Ici Radio-Canada Première
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Ici Radio-Canada Première (formerly Première Chaîne) is a Canadian
French-language French ( or ) is a Romance language of the Indo-European family. It descended from the Vulgar Latin of the Roman Empire, as did all Romance languages. French evolved from Gallo-Romance, the Latin spoken in Gaul, and more specifically in Nor ...
radio network, the news and information service of the
Canadian Broadcasting Corporation 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. ...
(known as Société Radio-Canada in French), the
public broadcaster Public broadcasting involves radio, television and other electronic media outlets whose primary mission is public service. Public broadcasters receive funding from diverse sources including license fees, individual contributions, public financing ...
of Canada. It is the French counterpart of
CBC Radio One CBC Radio One is the English-language news and information radio network of the publicly owned Canadian Broadcasting Corporation. It is commercial-free and offers local and national programming. It is available on AM and FM to 98 percent of Ca ...
, the CBC's similar English-language radio network. The service is available across Canada, although not as widely as CBC Radio One. Only the provinces of
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 ...
and
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 ...
are served by more than one ''Première'' originating station. In all other provinces, the whole province is served by a single station with multiple transmitters. The network does, however, reach 90 percent of all Canadian
francophones 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 ...
. Each originating station outside Montreal airs a national schedule, taken from flagship station
CBF-FM CBF-FM is a French-language Canadian radio station licensed to Montreal, Quebec. Owned and operated by the government-owned Canadian Broadcasting Corporation, it transmits on 95.1 MHz from the Mount Royal candelabra tower with an effective radia ...
, complete with opted-out local/regional shows at peak times, depending on each market. News bulletins are aired live, irrespective of location. The network may broadcast on either the AM or FM bands, depending on the market. A national version is available across North America on
Sirius XM Canada Sirius XM Canada Holdings Inc. (commonly referred to as Sirius XM Canada) is a Canadian radio broadcasting company, which operates as a Canadian affiliate of Sirius XM Radio. The company received approval from the Canadian Radio-television and Te ...
channel 170. Première was available in Europe, North Africa and the Middle East live via the
Hot Bird Hot Bird (also styled HOTBIRD) is a group of satellites operated by Eutelsat, located at 13 °E over the equator ( orbital position) and with a transmitting footprint over Asia, Europe, North Africa, Americas and the Middle East. Only digital r ...
satellite. The satellite service closed in June 2012 as part of the budget measures affecting
Radio Canada International Radio Canada International (RCI) is the international broadcasting service of the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (CBC). Prior to 1970, RCI was known as the CBC International Service. The broadcasting service was also previously referred to as ...
.


History

Some French-language programming had aired on the Canadian Radio Broadcasting Commission's CRCM since 1933, but the CBC's French radio network traces its formal beginning to December 11, 1937, with the launch of CBF in
Montreal Montreal ( ; officially Montréal, ) is the List of the largest municipalities in Canada by population, second-most populous city in Canada and List of towns in Quebec, most populous city in the Provinces and territories of Canada, Canadian ...
. In 1938, the station was expanded into a fledgling network with the launch of CBV in
Quebec City Quebec City ( or ; french: Ville de Québec), officially Québec (), is the capital city of the Provinces and territories of Canada, Canadian province of Quebec. As of July 2021, the city had a population of 549,459, and the Communauté métrop ...
and CBJ in
Chicoutimi Chicoutimi () is the most populous borough (arrondissement) of the city of Saguenay in Quebec, Canada. It is situated at the confluence of the Saguenay and Chicoutimi rivers. During the 20th century, it became the main administrative and com ...
. Also that year, the long-running
soap opera A soap opera, or ''soap'' for short, is a typically long-running radio or television serial, frequently characterized by melodrama, ensemble casts, and sentimentality. The term "soap opera" originated from radio dramas originally being sponsored ...
''La Pension Velder'', which ran until 1942 and was then revived in the 1950s as a television series, aired for the first time. The following year, the even more successful and influential ''Un Homme et son péché'' was launched. For the first month of
World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...
, Radio-Canada aired 24 hours a day, broadcasting war news from Europe. Also that year, the network broadcast its first
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 game. In 1940, another popular radio soap, ''Jeunesse dorée'', made its debut. In 1941, the network — which had previously relied on
Canadian Press The Canadian Press (CP; french: La Presse canadienne, ) is a Canadian national news agency headquartered in Toronto, Ontario. Established in 1917 as a vehicle for the time's Canadian newspapers to exchange news and information, The Canadian Pre ...
reporters — launched its own news division. Also that year, the network launched two
shortwave radio Shortwave radio is radio transmission using shortwave (SW) radio frequencies. There is no official definition of the band, but the range always includes all of the high frequency band (HF), which extends from 3 to 30 MHz (100 to 10 me ...
stations in Montreal to serve francophones outside Quebec. Throughout the 1940s, however, the network's expansion in Quebec was accomplished primarily through private affiliate stations. In 1942, the network controversially refused to give airtime to the "No" side in the Conscription Plebiscite. Nonetheless, 72.9 per cent of Quebec voters were opposed. In 1945, the International Service was launched. In 1946, the network launched an experimental FM station in Montreal (which would become CBFX), and expanded outside Quebec for the first time with the launch of CKSB as a private affiliate in St. Boniface, Manitoba, near
Winnipeg Winnipeg () is the capital and largest city of the province of Manitoba in Canada. It is centred on the confluence of the Red and Assiniboine rivers, near the longitudinal centre of North America. , Winnipeg had a city population of 749,6 ...
. The network also had seven privately owned affiliates: * CHGB,
Sainte-Anne-de-la-Pocatière Sainte-Anne-de-la-Pocatière is a parish municipality in the Canadian province of Quebec, located in the Kamouraska Regional County Municipality. Demographics In the 2021 Census of Population The 2021 Canadian census was a detailed enumer ...
, 250 watts * CHLT,
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 count ...
, 1,000 watts * CHNC, New Carlisle, 1,000 watts * CJBR,
Rimouski Rimouski ( ) is a city in Quebec, Canada. Rimouski is located in the Bas-Saint-Laurent region, at the mouth of the Rimouski River. It has a population of 48,935 (as of 2021). Rimouski is the site of Université du Québec à Rimouski (UQAR), the C ...
, 1,000 watts (purchased by Radio-Canada in 1977) *
CJFP CIEL-FM is a French-language Canadian radio station located in Rivière-du-Loup, Quebec. Owned and operated by Radio CJFP (1986) ltée (part of the Groupe Radio Simard), it broadcasts on 103.7 MHz with an effective radiated power of 60,000 wa ...
,
Rivière-du-Loup Rivière-du-Loup (; 2021 population 20,118) is a small city on the south shore of the Saint Lawrence River in Quebec. The city is the seat for the Rivière-du-Loup Regional County Municipality and the judicial district of Kamouraska. Its one of ...
, 250 watts *
CKRN CKRN-DT (branded on-air as Radio-Canada Télévision CKRN) was a privately owned Ici Radio-Canada Télé- affiliated television station licensed to Rouyn-Noranda, Quebec, Canada, which essentially functioned as a semi-satellite of Montreal Radio ...
, Rouyn, 250 watts *
CKCH CKCH was a radio station which operated at 970 kHz on the AM broadcasting, AM band in Hull, Quebec, Canada from 1933 to 1994. CKCH was also the original call sign of Ottawa radio station CBO-FM, CNRO (later known as CBO) from February 27 to July ...
, Hull, 250 watts *
CKCV CKCV was a French-language Canadian radio station located in Quebec City, Quebec. It operated from 1924 to 1990. For most of its existence the station broadcast on 1280 kHz on the AM band, using a daytime power of 10,000 watts and a nighttime pow ...
,
Quebec City Quebec City ( or ; french: Ville de Québec), officially Québec (), is the capital city of the Provinces and territories of Canada, Canadian province of Quebec. As of July 2021, the city had a population of 549,459, and the Communauté métrop ...
, 1,000 watts In 1948, the influential children's series '' Tante Lucille'' and
Gérard Pelletier Gérard Pelletier, (June 21, 1919 – June 22, 1997) was a Canadian journalist and politician. Career Pelletier initially worked as a journalist for ''Le Devoir'', a French-language newspaper in Montreal, Quebec. In 1961 he became editor-i ...
's public affairs program '' Les Idées en marche'' debuted. Also that year, three studios in Montreal's King's Hall building were destroyed in an explosion, leading Radio-Canada to centralize its operations in a new building on boulevard Dorchester. In 1952, the network became autonomous from the CBC head office in
Toronto Toronto ( ; or ) is the capital city of the Canadian province of Ontario. With a recorded population of 2,794,356 in 2021, it is the most populous city in Canada and the fourth most populous city in North America. The city is the ancho ...
. Previously, all programming decisions had to be reviewed by the Toronto staff in advance. Through the 1960s, the network began to expand across Canada, taking over
Toronto Toronto ( ; or ) is the capital city of the Canadian province of Ontario. With a recorded population of 2,794,356 in 2021, it is the most populous city in Canada and the fourth most populous city in North America. The city is the ancho ...
's CJBC in October 1964, and launching
Ottawa Ottawa (, ; Canadian French: ) is the capital city of Canada. It is located at the confluence of the Ottawa River and the Rideau River in the southern portion of the province of Ontario. Ottawa borders Gatineau, Quebec, and forms the core ...
's CBOF in 1964 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 ...
's CBUF in 1967. As well, influential broadcaster
Lise Payette Lise Payette ( Ouimet; August 29, 1931 – September 5, 2018) was a Canadian politician, journalist, writer, and businesswoman. She was a Parti Québécois (PQ) minister under the leadership of Premier René Lévesque and National Assembly of ...
launched her first program, ''Place aux femmes'', in 1965. The network eliminated
tobacco Tobacco is the common name of several plants in the genus '' Nicotiana'' of the family Solanaceae, and the general term for any product prepared from the cured leaves of these plants. More than 70 species of tobacco are known, but the ...
advertising in 1969, and eventually dropped all commercial advertising in 1974, except for Montreal Canadiens hockey games (which would move to the Radiomédia network in 1997). The
Maison Radio-Canada Maison Radio-Canada (English: ''CBC House'') is the broadcast headquarters, studios and master control for all French-language radio and television services of the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (known in French as ''Société Radio-Canada''/S ...
, which remains the flagship facility for all of Radio-Canada's broadcast services, was officially opened by
Pierre Trudeau Joseph Philippe Pierre Yves Elliott Trudeau ( , ; October 18, 1919 – September 28, 2000), also referred to by his initials PET, was a Canadian lawyer and politician who served as the 15th prime minister of Canada The prime mini ...
in 1973, and Radio-Canada's FM network was launched in 1974. Through the remainder of the 1970s, the network began to directly acquire many of its private affiliate stations, including CHFA in
Edmonton Edmonton ( ) is the capital city of the Canadian province of Alberta. Edmonton is situated on the North Saskatchewan River and is the centre of the Edmonton Metropolitan Region, which is surrounded by Alberta's central region. The city ancho ...
, CFRG in Gravelbourg and CFNS in
Saskatoon Saskatoon () is the largest city in the Provinces and territories of Canada, Canadian province of Saskatchewan. It straddles a bend in the South Saskatchewan River in the central region of the province. It is located along the Trans-Canada Hig ...
, although with the CBC's financial difficulties in the 1980s, this process was slowed down considerably. The network was rebranded as Première Chaîne in 1997, concurrently with the rebranding of all of the CBC's radio networks. In 1999, Radio-Canada applied to 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 ...
for a license to launch a third all-
news News is information about current events. This may be provided through many different Media (communication), media: word of mouth, printing, Mail, postal systems, broadcasting, Telecommunications, electronic communication, or through the tes ...
station in Montreal, on the 690 AM frequency CBF had surrendered in 1997 when it moved to FM. The application was rejected. Radio-Canada filed an appeal of the decision with the
Federal Court of Appeal The Federal Court of Appeal (french: Cour d'appel fédérale) is a Canadian appellate court that hears cases concerning federal matters. History Section 101 of the Constitution Act, 1867 empowers the Parliament of Canada to establish "addit ...
, which denied the request in October of that year. In 2002, two of the network's last three remaining private affiliate stations, CKVM in Ville-Marie and CFLM in
La Tuque La Tuque (; ) is a city located in north-central Quebec, Canada, on the Saint-Maurice River, between Trois-Rivières and Chambord. The population was 11,227 at the Canada 2011 Census, most of which live within the urban area. At over 28,000 sq ...
, disaffiliated from the network, and the final private affiliate, CHLM in
Rouyn-Noranda Rouyn-Noranda ( 2021 population 42,313) is a city on Osisko Lake in the Abitibi-Témiscamingue region of Quebec, Canada. The city of Rouyn-Noranda is a coextensive with a territory equivalent to a regional county municipality (TE) and census ...
, was directly acquired by the network in 2004. The network now directly owns all of the stations that broadcast its programming. On June 5, 2013, it was announced that Première Chaîne would be re-branded as Ici Première on August 9, 2013 as part of a wider re-branding of the CBC's French-language outlets. This was a nod to the network's system cue since the 1930s, ''Ici Radio-Canada'' ("This is Radio-Canada"). Following highly publicized complaints about the new "Ici" name, prompted primarily by the removal of the historic "Radio-Canada" brand, the new name was changed to Ici Radio-Canada Première instead.


Programming


News

Première's flagship 60-minute news program is ''L'heure du monde'', a national news and discussion program similar to CBC Radio One's ''
The World at Six ''The World at Six'' is the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation's flagship dinner-hour radio news program, airing Monday to Friday from 6 to 6:28 p.m. local time on CBC Radio One except in Newfoundland where it begins at 6:30. The program was l ...
'' and ''
As It Happens ''As It Happens'' is a Canadian interview show that airs on CBC Radio One in Canada and various public radio stations in the United States through Public Radio Exchange. Its 50th anniversary was celebrated on-air on November 16, 2018. It has been ...
''.


Regional differences

There are various regional adjustments to the national schedule. In the Atlantic provinces the national schedule airs live, with programme trailers announcing the broadcast time as one hour later. All Première outlets produce a regional program in the morning (Monday to Friday) from their respective studios. For afternoon programs, in some provinces or regions, a program may originate from a studio in the largest station in their area and broadcast to all stations in a given region; for example: stations in Prince Edward Island, Nova Scotia and St. John's broadcasts the program produced in Moncton and CBEF Windsor broadcast the show produced in Toronto at CJBC. In the summer, the morning show for the Prince Edward Island, Nova Scotia and Newfoundland are produced in turn by the stations of Halifax and of Charlottetown and the afternoon program of the Rimouski, Matane and Sept-Îles stations is produced alternately in each of the stations and broadcast on these three stations. For Saturday morning shows, they are produced respectively in Moncton (for the Maritimes), Montreal (for the province of Quebec, except the Outaouais region), Ottawa (for Eastern Ontario and the Outaouais region), Sudbury (for Ontario, except Ottawa and Kenora), and Vancouver (for the Western provinces, as well as Kenora, Ontario). In Northern Canada, CFWY-FM in Whitehorse, Yukon rebroadcasts the programs of
CBUF-FM CBUF-FM is a Canadian radio station, which broadcasts Radio-Canada's Ici Radio-Canada Première network at 97.7 MHz in Vancouver and on a chain of rebroadcasters around British Columbia. CBUF-FM is a non-commercial public broadcasting station air ...
Vancouver. This station is not owned by the CBC, but by the Franco-Yukon Association. Conversely, ''Ici Nord Québec'', anchored by
CBFG-FM CBFG-FM is a mainly-French-language Canadian radio station located in Chisasibi, Quebec. It is owned and operated by the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (French: Société Radio-Canada), which is owned by the Government of Canada. It broadcast ...
Chisasibi and transmitted to nine other
First Nations First Nations or first peoples may refer to: * Indigenous peoples, for ethnic groups who are the earliest known inhabitants of an area. Indigenous groups *First Nations is commonly used to describe some Indigenous groups including: **First Natio ...
communities in the
Nord-du-Québec Nord-du-Québec (; en, Northern Quebec) is the largest, but the least populous, of the seventeen administrative regions of Quebec, Canada. With nearly of land area, and very extensive lakes and rivers, it covers much of the Labrador Peninsula ...
region via FM repeater transmitters, airs the same schedule as CBF-FM, but with four hours of regional programming inserted on weekdays, three of these in the
Cree language Cree (also known as Cree– Montagnais–Naskapi) is a dialect continuum of Algonquian languages spoken by approximately 117,000 people across Canada, from the Northwest Territories to Alberta to Labrador. If considered one language, it is th ...
. The feed for
Sirius XM Canada Sirius XM Canada Holdings Inc. (commonly referred to as Sirius XM Canada) is a Canadian radio broadcasting company, which operates as a Canadian affiliate of Sirius XM Radio. The company received approval from the Canadian Radio-television and Te ...
airs live across North America and simulcasted from CBF-FM in Montreal, meaning programmes are broadcast using the
Eastern Time Zone The Eastern Time Zone (ET) is a time zone encompassing part or all of 23 states in the eastern part of the United States, parts of eastern Canada, the state of Quintana Roo in Mexico, Panama, Colombia, mainland Ecuador, Peru, and a small por ...
. The entire schedule is aired as of 2016. Listeners in Europe, Middle East and North Africa were able to receive direct programming from CBF-FM Montreal, with RCI's own shows inserted into the schedule in the morning and evening. This ceased in June 2012.


Holiday programming

During certain holidays, a single program may be heard on a provincewide or a regionwide basis. In Quebec, stations outside Montreal, Quebec City and Outaouais airs a morning program and an afternoon show produced by different outlets in turn. In Ontario, holiday editions of morning shows are produced at CJBC, CBON or CBEF, and is broadcast on all three stations. In most holidays, the afternoon show is produced at the station that had not produced the morning show of that day. And all Première outlets in Western Canada present special pan-regional programming on holidays replacing local programs - ''Les matins de l'Ouest'' and ''Le retour de l'Ouest''. On Christmas Day and New Year's Day, all stations nationwide carry the same schedule from Montreal, live or taped, depending on location. Also, on the weeks of Christmas and New Year's, regional morning shows begin at 6:00 in all areas, except Montreal where it could begins at 5:00 or 6:00 one year and another.


Stations

In addition to primary production centres listed here, most stations in the network also serve a larger region through
rebroadcaster A broadcast relay station, also known as a satellite station, relay transmitter, broadcast translator (U.S.), re-broadcaster (Canada), repeater (two-way radio) or complementary station (Mexico), is a broadcast transmitter which repeats (or tran ...
s. Due to the significant number of such rebroadcast frequencies, those are listed in each individual station's article rather than here. Historically, Première has broadcast primarily on the AM band, but many stations have moved over to FM. Over the years, a number of CBC radio transmitters with a majority of them on AM have either moved to FM or had shut down completely. ''See:
List of defunct CBC radio transmitters in Canada This is a list of former radio transmitters across Canada that were used by the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation. Most of the former transmitters operated on the AM dial as low-power relay transmitters (LPRT's), which were added to vast remote ...
''List of Radio-Canada rebroadcasters from 1985 (French) page 86.
/ref>


References


External links

*
Radio Canada International

Windows Media Stream
{{DEFAULTSORT:Ici Radio-Canada Premiere Radio stations established in 1937 Peabody Award winners Sirius XM Radio channels