CJER-AM

Montreal TV and Radio producer Jean Lalonde received CBC approval for an AM station at St. Jerome, operating on 900 kHz with a power of 1,000 watts (single directional pattern).

CKJL went on the air. (There may had been a previous station operating on 900 kHz with 1,000 watts at St. Jerome, that went on the air in 1952).

CKJL was owned by Radio Laurentides Inc. (Jean Lalonde 98.1%, J. A. Lalonde 0.1%, A. J. Fortin 0.1%, J. Senecal 0.1%, A. Laurendeau 0.1%, four other shareholders 1.5%) and was an independent station with no network affiliation. Jean Lalonde was president of the company and Jean Senecal was CKJL’s manager.

Jean Lalonde president of Radio Laurentides and CKJL’s manager. Guy Gosselin was station manager.

On July 8, CJER was given approval to join the Radiomutuel network.

On February 16, the CRTC renewed the licences for CJSA Saint-Agathe-des-Monts, CKSJ Saint-Jovite and CJER Saint-Jérôme to September 30, 1989. The Department of Communications advised the Commission that it was prepared to renew the technical construction and operating certificates only for a period of one year, expiring September 30, 1985. Accordingly, approval of the renewals granted herein beyond that date, to September 30, 1989, was subject to further technical certification by the DOC. The Commission also approved the proposal to amend the broadcasting licences for CKSJ Saint-Jovite and CJER Saint-Jérôme by making them full-time rebroadcasters of CJSA Saint-Agathe-des-Monts. The Commission considered that the temporary discontinuation of local program production at Saint-Jovite and Saint-Jérôme was justified in view of the licensee’s difficult financial situation, but expected local production to be re-established when the licensee’s financial status improved. In the meantime, the licensee was expected to take the necessary measures to ensure the coverage of local and regional information in Saint-Jovite and Saint-Jérôme. Further, the proposal to amend the licence for CKSJ Saint- Jovite by adding a condition of licence requiring this station to operate as an affiliate of Réseau Radiomutuel was approved. The Commission noted that CJSA and CJER were already affiliates of the network. The Commission noted that CJSA’s new Promise of Performance provided for five five-minute local and regional news bulletins each weekday, as well as a reduction in the spoken word content from 26% to 19%. The licensee also made the commitment to hire a full-time local news reporter.

Réseau L.M. Inc. purchased CJSA and CKSJ from Jean Robillard, receiver for the creditors of CJSA Radio Inc., and CJER from 106462 Canada Ltée. Programming for all three stations would now originate from CKLM Laval. A certain amount of this programming would be produced at CKLM specifically for Saint-Jérôme, Sainte-Agathe-des-Monts and Saint-Jovite listeners for broadcast only on CJER, CJSA and CKSJ. CKLM was co-owned with the three stations.

Réseau L.M. Inc. (CJER, CJSA and CKSJ) was sold by Corporation Brunet-Lasalle (owner of CKLM) to 2645-1435 Québec Inc. 

Due to financial problems, CJSA, CJER and CKSJ left the air.

Radio Nord lost out in its bid for FM stations to replace the defunct AM operations of CJER St-Jerome and CKSJ St-Jovite. The new stations would have formed a network with Radio Nord’s stations in Lachute, QC and Hawkesbury, ON. Despite the promise to restore local programming, the CRTC ruled that the plan would jeopardize CIME-FM Ste-Adele.