CHQM-FM

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CHQM-FM

City of license	Vancouver, BC
Broadcast area	Greater Vancouver
Branding	103.5 QM/FM
Slogan	"Vancouver's #1 Choice For Soft Favourites"
First air date	August 10, 1960
Frequency	103.5 MHz
Format	Rhythmic Adult Contemporary
ERP	53,000 W
Owner	CHUM Limited
Website	qmfm.com

CHQM-FM (identified on air and in print as 103.5 QM/FM) is a Canadian radio station in the Greater Vancouver region of British Columbia. It broadcasts at 103.5 megahertz on the FM band with an effective radiated power of 53,000 watts from a transmitter on Mount Seymour. It is Western Canada's oldest FM station. The station has an adult contemporary format and is owned by CHUM Limited.

[edit] History

CHQM-FM signed on the air on August 10, 1960 with a mainly-instrumental easy listening format, several months after its original AM sister station, CHQM 1320 (whose programming CHQM-FM mainly simulcast), first went on-air on December 7, 1959. The original owner of CHQM-AM and -FM was Vancouver Broadcast Associates Ltd., headed by Bill Bellman and Jack Stark, with the stations' studios and offices then located on 1134 Burrard Street.

On November 4, 1961, CHQM-FM began broadcasting in stereo, and was authorized by the Board of Broadcast Governors (predecessor of the CRTC) to increase its transmission power from 18,950 watts to 100,000 in 1963. The transmitter site was moved from Grouse Mountain to Mt. Seymour at this time. CHQM-FM was the second private radio station in Canada to transmit in stereo (after CFRB-FM Toronto), and it was the first in the nation to transmit an SCMO subcarrier ("Q Music"). This subcarrier was used to transmit background music to stores and businesses throughout the Lower Mainland, and it helped support the FM station during the difficult first two decades, when FM audiences were small. Parent company Vancouver Broadcast Associates changed its corporate name to Q Broadcasting Ltd. on August 23, 1969.

The two owners had a falling-out, and each struggled to control Q Broadcasting through the mid-1970's. In 1979, Stark assumed complete control of the company. Bellman moved on to become a major sharesholder in fledgling CKVU-TV, also in Vancouver.

CHUM Limited acquired CHQM-AM and -FM on October 17, 1990, on condition from the CRTC that CHUM sell either CHQM-AM or its other Vancouver AM station, CFUN (regulations of the time allowed media companies to own only one AM and one FM station in a particular market in Canada); CHQM-AM was sold, and CHQM-FM made a gradual switch from its long-time easy listening format to its current format over a six-month period between March and September of 1992. As of 2006, 103.5 QM/FM is a Rhythmic Adult Contemporary station, because of their dance content. On July 12, 2006, Bell Globemedia announced it would acquire CHUM Limited, which includes CHQM-FM.

[edit] Contests

The most famous contest on 103.5 QM/FM is their game "Beat The Bank" in which players will call in. The lucky caller would get to open "vaults". When they choose to open the "vaults", they hear the sound effect of a creaking door. Once they open the very first door, they have a voice saying an amount of money, in which they get to choose or say that they would like to keep opening vaults to get a larger amount of money. Each door gives a larger sum. If they open a vault with the alarm sounding, they lose all their money and therefore receive nothing. After the player either loses or chooses an amount of money, the maximum prize is announced.