| City of license | Montreal, Quebec |
|---|---|
| Broadcast area | Greater Montreal |
| Branding | TSN Radio 990 |
| Slogan | Montreal's Sports Radio |
| Frequency | 990 kHz (AM) (moving to 690 kHz) |
| First air date | 1959 |
| Format | Sports |
| ERP | 50,000 watts |
| Class | B |
| Callsign meaning | CK Greater Montreal |
| Former callsigns | CHTX (1989-1991) CKIS (1991-1996) |
| Affiliations | ESPN Radio TSN Radio Westwood One |
| Owner | Bell Media Programmed by TSN (Bell Media – 80% / ESPN – 20%) (Bell Media Radio) |
| Sister stations | CFCF-DT |
| Website | TSN Radio 990 |
CKGM branded on-air as TSN Radio 990 is an English language Canadian radio station located in Westmount, Quebec but licensed in Montreal. Formerly an affiliate of Team sports radio network, it was one of three stations to retain the sports format after the network folded in 2002.
The station broadcasts on 990 kHz with a power of 50,000 watts as a class B station, using a directional antenna which is slightly directional during the day and extremely directional at night to protect clear channel (class A) stations CBW in Winnipeg, Manitoba and CBY in Corner Brook, Newfoundland and Labrador.
The station has an all-sports format since May 2001 and was previously known as The Team 990 until it switched to the TSN Radio branding as TSN Radio 990 in October 2011, but is best known for having been a legendary and influential top 40 station in its heyday from 1970 to 1986.
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Local programming on the station includes Melnick in the Afternoon with Mitch Melnick, The Tieman Show with Randy Tieman, The Montreal Forum, a hockey show with Tony Marinaro, and The Morning Show with Elliott Price and Shaun Starr. These shows are mainly focused on Montreal Canadiens analysis but also offer significant content about other North American professional sports. TSN Radio 990 airs in-depth coverage of the Montreal Canadiens, featuring pre and post-game coverage of every game and analysis on the team.
TSN Radio 990 is the official broadcasting partner of the Montreal Impact (soccer) and carries exclusive coverage of the NFL, MLB, NASCAR and some NHL playoffs. The station also carries some ESPN Radio programming.
The station was also part of Canada's Olympic Broadcast Media Consortium
TSN Radio 990 also has rights for the golf's The British Open, The U.S. Open, EURO 2012 EURO 2016, 2011 NBA Playoffs, and Sunday Night Football as part of TSN's broadcasting rights for the events.
On June 22, 2011, Bell Media announced it had signed a deal with the Montreal Canadiens to become the Canadiens' official English-language radio broadcaster for the next 7 seasons.[1]
TSN Radio 990 is the flagship station for the following teams' radio broadcasts:
TSN Radio 990 also features live coverage of the following:
Elliot Price Shaun Starr Tony Marinaro Sean Campbell Randy Tieman Mitch Melnick Rod Francis Mitch Gallo John Bartlett Sergio Momesso Bobby Dollas Conor McKenna Jessica Rusnak Simon Tsalikis Noel Butler Moe Khan Dave Simon Kevin McKough Nick Murdocco Gary Whittaker Amanda Stein Sean Coleman Matthew Ross
CKGM was founded by Geoff Stirling and opened on December 7, 1959. The station was then on 980 kHz with a power of 10,000 watts fulltime as a class B station, using a directional antenna with different patterns day and night (the nighttime pattern being somewhat tighter). The 980 kHz frequency had been previously occupied by CKVL. While most of the station's programming was devoted to music (playing Top 40 hits), the station also had a number of open-line talk shows.
An FM sister station, CKGM-FM (later known as CHOM-FM starting in 1970) was opened on July 16, 1963. After a few weeks of simulcast with CKGM, the FM station adopted a beautiful music format on September 1.
In 1963, a molotov cocktail was thrown through a window, but was faulty and did not ignite inside the studios.
In 1965, CKGM hired open-line host Pat Burns, famous for his controversial opinions, especially on language issues. Known in particular for featuring prominently on his show Francophones who were proud of being bilingual or of being assimilated to the Anglophone community (again, depending on the point of view), Burns would remain on the air until early 1969, only being driven out of Montreal after a boycott campaign targeting the station's advertisers was launched. Burns was sufficiently controversial to be publicly denounced by Quebec Premier Daniel Johnson Sr., and the station received numerous bomb threats during the late 1960s. The station had already a history of bombing.
In 1968, CKGM moved from 1455 Drummond in downtown Montreal to 1310 Greene in Westmount.
CKGM became the Montreal Expos' flagship for their first season in Montreal in 1969. (Baseball would move to CFCF the following year.)
On January 1, 1970, CKGM changed its format to become a full-time Top 40 station. Success was immediate, as CKGM managed to beat direct competitor CFOX, also a full-time Top 40 station, in the Fall 1970 BBM ratings. CKGM would quickly become one of North America's legendary AM Top 40 stations.
Legendary morningman Ralph Lockwood, formerly of CFOX, made his debut on CKGM on October 2, 1972. He would remain with the station until late 1981.
In 1975, CKGM introduced "La Connection Française", referring to a trio of bilingual personalities (Rob Christie, Marc Denis and Scott Carpentier) which used both English and French on the air and played songs of both languages. As CKGM remained an English-language station, this resulted in French-language stations complaining to the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission (CRTC) and even refusing to observe quotas of Francophone music. On-air bilingualism would remain a distinctive CKGM feature until stringent CRTC regulation forbidding it (and also enforcing quotas on the Francophone side) went into effect on January 1, 1980.
CKGM got a record-high number of listeners among English-language stations in Montreal according to the Fall 1976 BBM ratings that were released on December 13 of that year, thanks in part to the large numbers of Francophones who listened to the station (almost 40% of CKGM listeners were French-speaking).
On August 20, 1985, CKGM and sister station CHOM-FM were sold to CHUM Limited. CKGM switched its format to Adult contemporary music under the "Lite Rock, Less Talk" moniker a few months later, on January 15, 1986.
The station returned to a Top 40 format on February 10, 1989, changing its call sign to CHTX in an attempt to distance itself as far as possible from its earlier days as a Top 40 station that even included adopting a new phone number. CHTX identified itself on-air as "980 Hits", and also infamously identified itself as "the station that plays the most music allowed by law" (in reference here to CRTC regulations that limited hit music on FM stations). Anecdotal evidence suggests that at least some listeners wondered if there was in fact a legal limitation on the number of songs radio stations can play.
On September 14, 1990 at 5 PM, CHTX moved to the adjacent 990 kHz frequency,[3] increasing its power to 50,000 watts fulltime from a new transmitter site located in Ville Mercier, and converting itself to AM stereo. The switch occurred one week later than initially scheduled, on orders from the federal Department of Communications, due to the "tense security situation" (the Oka Crisis) in the neighbouring Indian reserve of Kahnawake.
Another format change occurred on May 24, 1991, with the new format being oldies, although the station would also air Dr. Laura's open line show. The station changed its call sign to CKIS and identified itself as "Oldies 990".
The station returned to its original CKGM call sign on January 15, 1996, as the station moved to a talk radio format known as "Talk Radio With Attitude" which included a low amount of locally-produced programming. For that reason, the station got abysmally low ratings, with less than 100,000 listeners. The CKIS calls moved to a Calgary radio station formerly owned by Rawlco, and as of 2009, are now used in a Toronto radio station.
When the 1998 Ice Storm took place, CKGM continued to rely on automation, making few efforts to broadcast adapted emergency information. On January 9 of that year, competitor CJAD lost its broadcast towers due to the accumulation of ice. After that station moved temporarily to 1410 kHz using the former facilities of CFMB, CKGM leased its signal to CJAD on a temporary basis, starting on January 22, 1998. (Technically CKGM left the airwaves and was replaced on 990 kHz by CJAD.) CJAD returned to its assigned frequency of 800 kHz on May 29, 1998, and after two weeks of simulcast, CKGM returned on June 12, 1998 at noon. The station took the opportunity to re-launch itself as a largely automated oldies station, again using the "Oldies 990" as its moniker (but keeping the CKGM call sign).
In September 2000, shortly after the CRTC made changes to radio ownership regulations allowing a single company to own up to four stations in a market, CHUM announced it would trade CKGM and sister station CHOM-FM to Standard Broadcasting (which already owned two stations in Montreal) in exchange for CFWM-FM in Winnipeg (a market where CHUM already had two stations). This move allowed Standard to acquire Winnipeg's CKMM-FM (Hot 103) & CFQX-FM (QX104.1).
However, a few months later, the CKGM portion of the deal was cancelled.[4] The company immediately announced that CKGM would be added to the list of CHUM-owned AM stations switching to an all-sports format on May 7, 2001, joining the new "The Team" network and identifying itself as "Team 990". CKGM became the radio flagship of the Montreal Expos a few days later, marking a return of baseball on English-language airwaves. The station would broadcast the last Expos' games as a Montreal franchise in 2004.
Even in the very last days before the switch to the new format, the largely automated CKGM continued to air a promo criticizing "those talk stations" (in addition to always playing the same songs in the very same order).
While most Team stations returned to music programming (generally oldies) on August 27, 2002, CKGM was one of the few stations where the all-sports format survived, and locally-produced programming was increased.
The Team 990 is anchored by the 3pm-7pm drive show with Mitch Melnick. It's morning show features veteran broadcaster Elliot Price and Shaun Starr (Denis Casavant left in November 2011 to pursue his career at RDS television). Former NHLer PJ Stock hosted his own program daily 1-3pm. Stock, during 2010-2011 was part of the morning show at CHOM.
Other popular programs include the Delmar Cargo Habs Post Game show, which comes on after each Montreal Canadiens game.
Currently, CKGM has the broadcasting rights to the Montreal Juniors of the Quebec Major Junior Hockey League, as well as NFL football (through Priszm Radio) and Sunday night baseball. CKGM also broadcasts home games of the Montreal Impact of the United Soccer League.
In the summer of 2007, Matthew Ross, host of Game Points, set The Team 990 station record by hosting a 10.5-hour marathon program.
On June 22, 2007, CTVglobemedia purchased CKGM and most of the other assets of CHUM Limited following approval by the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission, while the Citytv stations were sold to Rogers Communications.
On September 7, 2011, the CRTC announced the applicants for the 690 kHz frequency previously occupied by CINF. Among these included Bell Media, who plan on using 690 as a new frequency for CKGM.[5] The reasoning for the swap is to take advantage of 690's around-the-clock clear-channel frequency, especially during nighttime hours when most sporting events, especially hockey, takes place; at 990, the station is forced to broadcast at a lower power at night, broadcasting directionally towards the north to protect CBW and CBY, significantly decreasing its coverage area in the suburban areas and on the South Shore. Other frequencies CKGM considered moving to was 940 kHz, though doing so would take six months to make the move, as opposed to three months if CKGM is awarded 690; and 600 kHz (formerly used by CINW's predecessor, CIQC, before moving to 940 in 1999), but it would require building new towers, and the only suitable site for broadcast is in Kahnawake, on land owned by competing broadcaster, Cogeco.[6]
On November 21, 2011, CKGM's relocation from 990 to 690 was approved by the CRTC; after the move is made, Evanov Communications will be assigned the 990 frequency for a francophone LGBT-based radio station, which they originally applied for 690.[7][8][9]
On October 3, 2011, Bell Media announced that the Team 990 would be relaunched (along with CFRW in Winnipeg) under the new TSN Radio banner, thus becoming known as TSN Radio 990 effective October 5, 2011, [10]
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