CKOB-FM

CHLN signed on the air on October 17, operating on 1420 kHz with a power of 100 watts. 

The Association of Independent Stations of the Province of Quebec was formed at the end of January, with CKAC, CHLP and CFCF Montreal; CHRC and CKCV Quebec; CKCH Hull; CJBR Rimouski; CHNC New Carlisle; CHLT Sherbrooke; CHLN Trois-Rivieres; and CKRN Rouyn as members. Phil Lalonde of CKAC was elected president; Narcisse Thivierge, CHRC, vice-president; Alex Dupont, CKCH and Marcel Lefebvre, CHLP, directors.

Under the Havana Treaty, CHLN moved from 1420 to 1450 kHz (Class IV) on March 29. Power was 100 watts.

Power increased to 250 watts. 

Leon Trepanier was CHLN’s manager.

CHLN moved to 550 kHz with 1,000 watts. The owner was listed as Le Nouvelliste Ltee. Studios were in the Chateau De Blois Hotel, and the transmitter was two miles from the studio location on Montreal Highway. 

On June 4 Press News inaugurated a radio news service in French to stations in Quebec and Ontario (including CHLN). The service was based on the regular PN English service, translated and then transmitted from the Canadian Press bureau in Montreal.

Charles Couture was commercial 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.

The transfer of control in La Compagnie de Publication du Nouvelliste Ltee (CHLN) from Senator Jacob Nicol to Honore Danserreau (a Montreal contractor) was approved by the CBC Board. 
 

Approval was given for the transfer of CHLN from La Compagnie de Publication du Nouvelliste Ltee to Radio Trois-Rivieres Inc.
 

CHLN was authorized to operate a 1,000 watt emergency transmitter.

Approval was given for a power increase – from 1,000 to 5,000 watts.

Power increased to 5,000 watts. Different directional patterns were used for day and night operation. Related ad: Now 5,000 watts. CHLN serves Quebec’s third largest city and one of the richest industrial areas of the province.

CHLN was affiliated with the French Radio Association.. Radio Trois-Rivieres Inc. ownership: Honore Dansereau 99.6%, Hon. Jacob Nicol 0.1%, Pierre Dansereau 0.1%, Maurice Dansereau 0.1% and Gerard Dansereau 0.1%. The Hon. Jacob Nicol was president of the company and Leon Trepanier was CHLN’s manager. 

According to Elliott-Haynes CHLN reached a total of 124,238 adult listeners every day.

Mrs. Maurice Dansereau was at CHLN. 

CHLN applied for approval to increase daytime power from 5,000 to 10,000 watts. Competitor CKTR also applied to increase power (from 5,000 watts to 10,000 watts day and 5,000 watts at night). CKTR’s application was deferred as the BBG wanted to investigate the possibility of the necessary arrangements being made to allow power increases at both Trois-Rivieres stations. Both were now 5,000 watts but CHLN was at the low end of the dial while CKTR was in the middle, at 1150. CHLN was getting superior coverage as a result. Last year, CHLN’s application for 10,000 watts was denied by the BBG following CKTR’s objections. This year the tables were reversed as CKTR was seeking 10 kW with CHLN objecting. Later in the year, power increase applications for both stations were approved. 

Leo Benoit left CHLN as program director to become general manager of CFDA Victoriaville. 

By this time, CHLN 550 was an affiliate of the CBC’s French language network. The station was now operating with 10,000 watts day and 5,000 watts at night. Roger Dussault was president of Radio Trois Rivieres Inc. and Maurice Dansereau was manager of CHLN. 

Joseph Kubluk was station manager.

Marcel Thiverge was on-air.

On November 1, The Service des Nouvelles Sonores de Telemedia (SNS) began providing French language voice service to CKAC, CKCV, CKCH, CHLN and CHLT. Stations were joined together by CN-CP broadband. 

Power Corp. sold a controlling interest in CHLN (Radio Trois-Rivieres Inc) and a number of other stations to Philipe de Gaspe Beaubien’s Telemedia (Quebec) Ltee (owned by Telemedia Communications Ltee, in turn owned by Beaudem Ltee). Power would retain through ownership debentures, a large financial interest in the new company for a period of time. Philipe de Gaspe Beaubien would control more than 80% of the votes of the company. 

Marcel Provost died June 8 at the age of 62. In 1937, Provost was asked by the late Hon. Jacob Nichol to establish CHLT Sherbrooke and CHLN. He later went on to help Jack Tietolman to establish CKVL.

The Telemedia Radio Network (Le reseau Telemedia) was formed. CKAC was the flagship. It was joined by Telemedia stations CHLN Trois-Rivieres, CHLT Sherbrooke and CKCH Hull. The network would enable the smaller stations to improve their national and international news services.

The CRTC approved a restructuring of the ownership of CHLN and Hull’s CKCH. 
CKCH Radio Ltee would issue 9,000 common shares (90%) to Radio Trois-Rivieres Inc., while acquiring CHLN. Both stations were part of Telemedia.

CHLN received approval to disaffiliate from the Radio-Canada network. Network service was now being provided by CBF-1-FM which went on the air in November of 1977.

On May 16, Metro-Media Communications Ltee was authorized to transfer 90% of the ownership of Metro-Media Communications (1977) Ltee from Radio Trois-Rivieres Inc. to Telemedia Communications Ltee. Radio Trois-Rivieres was a division of Telemedia.

Telmed Ltee, CKCV (Quebec) Ltee, CKAC Ltee, CHLT Radio Sherbrooke Ltee, Metro-Media Communications (1977) Ltee and Telemedia Communications Ltee then amalgamated under the single name of Telemedia Communications Ltee. 

On January 8, the CRTC approved the affiliation of CHLN to the French-language AM radio network “Réseau des Nordiques” to be operated by Les Entreprises de Radiodiffusion de la Capitale Inc. for the purpose of broadcasting the hockey games of the Quebec Nordiques.

Telemedia launched CHEY-FM

The corporate name changed from Telemedia Communications Inc. to Telemedia Radio Inc.

The corporate name changed from Telemedia Radio Inc. to Télémédia Radio (Québec) inc.

Astral Media Inc. purchased Telemedia’s stations in Quebec and Atlantic Canada.

On January 21, the CRTC approved an exchange of assets between Corus Entertainment Inc. and Astral Media Radio Inc. Corus acquired from Astral: CKAC Montréal, CHRC Québec, CJRC Gatineau, CKRS Saguenay, CHLN Trois-Rivières, CHLT and CKTS Sherbrooke, and CFOM-FM Lévis. Astral  acquired from Corus: CFVM-FM Amqui, CJDM-FM Drummondville, CJOI-FM and CIKI-FM Rimouski, and CFZZ-FM Saint-Jean-Iberville.

On November 24, CHLN was authorized to convert to the FM dial. The new station would offer a specialty talk-based format. It would broadcast at a frequency of 106.9 MHz with an average effective radiated power of 60,000 watts.

On August 20 at 7:00 a.m., CHLT moved to the FM band. The format remained News/Talk.

CHLN-AM 550 left the air in January following a simulcast period with its FM replacement. 

In March CHLN 106.9 changed format from News-Talk to Oldies/Classic Hits.

On August 27, the CRTC renewed CHLN-FM’s licence until August 31, 2013. The licensee is alleged to have breached sections 2.2(5) and 2.2(8) of the Regulations concerning the broadcast of French-language vocal music and the broadcast of Canadian musical selections from content category 2 during the broadcast week of 14 to 20 September 2008. Further, the licensee is alleged to have breached section 2.2(5) of the Regulations. As a result, a short term renewal was given. Conditions include: The station shall be operated within the Specialty format as defined in A Review of Certain Matters Concerning Radio, Public Notice CRTC 1995-60, 21 April 1995, and Revised content categories and subcategories for radio, Public Notice CRTC 2000-14, 28 January 2000, as amended from time to time. The licensee shall devote more than 50% of the programming broadcast during the broadcast week to programming drawn from category 1 (Spoken Word). The licensee shall broadcast, in each broadcast week, not less than 21 hours of spoken word programming of direct and particular relevance to the community served. This programming shall include local news, weather and sports and the promotion of local events and activities. Commitment: The licensee commits to broadcasting 5 hours and 55 minutes of local news each week.

Paul Arcand, who had been doing the morning show for several years at News/Talk (CHMP-FM) 98,5 FM Montreal was now be heard via simulcast on four more Corus Quebec stations: CJRC 104,7 FM Outaouais, CHLT 107,7 FM Estrie, CHLN 106,9 FM Mauricie and CKRS 98,3 FM Saguenay, beginning in February. Three employees were affected by the change.

On April 30th, Corus Entertainment Inc. announced that they had reached an agreement with Cogeco Inc. for Cogeco to purchase the Corus Quebec radio stations: CKOI-FM , CKAC-AM, CHMP-FM and CFQR-FM Montreal , CFOM-FM102.9 and CFEL-FM Quebec City, CJRC-FM Gatineau , CIME-FM St-Jérôme, CHLT-FM and CKOY-FM Sherbrooke, and CHLN-FM Trois Rivieres.
The deal would be subject to CRTC approval.  

On December 17, the CRTC approved the transfer of various commercial radio programming undertakings from Corus Entertainment Inc. to Cogeco inc. The Commission received an application by Corus Entertainment Inc., on behalf of its wholly owned subsidiaries 591991 B.C. Ltd. and Metromedia CMR Broadcasting Inc., to transfer their shares and effective control from Corus to Cogeco inc. or one of its wholly owned subsidiaries (the proposed transaction). 591991 B.C. was the licensee of the French-language commercial radio programming undertakings CFOM-FM Lévis, CFEL-FM Lévis/Québec, CHLT-FM and CKOY-FM Sherbrooke, CKAC Montréal, CJRC-FM Gatineau and CHLN-FM Trois-Rivières. Metromedia was the licensee of the French-language commercial radio programming undertakings CKOI-FM Montréal, CHMP-FM Longueuil, CIME-FM Saint-Jérôme and its transmitters CIME-FM-1 Val-Morin and CIME-FM-2 Mont-Tremblant, and CFQR-FM Montréal, an English-language commercial radio programming undertaking. Following the proposed transaction, effective control of 591991 B.C. and Metromedia would be exercised by Cogeco, a corporation controlled by Gestion Audem inc. Since Cogeco had only one radio station in the Trois-Rivières radio market prior to the transaction, the Commission considered that the acquisition of CHLN-FM Trois-Rivières by Cogeco was in compliance with the Policy and did not raise any additional concerns. Regarding the regional stations CHLN-FM Trois-Rivières, CHLT-FM Sherbrooke and CJRC-FM Gatineau, the Commission considered that Cogeco’s proposal of enhanced conditions of licence relating to hours of local programming, spoken word material and the broadcast of local news was not only acceptable but would make it possible for the radio programming offered in these localities to distinguish itself fully from the programming offered by its Montréal flagship. For the record, Cogeco already operated CJEB-FM in the Trois-Rivieres market. 

In February, CHLN-FM dropped the “Souvenirs Garantis” format in favour of the growing CKOI-FM-based Hot Adult Contemporary format. The station had been a combination of Oldies-Classic Hits and Talk.

On June 17, the CRTC approved applications by 591991 B.C. Ltd. to amend the broadcasting licences for CHLT-FM Sherbrooke, CJRC-FM Gatineau and CHLN-FM Trois-Rivières, by amending or adding certain conditions of licence relating to the broadcast of local programming, spoken word programming and news. To reflect the licensee’s commitments, these conditions of licence, which should apply to all three stations, shall read as follows: In each broadcast week, the licensee shall broadcast no less than 50 hours of local programming. In each broadcast week, the licensee shall broadcast no less than 24 hours and 46 minutes of spoken word programming. In each broadcast week, the licensee shall broadcast no less than 4 hours and 20 minutes of news programming.

In late summer CHLN 106.9 became CKOB. The new calls reflected the station’s participation in the CKOI network, based in Montreal.

It was announced that CKOY-FM would change format from Hot Adult Contemporary-CHR to Talk as of August 20. It would be known as 106.9 FM.

In November, Henri Audet, founder of Cogeco cable died at age 94. Trained as an engineer, Audet left a job at the CBC to launch a TV station in Trois-Riviéres. He sold his house and raised $100,000 from friends and other investors as seed money. From that single television station the company became Canada’s fourth-largest cable company and one of Quebec’s largest media companies. Audet served as president of the Canadian Association of Broadcasters from 1961 to 1964, and was appointed a Member of the Order of Canada in 1984. Control of Cogeco Inc. and its direct and indirect subsidiaries was held by Gestion Audem Inc., a holding company whose shares were held entirely by the members of the family of Henri Audet.

On December 18, the CRTC renewed the licences for CKOY and CKOB to August 31, 2018. The short-term renewals would allow for an earlier review of the licensee’s compliance with its regulatory requirements. The licensee was in apparent non-compliance with contributions to Canadian talent development and for the filing of incomplete annual returns for 2009-2010 and 2010-2011.

On December 19, the CRTC approved an application by Cogeco Diffusion inc. for authority to acquire from Cogeco Diffusion Acquisitions inc., as part of a corporate reorganization, the assets of CFOM-FM Lévis, CKOY-FM Sherbrooke, CKOB-FM Trois-Rivières, CKOF-FM Gatineau, and CIME-FM Saint-Jérôme. Cogeco Diffusion inc. was wholly owned by Cogeco Diffusion Acquisitions inc., which in turn was wholly owned by Cogeco inc.