CBF-FM

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CBF-FM

City of license	Montreal, Quebec
Broadcast area	Greater Montreal area
Branding	La Première Chaîne
First air date	December 11, 1937
Frequency	95.1 MHz (FM)
Format	public broadcasting
ERP	100 kW
Class	C1
Callsign meaning	Canadian Broadcasting French
Owner	Canadian Broadcasting Corporation
Website	La Première Chaîne

CBF-FM is a French-language Canadian radio station located in Montreal, Quebec.

Owned and operated by the (government-owned) Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (French : Société Radio-Canada), it broadcasts on 95.1 MHz from the Mount Royal candelabra tower with an effective radiated power of 100,000 watts (class C1) using an omnidirectional antenna. Its studios and master control are located at Maison Radio-Canada in Montreal.

The station has an ad-free news/talk format and is the flagship of the La Première Chaîne network which operates across Canada. Like all La Première Chaîne stations, but unlike most FM stations, it broadcasts in mono.

[edit] History

CBF went on the air on December 11, 1937, as the CBC launched its French-language network (Radio-Canada). CBF replaced CRCM, a station operated by the Canadian Radio Broadcasting Commission on 600 kHz in alternance with CFCF. CBF operated on 910 kHz using 50,000 watts fulltime with an omnidirectional antenna as a clear channel (class A) station. The transmitter was located in Contrecoeur.

The station moved from 910 kHz to 690 kHz on March 29, 1941, as a result of the North American Radio Broadcasting Agreement. In 1978 the CBC consolidated its two Montréal AM broadcast transmitters and the station moved to a new transmitter site shared with CBM 940 Khz in Brossard.

CBF started to broadcast from the Maison Radio-Canada in November 1971. Commercial advertising on the station was eliminated in 1974 except for Montreal Canadiens hockey games. (CBF was the Canadiens' radio flagship since its opening in 1937 and would remain so until 1997.)

CBF applied to move to FM and was authorized to do so by the CRTC on July 4, 1997. The FM transmitter was put on the air ahead of schedule on January 22, 1998, and initially had special programming targeting people affected by the 1998 Ice Storm (i.e. people without electricity). The AM signal was shut down on January 21, 1999. (For some unknown reason, English-language sister station CBM (which got permission to move to FM and started FM operations at the same time) retained its AM signal until May 14, 1999.) CBF became CBF-FM as a result of this move to FM; the existing CBF-FM station was renamed CBFX-FM.

Due to severe reception problems, CBF-FM was authorized to increase its power from 17,030 watts to 100,000 watts on June 2, 2000. The power increase was implemented in mid-2001.

In recent years the popularity of the station has increased significantly. The station is now usually one of the top five stations in BBM ratings (using shares), after decades of being an also-ran.

[edit] Retransmitters

The following stations are fulltime rebroadcasters of CBF-FM :

CBF-1 in Senneterre, broadcasting on 710 kHz with 40 watts fulltime (class LP) using an omnidirectional antenna;

CBF-3 in Lebel-sur-Quévillon, broadcasting on 650 kHz with 40 watts fulltime (class LP) using an omnidirectional antenna;

CBF-4 in Matagami, broadcasting on 1140 kHz with 40 watts fulltime (class LP) using an omnidirectional antenna;

CBF-FM-7 in Radisson, broadcasting on 100.1 MHz using a directional antenna with an average effective radiated power of 199 watts and a peak effective radiated power of 366 watts (class A);

CBF-FM-9 in Mont-Laurier, broadcasting on 91.9 MHz with an effective radiated power of 38,000 watts (class B) using an omnidirectional antenna;

CBF-FM-13 in Saint-Michel-des-Saints, broadcasting on 90.9 MHz with an effective radiated power of 466 watts (class A) using an omnidirectional antenna;

CBF-FM-14 in Saint-Jovite, broadcasting on 95.5 MHz with an effective radiated power of 835 watts (class A) using an omnidirectional antenna;

CBF-FM-15 in L'Annonciation, broadcasting on 88.3 MHz with an effective radiated power of 4,600 watts (class B) using an omnidirectional antenna;

CBF-16 in Clova, broadcasting on 990 kHz with 40 watts fulltime (class LP) using an omnidirectional antenna;

CBF-17 in Lac-Édouard, broadcasting on 710 kHz with 40 watts fulltime (class LP) using an omnidirectional antenna;

CBF-18 in Parent, broadcasting on 710 kHz with 40 watts fulltime (class LP) using an omnidirectional antenna.

There are other stations which use the CBF-FM call sign and a numerical suffix, but despite this situation, they are not rebroadcasters of CBF-FM. This includes CBF-FM-10 in Sherbrooke and CBF-FM-8 in Trois-Rivières, and also their own respective rebroadcasters. CBF-FM-10 and CBF-FM-8 have some local programming since 1998, and officially became licensed as independent stations in 2000.