CFEL-FM

CFEL-FM 102.1 began broadcasting.

On July 10, Power Broadcasting Corp. was authorized to purchase CFEL-FM from Radio Montminy Inc. Power Broadcasting was a subsidiary of Power Corporation of Canada, and ultimately controlled by Paul Desmarais.

Power took ownership of CFEL-FM a short time later. Former owner Michel Montminy remained with the station as general manager.

On March 24, Corus Entertainment Inc. was given approval to purchase Power Broadcasting Corp.

On August 10, CFEL was authorized to increase effective radiated power from 8,740 to 25,700 watts, relocate the transmitter to Angel-Guard, and decrease antenna height from 135 to 56 metres. In addition to serving Montmagny, CFEL would also now better serve Levis.

It should be noted that CFEL 102,1 Émotion Rock’s studios and offices at this time were located at 191, chemin des Poirier in Montmagny.

On October 3, the CRTC approved an application by Corus to move the transmitter for CFEL-FM from its current location in L’Ange-Gardien to a new site in Quebec. The licensee was also granted permission to delete the condition of licence regarding maintaining facilities in Montmagny. Following these changes, CFEL would no longer serve the Montmagny radio market. It would instead target listeners in the market of Levis and Quebec. Maximum effective radiated power would be reduced to 26,500 watts and the new effective antenna height above average terrain would be 157.5 metres. CFEL-FM’s studios would move from Montmagny to Levis.

On August 27, the CRTC renewed CFEL-FM’s licence until August 31, 2016. The licensee commits to broadcasting 2.8 hours of local news from Monday to Friday and 10 minutes of local news on weekends.

CFEL-FM changed its city of licence from Montmagny to Levis.

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 committed to divesting itself of two stations in the Québec radio market, namely CJEC-FM Québec and CFEL-FM Lévis/Québec, the Commission was of the view that the transaction was in compliance with the Policy and that it did not raise any additional concern for the market.

The Commission accordingly required that Cogeco divest itself of CJEC-FM and CFEL-FM no later than one year from the date of the decision and that in the interim ownership and control of the stations be transferred to a trustee pursuant to terms of the voting trust agreement addressed in Broadcasting Decision 2010-943. For the record, Cogeco already operated CJEC-FM and CJMF-FM in the Quebec market.

The CRTC approved an intra-corporate reorganization, including the transfer of the shares of Cogeco Diffusion inc. from Cogeco inc. to Cogeco Diffusion Acquisitions inc. and of the shares of CFEL inc. and Radio Sherbrooke inc. from CDAI to CDI. Cogeco Diffusion inc. was the licensee of CJMF-FM Québec, CJEB-FM Trois-Rivières, and CFGE-FM Sherbrooke and its broadcasting transmitter CFGE-FM-1 Magog, Quebec. CFEL inc. was the licensee of CFEL-FM Québec, Quebec. Radio Sherbrooke inc. was the licensee of CJTS-FM Sherbrooke, Quebec, at the time of this approval. (now silent).

The CRTC approved the change to the effective control of CJEC inc. and CFEL inc., from the trustee Fernand Belisle to Jacques Leclerc through his control of 99.7% of the voting rights of Leclerc Communications inc., the purchaser of the two entities. CJEC inc. was the licensee of CJEC-FM Québec and CFEL inc. was the licensee of CFEL-FM Québec.

The CRTC approved a technical amendment to CFEL-FM, in order to replace its antenna which did not currently comply with the environmental control standards of the Quebec Safety Code. The same site would be used but antenna height would increase from 157.5 to 170 metres and CFEL would continue to have a directional pattern. Effective radiated power would decrease from 78,000 to 33,900 watts (maximum) and 26,500 to 9,120 watts (average).

In late August/early September, CFEL-FM dropped its CHR format (from CKOI) and took on Hot Adult Contemporary with a heavy emphasis on Francophone music. The station was now known as BLVD 102.1 (BLVD: Boulevard).

In February, CFEL changed format from CHR to Talk during the day and Mainstream Rock at night. The BLVD 102.1 branding remained.