CKLM was a French-language

Canadian Canadians (french: Canadiens) are people identified with the country of Canada. This connection may be residential, legal, historical or cultural. For most Canadians, many (or all) of these connections exist and are collectively the source of ...

radio station Radio broadcasting is transmission of audio (sound), sometimes with related metadata, by radio waves to radio receivers belonging to a public audience. In terrestrial radio broadcasting the radio waves are broadcast by a land-based radi ...

located in Laval,

Quebec Quebec ( ; )According to the Canadian government, ''Québec'' (with the acute accent) is the official name in Canadian French and ''Quebec'' (without the accent) is the province's official name in Canadian English is one of the thirtee ...

(near

Montreal Montreal ( ; officially Montréal, ) is the second-most populous city in Canada and most populous city in the Canadian province of Quebec. Founded in 1642 as '' Ville-Marie'', or "City of Mary", it is named after Mount Royal, the triple ...

). It operated from 1962 to 1994. The station broadcast on 1570 kHz with a power of 50,000

watt The watt (symbol: W) is the unit of power or radiant flux in the International System of Units (SI), equal to 1 joule per second or 1 kg⋅m2⋅s−3. It is used to quantify the rate of energy transfer. The watt is named after James ...

s full-time as a class B station, using a directional antenna with different patterns day and night (the nighttime pattern being significantly tighter). While the station's signal was not particularly impressive from a strictly local point of view, the station was received by many DXers in Europe and was considered there as one of the "easy" targets for Transatlantic DX. CKLM originally began with a variety format and identified itself as "the only unilingual French station in the world", referring to the fact that it only played French-language music (unlike most other French-language stations which played a significant amount of English-language music). It quickly became identified as a strongly nationalist station. Late in 1967, the station feared that it would lose its licence, after it had broadcast special programming describing the July 1967 visit of French president Charles De Gaulle in Quebec, in which he made his extremely controversial "Vive le Québec libre !" statement. Because of these fears (radio broadcasting is a federal jurisdiction in Canada), the station changed its format to

Top 40 In the music industry, the Top 40 is the current, 40 most-popular songs in a particular genre. It is the best-selling or most frequently broadcast popular music. Record charts have traditionally consisted of a total of 40 songs. "Top 40" or "cont ...

(including English-language hits). CKLM moved from Montreal to Laval in 1976 over the objections of CFGL-FM, which was already operating in that city. That station actually bought CKLM a few years later, but sold it in 1983 to new investors. The station then suffered from heavy financial difficulties, as listeners deserted the station in droves. In April 1994, the company which held CKLM's licence (CKLM Radio Laval-Montréal Inc., controlled by Gérard Brunet), went bankrupt and all assets were transferred to a guaranteed creditor (2754363 Canada Inc.). That company rented the station to Réseau RadioCom Inc., a company operated by René Bourdelais which was already operating the station since January 1, 1994. All of this posed a problem as such changes legally have to be approved by the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission (CRTC), and no approval was sought by any of these companies. On July 15, 1994, the CRTC determined that there were too many irregularities going on, and it ordered CKLM to go off the air by July 17. CKLM initially ignored that order, but early on July 20, 1994, the station's

transmitter In electronics and telecommunications, a radio transmitter or just transmitter is an electronic device which produces radio waves with an antenna. The transmitter itself generates a radio frequency alternating current, which is applied to the ...

was apparently hit by

lightning Lightning is a naturally occurring electrostatic discharge during which two electrically charged regions, both in the atmosphere or with one on the ground, temporarily neutralize themselves, causing the instantaneous release of an avera ...

and CKLM went off the air. The CRTC was willing to authorize CKLM to go back on the air if a proper application would have been made; there is however no record of any such application ever being made, and in any case the station never returned to the air. Radio stations CJER, CJSA and CKSJHistorical information on CKSJ
Saint-Jovite, Quebec at Canadian Communications Foundation also left the air in 1994. The 1570 kHz frequency was reactivated on March 9, 2004, when CFAV (now CJLV) went on the air.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Cklm (Defunct)

Klm KLM Royal Dutch Airlines, legally ''Koninklijke Luchtvaart Maatschappij N.V.'' (literal translation: Royal Aviation Company Plc.), is the flag carrier airline of the Netherlands. KLM is headquartered in Amstelveen, with its hub at nearby Amste ...

Laval, Quebec

Radio stations established in 1962 Radio stations disestablished in 1994 1962 establishments in Quebec 1994 disestablishments in Quebec

KLM KLM Royal Dutch Airlines, legally ''Koninklijke Luchtvaart Maatschappij N.V.'' (literal translation: Royal Aviation Company Plc.), is the flag carrier airline of the Netherlands. KLM is headquartered in Amstelveen, with its hub at nearby Amste ...