Ici Musique (stylized ICI Musique) is the French-language music radio service of

Canada Canada is a country in North America. Its Provinces and territories of Canada, ten provinces and three territories extend from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean and northward into the Arctic Ocean, making it the world's List of coun ...

's national public broadcaster, the

Canadian Broadcasting Corporation The Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (), branded as CBC/Radio-Canada, is the Canadian Public broadcasting, public broadcaster for both radio and television. It is a Crown corporation that serves as the national public broadcaster, with its E ...

(''Société Radio-Canada''). It is the French equivalent of the English CBC Music, although it has a different programming focus.

History

The network was originally launched as ''Le FM de Radio-Canada'' in 1974, with stations in

Montreal Montreal is the List of towns in Quebec, largest city in the Provinces and territories of Canada, province of Quebec, the List of the largest municipalities in Canada by population, second-largest in Canada, and the List of North American cit ...

Ottawa Ottawa is the capital city of Canada. It is located in the southern Ontario, southern portion of the province of Ontario, at the confluence of the Ottawa River and the Rideau River. Ottawa borders Gatineau, Gatineau, Quebec, and forms the cor ...

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and Chicoutimi. The network grew slowly. For a long time, its only full-fledged stations outside of

Quebec Quebec is Canada's List of Canadian provinces and territories by area, largest province by area. Located in Central Canada, the province shares borders with the provinces of Ontario to the west, Newfoundland and Labrador to the northeast, ...

were in

and

Moncton Moncton (; ) is the most populous city in the Provinces and territories of Canada, Canadian province of New Brunswick. Situated in the Petitcodiac River Valley, Moncton lies at the geographic centre of the The Maritimes, Maritime Provinces. Th ...

. It presently covers the majority of Quebec, all

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(though Regina, Victoria,

Edmonton Edmonton is the capital city of the Provinces and territories of Canada, Canadian province of Alberta. It is situated on the North Saskatchewan River and is the centre of the Edmonton Metropolitan Region, which is surrounded by Central Alberta ...

, St. John's,

Fredericton Fredericton (; ) is the capital city of the Provinces and territories of Canada, Canadian province of New Brunswick. The city is situated in the west-central portion of the province along the Saint John River (Bay of Fundy), Saint John River, ...

and

Charlottetown Charlottetown is the capital and largest city of the Provinces and territories of Canada, Canadian province of Prince Edward Island, and the county seat of Queens County, Prince Edward Island, Queens County. Named after Queen Charlotte, Charlott ...

are only served by rebroadcasters) and other large cities such as

Toronto Toronto ( , locally pronounced or ) is the List of the largest municipalities in Canada by population, most populous city in Canada. It is the capital city of the Provinces and territories of Canada, Canadian province of Ontario. With a p ...

Calgary Calgary () is a major city in the Canadian province of Alberta. As of 2021, the city proper had a population of 1,306,784 and a metropolitan population of 1,481,806 making it the third-largest city and fifth-largest metropolitan area in C ...

and

Vancouver Vancouver is a major city in Western Canada, located in the Lower Mainland region of British Columbia. As the List of cities in British Columbia, most populous city in the province, the 2021 Canadian census recorded 662,248 people in the cit ...

. The network was rebranded as ''La chaîne culturelle'' ("The cultural network") in 1997 and later as ''Espace musique'' in September 2004, the latter as part of a major repositioning of the CBC's French services. Many high-brow cultural programs were moved to '' Première Chaîne'', while the new ''Espace musique'' service adopted a more populist approach focusing on four genres – classical,

jazz Jazz is a music genre that originated in the African-American communities of New Orleans, Louisiana, in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Its roots are in blues, ragtime, European harmony, African rhythmic rituals, spirituals, h ...

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, and

folk music Folk music is a music genre that includes #Traditional folk music, traditional folk music and the Contemporary folk music, contemporary genre that evolved from the former during the 20th-century folk revival. Some types of folk music may be ca ...

– and French-language song. For about two weeks in late August / early September 2004 leading up to the Espace musique relaunch, the network did not have any name, at least officially. The network " stunted" with a continuous stream of

classical music Classical music generally refers to the art music of the Western world, considered to be #Relationship to other music traditions, distinct from Western folk music or popular music traditions. It is sometimes distinguished as Western classical mu ...

and

, aside from hourly newscasts simulcast from Première Chaîne and regular reminders that la Chaîne culturelle had shut down and (later) that it would relaunch as Espace musique on September 7. The rebranding was controversial. The network's previous format, largely classical music, had been similar to that of CBC Radio Two, and was indeed regarded by some as superior to its English-language counterpart, leading many cultural commentators to criticize the new format. However, Bureau of Broadcast Measurement ratings taken soon after the relaunch suggested that the service has indeed become more popular. Unlike most CBC broadcast networks, from its inception until fall 2010, all ''Ici Musique'' transmitters aired the same programming simultaneously on all stations regardless of location, except for (from 2004 to 2010) two weekday evening programs that were interchanged on the

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transmitters. Since September 2010, the network has adopted the practice of the CBC's other French-language networks, whereby network programs are broadcast live in the Eastern, Atlantic, and Newfoundland time zones, then aired on tape delay (at the same local times as in the Eastern time zone) in

Western Canada Western Canada, also referred to as the Western provinces, Canadian West, or Western provinces of Canada, and commonly known within Canada as the West, is a list of regions of Canada, Canadian region that includes the four western provinces and t ...

. At the same time the network devolved responsibility for the 8:30 a.m. to 12:00 p.m. (9:30-1:00 AT; formerly from 9:00 a.m. to 3:00 p.m. / 10:00-4:00 AT) time slot to regional stations. Separate daytime programs were slated to be produced by each of the network's originating stations - the exceptions having been CBAX-FM Halifax, which carried programming produced at CBAL-FM Moncton; and CBCX-FM Calgary / Edmonton, which carried regional programs from CKSB-FM Winnipeg. On May 4, 2011, the network began transmitting on Sirius XM

satellite radio Satellite radio is defined by the International Telecommunication Union (ITU)'s ITU Radio Regulations (RR) as a '' broadcasting-satellite service''. The satellite's signals are broadcast nationwide, across a much wider geographical area than te ...

channel 153 across North America. "Ici musique chansons" was later moved to channel 163. On June 5, 2013, it was announced that Espace musique would be re-branded as ICI Musique as part of a wider re-branding of the CBC's French-language outlets around the brand "Ici". The changes took effect on-air in June 2014, along with the re-branding of the network's website espace.mu as icimusique.ca. On April 10, 2014, further budget cuts were announced for the CBC/Radio-Canada, affecting also Espace Musique, whose regional programming (namely ''Beau temps, mauvais temps'' on weekday mornings) was cancelled on June 20. Since then, the ICI Musique network feed has essentially been a retransmission of flagship CBFX-FM in Montreal.

Stations

References

External links

ICI Musique
{{Public broadcasting in Canada Radio stations established in 1974 Sirius XM Radio channels