CHYC-FM is a Canadian radio station, which broadcasts at 98.9 FM in Sudbury,
Ontario
Ontario ( ; ) is one of the thirteen provinces and territories of Canada.Ontario is located in the geographic eastern half of Canada, but it has historically and politically been considered to be part of Central Canada. Located in Central Ca ...
. It broadcasts a
francophone
French became an international language in the Middle Ages, when the power of the Kingdom of France made it the second international language, alongside Latin. This status continued to grow into the 18th century, by which time French was the l ...
hot adult contemporary
Adult contemporary music (AC) is a form of radio-played popular music, ranging from 1960s vocal and 1970s soft rock music to predominantly ballad-heavy music of the present day, with varying degrees of easy listening, pop, soul, R&B, quiet ...
format for the city's
Franco-Ontarian
Franco-Ontarians (french: Franco-Ontariens or if female, sometimes known as ''Ontarois'' and ''Ontaroises'') are Francophone Canadians that reside in the province of Ontario. Most are French Canadians from Ontario. In 2016, the Government of On ...
community. It is owned by
Le5 Communications
Le5 Communications is a Canadian media company. Based in Sudbury, Ontario, the company operates radio stations and newspapers in the Northeastern Ontario region. The company operates the only francophone commercial radio stations in Ontario which ...
, and branded as ''Le Loup 98.9''.
CHYC and its sister stations
CHYK-FM
CHYK-FM is a Canadian radio station, which broadcasts at 104.1 FM in Timmins, Ontario. It broadcasts a francophone hot adult contemporary format for the city's Franco-Ontarian community. It is owned by Le5 Communications, and branded as ''Le Lou ...
in
Timmins
Timmins ( ) is a city in northeastern Ontario, Canada, located on the Mattagami River. The city is the fourth-largest city in the Northeastern Ontario region with a population of 41,145 (2021). The city's economy is based on natural resource ext ...
and
CHYQ-FM
CHYQ-FM is a Canadian radio station, which broadcasts at 97.1 FM in West Nipissing, Ontario. It broadcasts a francophone hot adult contemporary format for the local Franco-Ontarian community. It is owned by Le5 Communications, and branded as ...
in
West Nipissing
West Nipissing is a municipality in Northeastern Ontario, Canada, on Lake Nipissing in the Nipissing District. It was formed on January 1, 1999, with the amalgamation of seventeen and a half former town, villages, townships and unorganized communi ...
are the only francophone commercial stations programmed entirely in Ontario. Apart from commercials and local weather updates, the three stations now simulcast the same programming at virtually all times; although all three stations formerly produced their own individual morning shows and then each hosted a later daypart within a shared broadcast schedule for the remainder of the day, all of the stations are now programmed from Sudbury.
History
The station first aired on December 8, 1957 as 550 AM CFBR, a sister station to CHNO and a private affiliate of
Radio-Canada
The Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (french: Société Radio-Canada), branded as CBC/Radio-Canada, is a Canadian public broadcaster for both radio and television. It is a federal Crown corporation that receives funding from the government. ...
. CHNO had previously been a
bilingual
Multilingualism is the use of more than one language, either by an individual speaker or by a group of speakers. It is believed that multilingual speakers outnumber monolingual speakers in the world's population. More than half of all E ...
station; when CFBR went to air, CHNO became full-time
English
English usually refers to:
* English language
* English people
English may also refer to:
Peoples, culture, and language
* ''English'', an adjective for something of, from, or related to England
** English national ide ...
. The "FBR" in the station's callsign stood for F. Baxter Ricard, who owned the stations with his wife
Alma Ricard Alma Ricard , née Vézina (October 4, 1906 – June 2, 2003) was a Canadian broadcaster and philanthropist."Philanthropist extraordinaire". ''The Globe and Mail'', July 4, 2003. A partner with her husband F. Baxter Ricard in his broadcasting h ...
. The licensing of CFBR, which took over the Radio-Canada affiliation from CHNO, made Ricard the first commercial broadcaster in Canada licensed to operate two AM radio stations in the same city.
In 1969, CFBR and CHNO swapped frequencies. CHNO took over the 550 AM signal, and CFBR moved to 900. CFBR remained a Radio-Canada affiliate until the launch of CBON in 1978, and adopted a
pop standards
Traditional pop (also known as classic pop and pre-rock and roll pop) is Western pop music that generally pre-dates the advent of rock and roll in the mid-1950s. The most popular and enduring songs from this era of music are known as pop standards ...
format thereafter. After losing the Radio-Canada affiliation, for a time the station's remaining audience was so small that its co-ownership with CHNO, the city's dominant English radio station at the time, was the only thing keeping it afloat.
In 1985, Ricard sold CFBR, CHNO and CJMX to
Mid-Canada Radio
Mid-Canada Communications was a Canadian media company, which operated from 1980 to 1990. The company, a division of Northern Cable, had television and radio holdings in Northeastern Ontario.
MCTV
Mid-Canada Television, or MCTV, was created in 1 ...
, although as a minority shareholder in that company he retained a partial ownership stake.
The station adopted its current call sign and format in 1990, after the three stations were acquired by
Pelmorex Radio Network
The Pelmorex Radio Network was a system of Canadian radio stations in Northern Ontario, owned and operated by Pelmorex.
History
In 1989, Pierre Morrissette founded his own communications company, Pelmorex Media Inc., and acquired several French ...
. Pelmorex sold the stations in 1998, when
Telemedia
Telemedia was a Canadian media company, which had holdings in radio, television and magazine publishing.
The company was launched in 1968 by Philippe de Gaspé Beaubien, when he purchased CKAC in Montreal from Power Corporation of Canada. CK ...
acquired CJMX, and 1999, when
Haliburton Broadcasting Group
The Haliburton Broadcasting Group was a Canadian group of FM radio stations, located primarily in smaller markets in Ontario. The company was purchased by Vista Broadcast Group in 2012.900 CHML
Hamilton Hamilton may refer to:
People
* Hamilton (name), a common British surname and occasional given name, usually of Scottish origin, including a list of persons with the surname
** The Duke of Hamilton, the premier peer of Scotland
** Lord Hamilt ...
, making it unlistenable in the areas of Greater Sudbury including the outlying areas. CHYC never applied for any signal upgrades or frequency changes on the AM band until its move to FM 98.9 in 2000.
Haliburton subsequently sold CHNO to
Newcap Broadcasting
Stingray Radio (formerly Newcap Radio) is a Canadian radio broadcasting conglomerate owned by Stingray Group. It owns and operates 101 radio stations in Canada—making it the second-largest radio conglomerate in Canada behind Bell Media. It also ...
in 2001. Despite no longer having common ownership, CHYC and CHNO continued to operate from the same studio facility at 493 Barrydowne Road in Sudbury.
In 2008, Haliburton announced a deal to sell the CHYC stations to Le5 Communications, a firm owned by Sudbury lawyer Paul Lefebvre. This deal was approved by the
CRTC
The Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission (CRTC; french: Conseil de la radiodiffusion et des télécommunications canadiennes, links=) is a public organization in Canada with mandate as a regulatory agency for broadcasti ...
on October 31, 2008.
Le5 Communications rebranded the station as ''Le Loup 98.9'' in early 2009, and moved the station to new studios at 100 Brian McKee Lane in downtown Sudbury. Musician and actor Stéphane Paquette also joined the station as an afternoon host. He has since been succeeded in the afternoon slot by Dayv Poulin, his former bandmate in Les Chaizes Muzikales.
In 2011, Le5 Communications filed an application to change the station's authorized signal contours by increasing the effective radiated power from 1,400 to 4,620 watts (from class A to class B1) and by increasing the effective height of the antenna above average terrain from 165.3 to 181.9 metres). The CRTC approved Le5's application on September 28, 2011.
The company also purchased Sudbury's existing francophone community newspaper ''
Le Voyageur
''Le Voyageur'' is a weekly community newspaper in Greater Sudbury, Ontario, serving the city's Franco-Ontarian community. The newspaper was launched on June 12, 1968, shortly after the demise of the region's earlier francophone community newsp ...
'' in 2011."Sudbury's French newspaper Le Voyageur sold". ''Points North'' (
CBCS-FM
CBCS-FM is a Canadian radio station. It is the CBC Radio One station in Sudbury, Ontario, broadcasting at 99.9 FM, and serves all of Northeastern Ontario through its network of relay transmitters. The station's studio is located at the CBC/Radi ...