Rouge FM (or Rouge) is a network of

French-language French ( or ) is a Romance language of the Indo-European family. Like all other Romance languages, it descended from the Vulgar Latin of the Roman Empire. French evolved from Northern Old Gallo-Romance, a descendant of the Latin spoken in ...

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 1980s to the present day, with varying degrees of easy listening, pop, soul ...

radio station Radio broadcasting is the broadcasting 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 rad ...

s broadcasting throughout

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, ...

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 ...

. Established in 1990 as RockDétente, they are owned by

Bell Media Bell Media Inc. (Canadian French, French: ) is a Canadian media conglomerate that is the mass media subsidiary of BCE Inc. (also known as Bell Canada Enterprises, the owner of telecommunications company Bell Canada). Its operations include nati ...

. All "Rouge" stations broadcast in the same markets as Bell's

mainstream rock Mainstream rock (also known as heritage rock) is a radio format used by many commercial radio stations in the United States and Canada. Format background Mainstream rock stations represent a cross between classic rock, active rock and alternativ ...

network, "

Énergie Énergie is a Canadian radio network of French-language mainstream rock outlets broadcasting throughout the province of Quebec and portions of eastern Ontario, in Eastern Canada. They offer a personality-driven mix of francophone and anglophon ...

", although Énergie also has a few stations in markets not served by "Rouge FM". Although the stations concentrate on French

music, it would mix in English music as well (especially in areas outside of Montreal and Ottawa, where English radio service is not available) much like Cogeco's "

Rythme FM Rythme FM is a network of French language, French-language adult contemporary FM broadcasting, FM radio stations broadcasting in most major markets of Quebec. The network was created and owned by Cogeco. History The brand "Rythme FM" was intr ...

" network, which has fewer stations than "Rouge". The flagship radio station is

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 ...

's CITE-FM. The Astral jingles on this network are different from the adult hits jingles used by Astral's

English-language English is a West Germanic language that developed in early medieval England and has since become a English as a lingua franca, global lingua franca. The namesake of the language is the Angles (tribe), Angles, one of the Germanic peoples th ...

adult contemporary stations, nut the network uses a very relaxing acoustic tune. On August 18, 2011, at 4:00 p.m. EDT, all RockDétente stations were rebranded as "Rouge FM", when the longtime "RockDétente" branding was retired after a 21-year run. On most stations, the last song as "RockDétente" was "

Pour que tu m'aimes encore "Pour que tu m'aimes encore" (meaning "so that you'll love me again") is a song by Canadian singer Celine Dion, from her thirteenth studio album, '' D'eux'' (1995). It was written by Jean-Jacques Goldman, and produced by Goldman and Erick Benzi. ...

" by

Celine Dion Céline Marie Claudette Dion (born 30 March 1968) is a Canadian singer. Referred to as the "Honorific nicknames in popular music, Queen of Power Ballads", Dion's powerful, technically skilled vocals and commercially successful works have had ...

, followed by a tribute of the branding. The first song under "Rouge" was "

I Gotta Feeling "I Gotta Feeling" is a song by American group the Black Eyed Peas from their fifth studio album '' The E.N.D.'' (2009). It was written by the group members with the song's producers David Guetta and Frédéric Riesterer. The song was released a ...

" by

Black Eyed Peas The Black Eyed Peas are an American musical group formed in Los Angeles in 1995, composed of rappers will.i.am, apl.de.ap and Taboo (rapper), Taboo. Fergie (singer), Fergie was a member during the height of their popularity in the 2000s, and ...

. Astral Radio Launches Rouge FM
/ref> After rebranding, most of the

soft rock Soft rock (also known as light rock or mellow rock) is a form of rock music that originated in the late 1960s in the United States and the United Kingdom which smoothed over the edges of singer-songwriter and pop rock, relying on simple, mel ...

songs were dropped, leaving the "

" network to continue broadcasting them and moving "Rouge FM" towards a

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 1980s to the present day, with varying degrees of easy listening, pop, soul ...

direction. By

2012 2012 was designated as: *International Year of Cooperatives *International Year of Sustainable Energy for All Events January *January 4 – The Cicada 3301 internet hunt begins. * January 12 – Peaceful protests begin in the R ...

, most of the classic hits and ballads returned due to the 35th anniversary of flagship CITE-FM

, going towards its old RockDétente direction. From May 2011 to March

, the stations started identifying their call letters during

station identification Station identification (ident, network ID, channel ID or bumper (broadcasting), bumper) is the practice of radio and television stations and broadcast network, networks identifying themselves on-air, typically by means of a call sign or brand na ...

, and on April 27 to 29, 2012, the network was briefly rebranded Rose FM as a charitable promotion for

breast cancer Breast cancer is a cancer that develops from breast tissue. Signs of breast cancer may include a Breast lump, lump in the breast, a change in breast shape, dimpling of the skin, Milk-rejection sign, milk rejection, fluid coming from the nipp ...

research. All stations carry most Rouge FM programming simultaneously except for CITF-FM in Quebec City, all of which is programmed locally except for a few networked programs.

RockVelours

From 2006 to 2010, Astral also programmed a

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 for broadcast on

Sirius Canada Sirius Canada was a Canadian company, a partnership between Slaight Communications, the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation and Sirius Satellite Radio, which was one of three services licensed by the CRTC on June 16, 2005, to introduce satellite r ...

and the American

Sirius Satellite Radio Sirius Satellite Radio was a satellite radio ( SDARS) service that operated in the United States and Canada. Sirius launched in 2002, and primarily competed with XM Satellite Radio, until the two services merged in 2008 to form Sirius XM. Li ...

, using the same format as the RockDétente stations but branded as RockVelours ("Velvet Rock"). The channel was originally located on channel 192, but later moved to channel 88 by June

2008 2008 was designated as: *International Year of Languages *International Year of Planet Earth *International Year of the Potato *International Year of Sanitation The Great Recession, a worldwide recession which began in 2007, continued throu ...

. Its logo was also updated to include the channel number switch. This channel was programmed separately from the terrestrial stations and was hosted by Mélanie Gagné and Jean-François Fillion. However,

Astral Media Astral Media Inc. was a Canadian media conglomerate. It was Canada's largest radio broadcaster, with 84 radio stations in eight provinces. Astral was also a major player in premium and specialty television in Canada, with 23 specialty channel ...

sold the channel to

in September

2010 The year saw a multitude of natural and environmental disasters such as the 2010 Haiti earthquake, the Deepwater Horizon oil spill, and the 2010 Chile earthquake. The 2009 swine flu pandemic, swine flu pandemic which began the previous year ...

, dropped the English artists, and renamed it L'Oasis francophone, having a similar fate made with

² that time.

Rouge FM stations

Affiliates

* CFRT-FM 107.3,

Iqaluit Iqaluit is the capital of the Canadian territory of Nunavut. It is the territory's largest community and its only city, and the northernmost city in Canada. It was known as Frobisher Bay from 1942 to 1987, after the large bay on the coast on ...

Nunavut Nunavut is the largest and northernmost Provinces and territories of Canada#Territories, territory of Canada. It was separated officially from the Northwest Territories on April 1, 1999, via the ''Nunavut Act'' and the Nunavut Land Claims Agr ...

—community radio station that also carries some Rouge FM programming.

Former stations

* CHOA-FM 96.5 / 103.5 / 103.9,

Rouyn-Noranda Rouyn-Noranda (; Canada 2021 Census, 2021 population 42,313) is a city on Osisko Lake in the Abitibi-Témiscamingue region of Quebec, Canada. The city of Rouyn-Noranda is coextensive with a territory equivalent to a regional county municipalit ...

—owned by Arsenal Media, used RockDétente branding and imaging under license, discontinued the RockDétente branding in 2005 * CJPN-FM 90.5,

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, ...

New Brunswick New Brunswick is a Provinces and Territories of Canada, province of Canada, bordering Quebec to the north, Nova Scotia to the east, the Gulf of Saint Lawrence to the northeast, the Bay of Fundy to the southeast, and the U.S. state of Maine to ...

—former community radio affiliate that carried RockDétente during the night but has dropped its programming

References

External links

Official website
{{DEFAULTSORT:Rouge fm Bell Media Canadian radio networks French-language radio in Canada Radio formats Soft adult contemporary radio stations in Canada Radio stations in Quebec