CBME-FM

Infobox Radio Station


name = CBME-FM
airdate = 1933
frequency = 88.5 MHz (FM)
city = Montreal, Quebec
area = Montreal
format = public broadcasting
owner = Canadian Broadcasting Corporation
erp = 11,510 watts
branding = CBC Radio One
slogan =
class = C1
website = [http://www.cbc.ca/montreal/ CBC Montreal]
callsign_meaning = Canadian Broadcasting Corporation Montreal English
former_callsigns = CRCM (1933-1937)
CBM (1937-1998)

CBME-FM is an English-language Canadian radio station located in Montreal, Quebec.

Owned and operated by the (government-owned) Canadian Broadcasting Corporation, it broadcasts on 88.5 MHz using a directional antenna with an average effective radiated power of 11,510 watts and a peak effective radiated power of 25,000 watts (class B).

The station has an ad-free news/talk format and is part of the CBC Radio One network which operates across Canada. Like all CBC Radio One stations, but unlike most FM stations, it broadcasts in mono.

Its studios, along with those of CBC Radio Two sister station CBM-FM, are located at Maison Radio-Canada in Montreal; master control is at the Canadian Broadcasting Centre in Toronto.

History

The station was launched in 1933 on AM 1050 and was originally known as CRCM, operated by the Canadian Radio Broadcasting Commission. When ownership was transferred to the CBC in 1937, the station call sign became CBM and the frequency was changed to 960. On March 29, 1941, like most radio stations in North America, CBM moved to a new frequency - 940. Originally 5000 watts, the station's power was increased to 50,000 watts. Prior to 1978 CBM broadcast as a clear-channel 50,000 watt AM station from a transmitter site near Farnham, Quebec. In 1978 the CBC consolidated its two AM transmitters for Montréal at Brossard, Quebec, on the south shore of Montréal. CBM got permission to move to FM band on July 4, 1997; the FM transmitter went on the air in 1998, and the AM transmitter was shut down in May 1999 -- four months after French-language sister station CBF, which got permission to move to FM at the same time and which shared CBM's transmitter site in Brossard, shut down its own AM transmitter on 690 kHz.

The call sign change to CBME-FM occurred in order to distinguish the station from sister station CBM-FM.

Because of deficiencies with the main FM signal which did not exist when the station was on AM, CBME-FM added FM rebroadcasting transmitters with directional antennas in the western part of Montreal (98 watts) and in Cowansville (2,700 watts).

Local programming

The station's local programs are "Daybreak" in the mornings and "Homerun" in the afternoons. The station also produces the Quebec edition of "Radio Noon", which airs on all CBC Radio One transmitters throughout the province.

Rebroadcasters

CBME-FM has the following rebroadcasters:

* CBME-FM-1 - Montreal - 104.7

* CBMG-FM - Cowansville - 101.9

External links

* [http://www.cbc.ca/montreal/ CBC Montreal]
*