Corus Québec

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The Corus Québec network, still sometimes referred to in informal/unofficial speech as the Radiomédia network as it used to be called until May 2005, is a French-language Canadian news/talk AM radio network serving most of Quebec.

Stations include :

CKAC 730 in Montreal (flagship)
CHRC 800 in Quebec City
CJRC 1150 in Gatineau
CHLT 630 in Sherbrooke
CHLN 550 in Trois-Rivières
CKRS 590 in Saguenay

All these stations are owned and operated by Corus Entertainment.

[edit] Creation of Radiomédia

The Radiomédia network was created to succeed to the now-defunct Télémédia and Radiomutuel networks, which merged on September 30, 1994. This merger resulted in six AM stations closing in Quebec on that very same day at 6 p.m. (Eastern Daylight Time), and is referred to in Quebec radio circles as "le vendredi noir" ("Black Friday").

The six AM stations closed were :

CJMS 1280 in Montreal (Radiomutuel)
CJRP 1060 in Quebec City (Radiomutuel)
CKCH 970 in Gatineau (Télémédia)
CJRS 1510 in Sherbrooke (Radiomutuel)
CJTR 1140 in Trois-Rivières (Radiomutuel)
CJMT 1420 in Saguenay (Télémédia)

In each case, the station with the best signal remained open and the other one was closed. While in most markets the station that remained open was also both the oldest and the more successful according to recent BBM ratings, this was not the case everywhere -- CJTR in Trois-Rivières had recently surpassed CHLN in ratings for the first time in many years, and CKCH in Gatineau (opened in 1933) had much more of a history than CJRC, which opened only in 1968.

The Radiomédia network, along with CKAC in Montreal and CHRC in Quebec City, were now owned in equal shares by Telemedia and Radiomutuel. Telemedia retained full ownership of CHLT in Sherbrooke and CHLN in Trois-Rivières, while Radiomutuel retained full ownership of CJRC in Gatineau and CKRS in Saguenay. Both companies continued to compete against each other on the FM dial, with Telemedia still owning the RockDétente network and Radiomutuel owning the Énergie network, this while both FM networks were now getting their news services from the Radiomédia newsrooms.

[edit] Change to Corus Québec

After Astral Media (successor to Radiomutuel) bought all Telemedia Quebec radio properties in 2001, it was forced by the Competition Bureau to sell their AM stations due to concentration of ownership concerns. After two failed attempts (see article on CKAC for more details), a deal with Corus Entertainment was finally approved in early 2005 and took effect in May of that year.

Corus Entertainment, which already owned all-news station CINF (Info 690) in Montreal, promptly renamed Radiomédia as Corus Québec, and simultaneously dismantled the local CKAC newsroom, even though that newsroom was much more respected by listeners than the one from Info 690. News bulletins on the Corus Québec network are now provided by Corus Nouvelles, which consists of the old Radiomédia team outside of Montreal combined with the Info 690 team in Montreal.