was named community events coordinator at Q-94 FM.

Joe Andrews left CHIQ-FM for CKEY-AM in Toronto.

The CHUM Winnipeg stations swapped some on-air people. Q94FM’s morning man, Mike O’Brien, moved over to CFOX (in a different time slot) and CFOX’s Geoff Franklin was now morning man at Q94. 

CHIQ had its licence renewed but its request to change its soft rock format to a harder edged Group IV format was denied. The station was also told to better schedule its public affairs programming.

Q94/AM 1290 promotions director J. Thomas left on May 1. 

Jeff Montgomery left CHIQ-FM for CFRN/CFBR-FM Edmonton as promotions manager.

Andy Ross was Q-94’s assistant program director. 

Q94-FM/Team 1290 general sales manager, Scott Bodnarchuck left the stations to head up Metro Radio Group in Halifax.

Allan Waters, the founder of CHUM Limited, owner of CHIQ-FM, passed away at the age of 84, on December 3rd.

On July 12 it was announced that Bell Globemedia would pay C$1.7 billion for CHUM Ltd., in a deal that would see the company become part of the BCE-owned media conglomerate, subject to CRTC approval.  On August 31, the two companies announced that BGM had been successful in its offer to acquire approximately 6.7 million common shares and approximately 19.2 million non-voting Class B shares of CHUM.  The shares were to be placed in the hands of an independent trustee pursuant to a voting trust agreement approved by the CRTC.

In late July or early August, CHIQ-FM switched formats from Hot Adult Contempoary to Adult Contemporary Hits.

On December 12th, it was announced that Bell Globemedia would henceforth be known as CTVglobemedia.

A CRTC hearing on the CTVglobemedia application to acquire the assets of CHUM Limited was held on April 30th 2007.  On June 8 the CRTC approved the acquisition of CHUM Ltd. by CTVglobemedia, on condition that CTV sell off its five City-TV stations, CITY-TV Toronto, CHMI-TV Portage La Prairie/Winnipeg, CKEM-TV Edmonton, CKAL-TV Calgary and CKVU-TV Vancouver.   Rogers Communications announced on June 25th that a deal had been reached for them to buy these stations from CTV, subject to CRTC approval. Among the CHUM assets acquired by CTVglobemedia in the deal were seven television stations, 21 specialty channels and some 33 radio stations, including CHIQ-FM.   

At 8:45 a.m., August 29, CHUM Radio unveiled “Curve 94.3” – North America’s first Pop Alternative station. The format represented the merging of the “Pop” and “Alternative” genres to deliver a hip music format for Winnipeg music fans. The format was expected to have a wide appeal, especially among the target audience of adults aged 25-40. Winnipeg program director was Andrew Long. The Pop Alternative format was trademarked across North America by CHUM Radio. 

Michelle Pereira, the Retail Sales Manager at HANK-FM/CKJS from 2007 to 2009 was now with CHUM Winnipeg as Agency Liaison. 

On Boxing Day, CURVE 94.3 flipped to an oldies format, as FAB 943, Super Hits of the 60’s and 70’s. The format had been Modern Adult Contemporary. As a result, program director Andrew Long, midday host Pamela Roz and evening host Adam Taylor were no longer with Curve 94.3. Beau, Tom and Frazier from BOB FM (CFWM) moved to FAB mornings, while Jay and Andrea, formerly morning hosts on CURVE, moved to BOB FM. 

Darrell Bezdietny left CHUM Radio Winnipeg where he had been assistant engineer since 2007.

On March 7, the CRTC approved an application by BCE Inc. on behalf of CTVglobemedia Inc., for authority to change the effective control of CTVgm’s licensed broadcasting subsidiaries to BCE. The Commission concluded that the transaction would be beneficial to the Canadian broadcasting system by ensuring the long-term stability of a significant Canadian television network and advancing the Commission’s objective of providing relevant high-quality Canadian programming to Canadians through conventional and new media distribution channels. BCE was a public corporation and controlled by its board of directors. Before this approval, BCE held 15% of the voting interest in the capital of CTVgm. The other shareholders were 1565117 Ontario Limited (a corporation ultimately controlled by Mr. David Kenneth R. Thomson) (40% of the voting interest), Ontario Teacher’s Plan Board (25% of the voting interest) and Torstar Corporation (20% of the voting interest). Under the transaction agreement dated September 10, 2010, BCE would acquire the remaining 85% of the voting interest in the capital of CTVgm and would therefore exercise effective control. 

On March 15, CTV Inc., CTV Corp., CTV Limited and CTVglobemedia Inc. amalgamated to continue as CTV Inc.

BCE Inc. announced on April 1 that it had completed its acquisition of CTV and that it had launched Bell Media (replacing CTVglobemedia), a new business unit that would make CTV programs and other Bell content available on smartphones and computers as well as traditional television. In addition to CTV and its television stations, Bell Media now also operated 29 specialty channels, 33 radio stations, Dome Productions, a mobile broadcast facilities provider, and dozens of high-traffic news, sports and entertainment websites, including the Sympatico.ca portal.

The CRTC approved a change to the ownership of Bell Media Inc., from BCE Inc. to Bell Canada. This transaction would not affect effective control of Bell Media Inc. and of its licensed broadcasting subsidiaries, which continued to be exercised by BCE Inc. Bell Media Inc. held, directly and through its licensed broadcasting subsidiaries, various radio and television programming undertakings as well as specialty and pay-per-view television services.

On August 22, the CRTC approved the applications by BCE Inc., on behalf of Bell Media Inc. and 7550413 Canada Inc., carrying on business as Bell Media Canada Radio Partnership, for authority to acquire, as part of a corporate reorganization, CJCH-FM and CIOO-FM Halifax, CKGM Montréal, CKKW-FM and CFCA-FM Kitchener, CFRW, CFWM-FM and CHIQ-FM Winnipeg. Bell Media, the managing partner holding 99.99% of the voting interest in the general partnership, is wholly owned by Bell Canada and controlled by BCE. 7550413, the other partner holding the remaining 0.01% of the voting interest in the general partnership, is wholly owned by Bell Media and is also controlled by BCE. BCE submitted that the purpose of this corporate reorganization was to realize tax efficiencies. The Commission noted that this transaction would not affect the effective control of the undertakings which would continue to be exercised by BCE. 

Shelley Smith-Hines was the new manager of promotions & marketing at CHUM Radio Winnipeg. Chris Stevens, who had been vice president and general manager at Bell Media Radio Winnipeg since October, 2007, was succeeded by Mark Maheu.

Dale Davies left Bell Media’s Bob FM (CFWM) and Fab FM (CHIQ) in Winnipeg where he had been assistant program and music director. He joined CHWE and CFJL on January 16. 

The new music director and assistant program director at FAB 94.3/99.9 BOB FM was Frank Andrews. He had been doing much the same thing across the street at 92 CITI FM. He succeeded Dale Davies who left for The Breeze 100.7 Winnipeg.

Kelly Parker crossed the hall from BOB FM to FAB 94.3 to host mornings with Frazier, while “Beau” moved over to join Bob and Dez on 99.9 BOB FM. 

On August 8, the CRTC administratively renewed the licence for CHIQ-FM until August 31, 2013.

Mark Maheu, who’d been running Bell Media Radio Winnipeg since August, 2011, added CTV Winnipeg to his responsibilities. Maheu was now Vice President/ General Manager of both. Before moving to Winnipeg, he was an acquisitions and regulatory consultant based in Ottawa, VP/COO of Newcap (also Ottawa-based) and, before that, VP/GM at CHUM Radio Ottawa. 

On May 6th the CRTC began what would be a week-long hearing of a revised application by BCE Inc to acquire Astral, their first application having been turned down. On May 16th, the Jim Pattison Broadcast Group announced that it had committed to the acquisition of three broadcast properties, two from Bell Media and one from Astral, subject to CRTC approval. Pattison had made a deal with Bell Media to acquire Kool FM 101.5, CKCE-FM Calgary and FAB 94.3,CHIQ-FM Winnipeg, and with Astral to acquire QX 104, CFQX-FM Winnipeg/Selkirk. The CRTC’s decision was awaited regarding the BCE application to acquire Astral, and it was anticipated that, if approved, BCE would be required to divest itself of several properties, including these three stations. On June 27, the CRTC approved the application by Astral Media Inc. to sell its pay and specialty television channels, conventional television stations and radio stations to BCE Inc, subject to certain conditions, including the divestiture of ownership of the three stations Pattison had agreed to buy, including CHIQ-FM.

It was announced that Sharon Taylor, General Manager at QX 104/FAB 94.3, would be moving to take on the GM position at the Newcap Edmonton stations as of December 2. 

In December, the CRTC approved the change in effective control of 8384843 Canada Inc., wholly owned by Bell Media Inc. and under the control of the Trustee, Pierre Boivin, to Jim Pattison Broadcast Group Limited Partnership.

FAB 94.3 moved from the Bell Media building to join its new sister station, QX104, on Lombard Street in downtown Winnipeg – held in trust after the sale of Astral to BCE and now owned by the Jim Pattison Broadcast Group. Virgin Radio Winnipeg, which had been located with QX104, joined new Bell Media sister stations BOB FM and TSN 1290 on Pembina Highway.

In February, FAB 94.3 became 94.3 The Drive. The first song played under the new brand was Drive My Car by The Beatles. The station was now playing Greatest Hits from the 70s and 80s.

On May 16, the CRTC approved the application by Jim Pattison Broadcast Group Ltd. (the general partner) and Jim Pattison Industries Ltd. (the limited partner), carrying on business as Jim Pattison Broadcast Group Limited Partnership, for authority to effect a multi-step corporate reorganization involving the assets of CKCE-FM Calgary, Alberta, CHIQ-FM Winnipeg and CFQX-FM Selkirk, Manitoba. Following the close of these transactions, Jim Pattison Broadcast Group Limited Partnership would become the licensee of the stations.