CITE-FM

CITE-FM is a French-language Canadian radio station located in Montreal, Quebec.

Owned and operated by Bell Media, it broadcasts on 107.3 MHz with an effective radiated power of 42,900 watts (class C1) using an omnidirectional antenna from the Mount Royal candelabra tower. Its studios are located at the Bell Media building at 1717 Rene-Levesque Boulevard East in Montreal.

The station has had an adult contemporary format since 1990 and is the flagship of the Rouge FM network which operates across Quebec and Eastern Ontario.

History

Beautiful music as Radio-Cité (1977-1990)

CITE-FM started operations on May 20, 1977 as a sister station to CKAC 730 with a beautiful music format. Unlike most other FM stations in Montreal which were created as a sister station to an existing AM station, it never shared the call sign of its AM sister (i.e. it was never known as "CKAC-FM").

While the station was originally planned to be on 93.5 MHz, then-owner Telemedia was forced by the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission (CRTC) to use 107.3 MHz instead, as the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation had targeted 93.5 MHz as a reserved frequency and rushed to move CBM-FM from 95.1 to 93.5 MHz in 1976.

CITE-FM-1

CITE-FM-1 is a French-language Canadian radio station located in Sherbrooke, Quebec.

Owned and operated by Bell Media, it broadcasts on 102.7 MHz with an effective radiated power of 92,000 watts (class C1) using an omnidirectional antenna on Mount Orford. This gives the station an impressive coverage area, as far west as Montreal, and as far south as St. Johnsbury, Vermont and Littleton, New Hampshire. However, it suffers from severe deficiencies in downtown Sherbrooke, most likely due to tall buildings blocking its signal in some areas. As a result, the station also operates a low-power relay in Sherbrooke, CITE-FM-2, which broadcasts on 94.5 MHz with an effective radiated power of 50 watts, also using an omnidirectional antenna.

The station has an adult contemporary format, and is part of the Rouge FM (formerly RockDétente) network which operates across Quebec and Eastern Ontario.

Although the station's call sign suggests it is a relay of CITE-FM in Montreal, it is not actually a relay and programs from Montreal are not more common than on other Rouge FM stations (which have independent call signs). The reason for this irregular call sign is unclear. There is no known record among CRTC decisions suggesting that CITE-FM-1 was ever a full-time relay of CITE-FM in Montreal, or that the proportion of programming coming from Montreal was ever higher than for other Rouge FM stations. However, the station's signal reaches into the Montreal area, and anecdotal observations suggest that a modest but still noticeable number of Montreal-area listeners listen to it rather than CITE-FM. Since it is highly plausible that some of these listeners report ambiguously their listening in BBM diaries, as a result their listening to the Sherbrooke station would be assigned as per BBM rules to the Montreal station, which may explain the Sherbrooke station's unusual call sign.