CBME-FM

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CBME-FM

Broadcast area	Montreal, Quebec
Branding	CBC Radio One
First air date	1933 (AM) 1998 (FM)
Frequency	88.5 MHz (FM)
Format	public broadcasting
Callsign meaning	Canadian Broadcasting Corporation Montreal English
Owner	Canadian Broadcasting Corporation
Website	CBC Montreal

CBME-FM is an English-language Canadian radio station located in Montreal, Quebec.

Owned and operated by the (government-owned) Canadian Broadcasting Corporation, it broadcasts on 88.5 MHz using a directional antenna with an average effective radiated power of 11,510 watts and a peak effective radiated power of 25,000 watts (class B).

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

Its studios, along with those of CBC Radio Two sister station CBM-FM, are located at Maison Radio-Canada in Montreal; master control is at the Canadian Broadcasting Centre in Toronto. The station's local programs are Daybreak in the mornings and Homerun in the afternoons.

The station opened in 1937 and was originally known as CBM; it broadcast on the AM band on 960 kHz. On March 29, 1941, like most radio stations in North America, CBM moved to a new frequency (940 kHz in their case). Originally 5000 watts, the station's power was increased to 50,000 watts. Prior to 1978 CBM broadcast as a clear-channel 50,000 watt AM station from a transmitter site near Farnham, Quebec. In 1978 the CBC consolidated its two AM transmitters for Montréal at Brossard, Quebec, on the south shore of Montréal. CBM got permission to move to FM band on July 4, 1997; the FM transmitter went on the air in 1998, and the AM transmitter was shut down in May 1999 -- four months after French-language sister station CBF, which got permission to move to FM at the same time and which shared CBM's transmitter site in Brossard, shut down its own AM transmitter on 690 kHz.

The call sign change to CBME-FM occurred in order to distinguish the station from sister station CBM-FM.

Because of deficiencies with the main FM signal which did not exist when the station was on AM, CBME-FM now operates two new relays, namely CBME-FM-1 and CBMG-FM. CBME-FM-1 is located in the western part of Montreal itself, and broadcasts on 104.7 MHz, using a directional antenna with an average effective radiated power of 98 watts and a peak effective radiated power of 200 watts (class A1). CBMG-FM is located in Cowansville and broadcasts on 101.9 MHz, using a directional antenna with an average effective radiated power of 2,700 watts and a peak effective radiated power of 8,200 watts (class B1).

Other stations are officially listed as relays of CBME-FM, but they actually relay local programming from CBVE-FM in Quebec City and are therefore part of the Quebec Community Network.