CJAD (800
AM) is a
commercial 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 radio ...
operating in
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- ...
,
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 thirte ...
, Canada. The station has an
English language
English is a West Germanic language of the Indo-European language family, with its earliest forms spoken by the inhabitants of early medieval England. It is named after the Angles, one of the ancient Germanic peoples that migrated to the ...
news/talk radio format and identifies itself on-air as ''CJAD 800''. Owned and operated by
Bell Media, it has a daytime 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 but reduces power to 10,000 watts at night to avoid interfering with other stations on
AM 800. The
transmitter is located near
Saint-Edouard, while studios and offices are located on
Rene-Levesque Boulevard East in
Downtown Montreal. CJAD can be heard across Canada on
Bell Satellite TV channel 953.
Local hosts are heard throughout the day and evening with a few
syndicated shows also carried: ''
Coast to Coast AM'' with
George Noory. Affiliated with CBS Radio for many years, in 2018 the station, along with many other Bell-owned talk radio stations in Canada, switched to NBC Radio and 24/7 News for U.S. and international news.
CJAD and co-owned 690 CKGM are currently the only two full-time commercial English-language stations in Quebec on the AM dial.
History
Early Years
CJAD was founded by J. Arthur Dupont in 1945, basing the
call sign
In broadcasting and radio communications, a call sign (also known as a call name or call letters—and historically as a call signal—or abbreviated as a call) is a unique identifier for a transmitter station. A call sign can be formally ass ...
on his initials. CJAD is often called Montreal's heritage anglophone station, particularly since the demise of the city's oldest anglophone station,
CINW (successor to CFCF, Canada's first radio station). CJAD
signed on
Signing may refer to:
* Using sign language
* Signature, placing one's name on a document
* Signature (disambiguation)
* Manual communication, signing as a form of communication using the hands in place of the voice
* Digital signature
A digi ...
the air on December 8, 1945. In its first years, CJAD had its studios and offices on
Rue de la Montagne (Mountain Street) in Montreal, now the site of
O'Sullivan College.
In 1961, CJAD was purchased by
Standard Broadcasting. In 1978, control of Standard Broadcasting was purchased by
Conrad Black via
Hollinger Inc. In 1985, Standard was purchased by
Slaight Communications
Slaight Communications is a Canadian radio broadcasting company. The company was formed as Slaight Broadcasting in 1971, when owner J. Allan Slaight acquired CFGM in Richmond Hill. Slaight later also acquired CFOX in Montreal and CHOK in S ...
, a privately held company owned by
J. Allan Slaight.
In 1962,
sister station 95.9
CJFM was launched, with programming always separate from CJAD.
Full Service Format
For most of its history, CJAD had a
full service Full service or Full Service may refer to:
* Full-service radio, a wide range of programming
* Full Service Network, a communications company
Entertainment
* "Full Service", a song by the New Kids on the Block from their album ''The Block''
* Ful ...
format. The music was mainly
middle of the road songs in the 1960s and 70s, switching to an
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, quie ...
sound by the 1980s. Two specialized shows were heard on weekends: "The Bandstand" with
Dick Irvin Jr.
Dick Irvin Jr. (or III), (born March 4, 1932 in Calgary, Alberta) is a Canadian retired sports broadcaster and author. In 1988, the Hockey Hall of Fame presented him with the Foster Hewitt Memorial Award, for his contributions to hockey broadca ...
, and "Starlight Concert" with Rod Dewar. In 1995, CJAD shifted its format to full-time news/talk, dropping all music and entertainment, save for the Sunday morning Trivia Show and the CJAD Comedy Show, also heard on Sundays.
Starting in 1992, almost all of CJAD's programming was
simulcast
Simulcast (a portmanteau of simultaneous broadcast) is the broadcasting of programmes/programs or events across more than one resolution, bitrate or medium, or more than one service on the same medium, at exactly the same time (that is, simul ...
on
Corus Entertainment
Corus Entertainment Inc. is a Canadian mass media company. Formed in 1999 as a spin-off from Shaw Communications, it has prominent holdings in the radio, publishing, and television industries. It is headquartered at Corus Quay in Toronto, Ont ...
-owned
AM 900 CKTS in
Sherbrooke
Sherbrooke ( ; ) is a city in southern Quebec, Canada. It is at the confluence of the Saint-François and Magog rivers in the heart of the Estrie administrative region. Sherbrooke is also the name of a territory equivalent to a regional cou ...
. On November 19, 2006, CKTS ceased broadcasting,
signing off
''Signing Off'' is the debut album by British reggae band UB40, released in the UK on 29 August 1980 by Dudley-based independent label Graduate Records. It was an immediate success in their home country, reaching number 2 on the UK albums ch ...
the transmitter and surrendering its licence to the
Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission (CRTC). According to Corus, this was because of high ongoing maintenance costs that neither Corus nor Standard were willing to cover.
Ownership Changes
In April 2007,
Astral Media and
Standard Broadcasting announced that Standard had agreed to sell CJAD and its other Montreal stations to Astral. On March 16, 2012, Bell Media announced that it had entered in an agreement to acquire Astral Media for an estimated value at $3.38 billion, with the deal including CJAD and its sister radio stations in Montreal.
On
Labour Day Weekend, 2012, CJAD, as well as its sister stations previously owned by Astral, moved from 1411 Fort Street to new facilities in the Bell Media Radio building on Rene-Levesque Boulevard East at
Papineau Avenue.
1998 Ice Storm
In January 1998, all four of CJAD's broadcast
towers toppled during
The Ice Storm
''The Ice Storm'' is a 1994 American novel by Rick Moody. The novel was widely acclaimed by readers and critics alike, described as a funny, acerbic, and moving hymn to a dazed and confused era of American life.[CKGM
CKGM ('' TSN 690 Montreal'') is an English-language AM radio station in Montreal, Quebec, owned by Bell Media Radio. Formerly an affiliate of sports radio network " The Team," it was one of three stations to retain the sports format after ...]
's former AM 980 transmitter, re-tuned to the 800 frequency. This, however, turned out to be impossible as the 980 site was damaged by ice as well. CJAD then made arrangements to broadcast on
CFMB's former 1410 transmitter, but the signal was poor to the west. CJAD management then reached an agreement with
CHUM Limited to use their
CKGM
CKGM ('' TSN 690 Montreal'') is an English-language AM radio station in Montreal, Quebec, owned by Bell Media Radio. Formerly an affiliate of sports radio network " The Team," it was one of three stations to retain the sports format after ...
transmitter on 990 kHz until new towers were erected.
News
A large part of CJAD's daily programs are talk shows discussing local and international news. CJAD broadcasts newscasts every 30 minutes, except overnights when newscasts are delivered every hour, on the hour. Live @ Five is a half-hour news program broadcast at 5 a.m. on weekdays. Traffic updates air every 15 minutes during the day and every 30 minutes late nights.
On weekdays, James Foster and veteran anchor Trudie Mason deliver morning newscasts, with Jason Mayoff taking over in the afternoons. Dawn Kagan-Fleming serves as anchor on weekend mornings.
Overnight news is read during the week by James Foster. Longtime anchor and reporter Tom Armour retired in 2015. Armour died in December 2018.
Some of the station's notable former reporters include Shuyee Lee, Claude Beaulieu, Patrick Lejtenyi, Angelica Montgomery, Tina Tenneriello, Matthew Gilmour, Michel Boyer, Natalie Nanowski, Benson Cook, Elizabeth Zogalis, Sofia Misenheimer, and Emily Campbell. Sidney Margles, Peter Shurman and Rick Leckner were notable reporters from the 1950s, 1960s and 1970s.
On February 2, 2021, CJAD's newsroom was eliminated as part of a major round of layoffs by Bell Media.
CTV Montreal
CFCF-DT (channel 12) is a television station in Montreal, Quebec, Canada, part of the CTV Television Network. It is owned and operated by network parent Bell Media alongside Noovo flagship CFJP-DT (channel 35). Both stations share studios at ...
reporters file reports for CJAD, and the station's late-night anchors will read news headlines on CJAD during the evening hours. It was later announced that Natasha Hall and Aaron Rand's afternoon and evening shows would be replaced by a co-hosted afternoon show, and that a simulcast of ''CTV News at 6'' would also be added to its lineup. The cuts were among 210 across the company, which also included a similar elimination of staff at Toronto sister station
CFRB.
Sports
CJAD is the exclusive English radio broadcaster of the
CFL's Montreal Alouettes
The Montreal Alouettes ( French: Les Alouettes de Montréal) are a professional Canadian football team based in Montreal, Quebec. Founded in 1946, the team has folded and been revived twice. The Alouettes compete in the East Division of the Cana ...
. Some game broadcasts are
simulcast
Simulcast (a portmanteau of simultaneous broadcast) is the broadcasting of programmes/programs or events across more than one resolution, bitrate or medium, or more than one service on the same medium, at exactly the same time (that is, simul ...
on sister station
CHOM 97.7 FM. CJAD was the longtime English radio home of the
Montreal Canadiens
The Montreal CanadiensEven in English, the French spelling is always used instead of ''Canadians''. The French spelling of ''Montréal'' is also sometimes used in the English media. (french: link=no, Les Canadiens de Montréal), officially ...
hockey team, until the 2010–11 season. In June 2010 it was announced that Canadiens broadcasts would switch to
sports radio station
CKGM
CKGM ('' TSN 690 Montreal'') is an English-language AM radio station in Montreal, Quebec, owned by Bell Media Radio. Formerly an affiliate of sports radio network " The Team," it was one of three stations to retain the sports format after ...
, now on
AM 690 and co-owned with CJAD.
In July 2012,
Bell Media, owner of CKGM, announced that English-language rights to the Canadiens could return to CJAD following its proposed acquisition of Astral Media, if its conversion of CKGM to a French-language sports station (which would have been done to satisfy
ownership limits preventing the merged company from owning both CJAD and CKGM if they both broadcast in English) were approved by the CRTC.
On October 18, 2012, the CRTC rejected Bell's proposal to acquire Astral Media; since the application to convert CKGM into a French station was contingent on the approval of the Astral merger, it too was rejected.
On March 5, 2012, it was announced that CJAD would be the exclusive English language radio broadcaster of
Montreal Impact soccer team
Association football, more commonly known as football or soccer, is a team sport played between two teams of 11 players who primarily use their feet to propel the ball around a rectangular field called a pitch. The objective of the game is to ...
for the next two years.
Beginning in September 2013, CKGM (TSN 690) staffers began providing sports updates for co-owned CJAD. Until recently,
Rick Moffat did the weekday morning sports, Mitch Gallo does the weekday afternoon sports, and Amanda Stein does the weekend morning sports for CJAD as well as TSN 690.
Transmitter
CJAD broadcasts with 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 in the daytime, the maximum power permitted for Canadian AM stations. At night, power drops to 10,000 watts to avoid interfering with other stations using the 800 frequency, such as the
country music
Country (also called country and western) is a genre of popular music that originated in the Southern and Southwestern United States in the early 1920s. It primarily derives from blues, church music such as Southern gospel and spirituals, ...
-formatted
CJBQ in
Belleville, Ontario, the now-
dark CHRC in
Quebec City
Quebec City ( or ; french: Ville de Québec), officially Québec (), is the capital city of the Canadian province of Quebec. As of July 2021, the city had a population of 549,459, and the metropolitan area had a population of 839,311. It is t ...
(which is approximately 250 miles
60 kmaway and was shut down in September 2012), and
CKLW in
Windsor, Ontario
Windsor is a city in southwestern Ontario, Canada, on the south bank of the Detroit River directly across from Detroit, Michigan, United States. Geographically located within but administratively independent of Essex County, it is the southe ...
. CJAD must also protect the
Class A station on AM 800,
XEROK in
Ciudad Juárez,
Chihuahua Chihuahua may refer to:
Places
* Chihuahua (state), a Mexican state
**Chihuahua (dog), a breed of dog named after the state
**Chihuahua cheese, a type of cheese originating in the state
**Chihuahua City, the capital city of the state
**Chihuahua Mu ...
,
Mexico
Mexico (Spanish language, Spanish: México), officially the United Mexican States, is a List of sovereign states, country in the southern portion of North America. It is borders of Mexico, bordered to the north by the United States; to the so ...
. CJAD's antenna is a four-tower array, located near
Saint-Edouard, using two different
directional patterns for day and night.
References
External links
*
*
*
{{Bell Media
Jad
Jad
Jad
Radio stations established in 1945
Jad
1945 establishments in Quebec